General booking for the 2026 season of Waterperry Opera Festival will open on Tuesday, 31 March, with organisers unveiling a programme that combines major opera productions, intimate recitals and family performances across the August festival.
The 2026 festival will feature a new staging of La bohème, running on 08, 09, 12, 14 and 15 August. Set in a dreamlike version of Waterperry in the late 1930s, the production places Puccini’s story against a backdrop of social change while preserving the work’s themes of love, loss and youthful creativity.
Also returning to the main programme is L’elisir d’amore, presented as The Elixir of Love on 07, 11 and 13 August. The production is staged around a village fair, bringing together romance, rivalry and comic energy under lanterns and bunting.
For family audiences, Peter Rabbit’s Musical Adventures will be performed on 08, 09, 15 and 16 August, combining storytelling inspired by Beatrix Potter with string quartets by Joseph Haydn.
A more intimate production, Living Light: Visions of an Abbess, will be staged inside the church at Waterperry on selected dates, drawing on the words and music of Hildegard of Bingen in an immersive performance.
The festival’s Music in the Ballroom series runs across four dates and focuses on vocal performance, ending with a guest recital by Roderick Williams. Additional afternoon performances include Serenades, featuring music by Antonín Dvořák alongside extracts from The Marriage of Figaro.
The season concludes on 16 August with Last Night at the Opera, an evening of well-known operatic works led by conductor Bertie Baigent.
Festival organisers are also offering discounted ticket bundles, including reduced prices for combined recital bookings and same-day performances.
Visitors will again be able to pre-book dining and picnic options, with sustainable catering provided through a renewed partnership with Climatarian Kitchen.
