Welcome to the Stowe Opera Website. Read about our recent productions, see photographs and recent critics' reports.

The Stowe Opera Company has recently performed Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Rusalka by Antonin Dvorak, Verdi's Don Carlos, Humperdinck's charming masterpiece opera "Hansel and Gretel", and last year we presented compelling performances of Bizet's 'Carmen'.

To see a critics review of last year's production of 'Carmen', written by Roderick Dunnett, click here

For 2005, Stowe Opera presented

Cosi fan tutte, by Mozart

"One venue well worth seeking out in early August is Stowe Opera... Key to Stowe's sucess, as so often, was a strong chorus and well measured, yet also courageous pacing from conductor Robert Secret."

Roderic Dunnett in "Opera Now". 2002

"Things really catch fire with the appearance of Yvonne Fontane's leggy, vampish witch, a performance that mixes panto with torching sexual ardour and genuinely artful singing - a kind of feral forest Carmen"

Robert Thickness in "The Times". 2003

Musically, this Carmen is hard to fault. In the title role, Fontaine instinctively switches vocal timbre from sexy, to mocking, to dramatic, while Michael Bracegirdle's Jose sounds suitably hoarse with emotion. ...the chorus singing is terrific, and the responsive orchestral playing (under Robert Secret, as always) is first rate. Every year Stowe Opera seems to get better and better, and this year is no exception.

Giles Woodforde in "The Oxford Times" 2004

 

Fidelity tested.
Emotions betrayed.
lovers deceived.
'Cosi fan tutte' has been called the most perfect ensemble opera ever written. Mozart's genius has presented us with the gift of beautiful arias set within an immaculately constructed symmetrical whole. It is a comedy of shifting sexual dynamics, which gains depth and poignancy through some of Mozart's most exquisite vocal ensembles.
Two young women find their fidelity tested when a worldly wise gentleman challenges their fiances to a bet. The unexpected results challenge the very foundations of each couple's world.
High emotions and sublime music await in Mozart's harsh and tender lesson-manual for lovers.