West Green House Opera Round and About • Round & About Magazine

Wicked or wondrous? Feast your senses at West Green House Opera

Opera may be the most emotional of all art forms, combining glorious music, engrossing plots, soaring arias, tragic heroines, dastardly heroes.

As if to prove the point, within a week at West Green House Opera we offer one of the most exuberant cads in all literature followed by one of the most pious and pure heroines.

Falstaff is known to many as the joival knight of Shakespeare plays, enthusiastic in his desires, brimming with life, mighty of girth and never without a drink. Verdi’s opera is based on The Merry Wives of Windsor, where the unruly Falstaff is challenged by feisty women to wonderfully comic effect. Embraced by soaring Verdi melodies and presented in a colourful, witty new staging by Richard Studer, why not treat yourself to some Sunday indulgence in the company of this fabulously wicked knight and his cast of comic characters?

Falstaff is on Sunday, 21st July.

And by complete contrast, just five days later, the ethereal and complex Suor Angelica takes centre stage, wrestling with her desire for earthly pleasures while remaining firm in her religious beliefs. With music by Puccini (Madam Butterfly, La Boheme), Angelica’s story draws audiences into its short one act format, perfect for a Friday evening which might include a West Green House picnic, some fizz at the Lakefield Bar and maybe a wander round the illuminated Gardens after dark?

Enjoy Suor Angelica on Friday, 26th July.

Sinner or saint? Naughty or novice? Bounder or blessed? Indulge all your senses at West Green House this July, Thackhams Lane, Hartley Wintney RG27 8JB.

Images show Simon Thorpe who plays Falstaff and Jenny Stafford who plays Suor Angelica at West Green House Opera July 2024

www.westgreenhouseopera.co.uk