The great opera house in Covent Garden is preparing to close its season on the last day of July 2026, but Britain’s magnificent opera houses are taking up the baton of beauty. They invite audiences into their gardens, offering memorable experiences set against the backdrop of this glorious British summer. The summer festivals at rural estates like Glyndebourne, Grange Park, or Garsington have already opened their doors. Yet, more accessible than all of them, right in the heart of London, Holland Park Opera welcomes you inside a giant tent pitched beside the ruins of Holland House, with productions meant to bewitch hearts through the melody of their music.
A series of performances of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera and Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus is underway at Holland Park Opera. Beyond the spectacular thrill of escaping into nature and stepping out of time right in the center of the bustling metropolis, the current season at Holland Park brings the temptation of the great voices it sets on stage.
Last night, I attended the dress rehearsal for Un Ballo in Maschera, a fascinating opera with melodic lines of unparalleled beauty. Verdi wrote it based on a real historical event: the 1792 assassination of the Swedish King Gustav III, murdered by a group of conspirators unhappy with his authoritarian rule. The romantic details surrounding the assassination were likely just literary fiction, but in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, featuring a libretto by Antonio Somma, the love story between King Gustavo and Amelia is the one that claims immortality.
Tenor Matteo Desole arrives with his charming voice and the power to sing flawlessly in that irresistible Italian style, playing with the audience’s emotions. He is part of an excellent cast, alongside the celebrated mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright OBE as Ulrica, Dario Solari as Count Anckarström, and Rhian Lois as Oscar. But it is soprano Elin Pritchard —still too young to be called “the great soprano Elin Pritchard,” yet possessing absolutely every quality of an artist the entire opera world needs to hear— who captivates her stage partners and the audience alike, delivering a voice and performance worthy of the highest possible artistic league.
The attraction between Gustavo and Amelia makes the air vibrate — even though you are left with the feeling that the subtleties of their encounters stem more from the artists’ own grace rather than the somewhat hammy stage direction. And their duets simply open up the heavens.
In the opera’s programme book, the Spotlight pages are dedicated to soprano Elin Pritchard, who answers a few questions in a remarkably good interview. One of the questions touches precisely on this immense attraction between Amelia and the king, a bond that defies not only all rules but death itself. The subtlety of Elin Pritchard’s answer is fully mirrored in the way she sings, capturing every nuance of her breathtakingly splendid musical interventions.
“Amelia is extremely connected to her emotions. The text in her first aria is so particular, powerful and poetic and there’s always another dimension to her language – especially in her arias. When learning the role, I realised that Gustavo’s language is similarly poetic and heartfelt, taking beautiful words to another dimension. Amelia and Gustavo are not only connected physically, but on an intellectual, emotional level: they’re intertwined through their language. Gustavo chooses words that light Amelia’s heart. It’s much more powerful than just sexual attraction. They’re soulmates” says Elin Pritchard.
In Un Ballo in Maschera at Holland Park Opera, you feel, through the voices of the soloists, that soulmates have always existed on this earth. And the music brought to life by great voices like that of soprano Elin Pritchard or tenor Matteo Desole reminds us that we all deserve to live out our loves to the absolute fullest. And, why not, our passion for beauty in all the amazing opera houses of London, of England, and of the whole world.
More about the next performances at Holland Park Opera here: https://operahollandpark.com/productions/un-ballo-in-maschera-2/
