Name: The Bamboo Princess
Start: 2026-07-04T20:00:00
Location: Opera Holland Park

Opera Holland Park

Set against a manhunt in the lawless Sierra Nevada of the nineteenth century, with a pistol-packing, poker-playing heroine, La fanciulla del West sees Minnie Falconer, one of the first independent women to stake her claim in the wilds of California, fall in love with a stranger. But is the stranger who he claims to be?

La fanciulla del West

Mozart and Da Ponte’s delicious 1790 Neapolitan comedy plays on modern ‘scientific’ fascinations with mesmerism and the exotic, characters drawn from the baroque opera buffa tradition and the volcanic rumblings of Vesuvius, all posing the question: is this love or just infatuation?

Così fan tutte

First seen al fresco in 2012, Will Todd and Maggie Gottlieb’s free-wheeling, tongue-twisting adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s surreal classic for Opera Holland Park gives voice to the curious and curioser characters of the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Dormouse, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, and a positively terrifying Queen of Hearts in music that darts from a coloratura showpiece for a singing Bottle to the smoky blues of a Caterpillar with no work ethic.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

From Opera Holland Park’s foundation in 1996, Puccini has been central to the company’s programming. From multiple productions of La bohème, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly and La rondine across three decades to individual highlights including the Royal Philharmonic Society Award-nominated 2015 production of Il Trittico, our first staging of Le Villi in 2023 and the triumphant 2024 revival of Stephen Barlow’s ground-breaking 2012 production of Tosca, our work has included a semi-staging of the early romance, Edgar and a concert performance of the Messa di Gloria. In 2026, following Martin Lloyd-Evans’s new production of La fanciulla del West, the company’s third staging of this opera, we complete this journey of discovery with a concert staging of Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, completed after the composer’s death in 1924 by Franco Alfano.

Turandot

Launching a new international partnership with the Yachiyoza Theatre of Kumamoto, Japan, Opera Holland Park is delighted to host the UK premiere of The Bamboo Princess.

The Bamboo Princess

Chiaroscuro meets Busby Berkeley meets Boris Karloff in a staging designed by takis, lit by Simon Corder and choreographed by Steve Elias. Close cousin to Gaitanou’s much loved production of La traviata (2018, 2021, 2024) in its theatrical exuberance and psychological sensitivity, Un ballo in maschera was hailed in The Independent as “a triumphant meld of lighting, design and choreography” and The Spectator as “musically exemplary”, with particular praise across the press for the work of the Opera Holland Park Chorus.

Un ballo in maschera

Sparring frenemies and working-class wannabes return to Opera Holland Park in a sparkling new production. Will Doctor Falke get his revenge on Gabriel von Eisenstein for the embarrassing incident with the bat costume? Can Frank convince Count Orlofsky and his guests that he is a Frenchman born and bred? And why does that actress look so very much like Rosalinde’s maid?