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The Companies

On 19 October 2017, opera companies from across the UK come together with the 成人论坛 for #OperaPassion Day, an unprecedented day of live streaming. They are...

English National Opera

At ENO opera is theatre; expressing drama through the unique combination of music, text, dance, and design. They sing in English and believe this connects the performers and the audience to the drama onstage, and enhances the experience for all.

They collaborate across contemporary art forms, to reflect the growing diversity of our culture. And they take a fresh approach right across the repertoire, from baroque to contemporary, as well as commissioning new works as part of their commitment to the future of the art form.

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Benvenuto Cellini, 2014. Photo: Tristram Kenton

English Touring Opera

English Touring Opera is the leading touring opera company in the UK. It travels to more regions and to more venues than any other English opera company, touring annually to around 55 venues and presenting as many as 110 performances per year.

Their aim is to offer opera to everyone, with a varied repertoire of high-quality professional productions featuring some of the finest talent in opera. Each year there are touring productions in Spring and Autumn. The Spring tour tends to be larger scale, with a modern orchestra and chorus, while Autumn tours tend to be more intimate, with a diverse repertoire.

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English Touring Opera

Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne is recognised internationally as one of the great opera houses; a reputation that stems from a passion for artistic excellence encapsulated in founder John Christie’s insistence on doing "not the best we can do but the best that can be done anywhere".

John and his opera singer wife, Audrey Mildmay, founded the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934. In 1968 the Glyndebourne Tour was established to bring opera to new audiences and create opportunities for talented young singers. Today Glyndebourne is a 12-month operation and attracts audiences from around the world.

Hamlet, 2017. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

Opera North

Opera North is England’s national opera company in the North and one of Europe’s leading arts organisations. It tours not only throughout the North of England and to London, but also to opera houses on the continent in cities such as Prague and Barcelona, and it performs at major international festivals including Edinburgh and Ravenna.

Opera North is a vibrant, lively organisation which actively challenges conventional perceptions of opera. Breathing new life into the classics, the Company is also a strong advocate of lesser-known works and a champion of musical theatre.

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L麓enfant et les sortil猫ges, 2017

Northern Ireland Opera

Founded in only 2010, Northern Ireland Opera is Northern Ireland’s award winning national opera company, and widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting operatic start-ups in UK and Irish history.

With a philosophy of artistic excellence and risk-taking, underpinned by a bold and imaginative approach to programming and productions, Northern Ireland Opera is committed to the idea of opera as a uniquely enriching ‘total’ art form and one which should be open to everyone.

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Radamisto, 2017. Photo: Patrick Redmond

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is a global artistic force, housed in one of the UK’s most beautiful theatres. It is from their Covent Garden stages that The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House perform year round, reaching audiences across the UK and further afield.

Whether it’s through their international tours, their learning and participation work or their ROH Live Cinema screenings, they take the very best of opera and ballet across the country and to the world and, in doing so, attract the best talent the world has to offer.

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Madama Butterfly, 2017. Photo: Bill Cooper

Scottish Opera

Scotland’s national opera company is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. It was founded by Alexander Gibson in 1962 and inaugurated with a production of Madama Butterfly at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow.

In 1974 Scottish Opera purchased the Theatre Royal Glasgow, which reopened in 1975 as Scotland’s first national opera house. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera was founded in 1980. Stuart Stratford was appointed Music Director in 2015 following conducting engagements with The Orchestra of Scottish Opera and in the Company's production of Janá膷ek’s 闯别苍暖蹿补.

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La traviata, 2017. Photo: Jane Hobson

Welsh National Opera

In 1943, WNO was founded by a group of people from across South Wales, including miners, teachers and doctors. They wanted to forge an opera company befitting Wales’s rich reputation as the ‘land of song’. The first rehearsals took place above a garage in Cardiff and their first performance was given in April 1946 with the double bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci.

From those early days onwards WNO has attracted some of the world’s best opera singers, and indeed gave many young singers their first steps to international renown.

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Khovanshchina, 2017. Photo: Clive Barda