It is with great sadness that we have to announce the cancellation of the 2020 Dorset Opera Festival. With the government’s extension of lockdown and the peak of this awful pandemic still not in sight, it is now clear that we will find it impossible to go ahead with our productions of Boris Godunov and La rondine this season. The safety and health of our invaluable audiences, artists and volunteers is paramount and it is imperative that we continue to do our part in the critical effort to contain COVID-19 whilst ensuring that the Dorset Opera charity remains financially resilient for the future.

We will be contacting those of you with pavilion, marquee, dining and picnic reservations direct to arrange refunds and the Box Office will soon be in touch with ticket-holders to offer full refunds and opportunities through which you might help us to ride out the storm at this difficult time.

Please stay safe and healthy over the weeks and months ahead.
If you need to call us for any reason, kindly leave a message on 01258 840000 and we will get back to you.

COVID-19 and the Dorset Opera Festival
Dorset Opera Festival Box Office 2021
Dorset Opera Festival Box Office 2021

The 2020 festival is cancelled
Next Year’s Festival
20th-24th July 2021
BOX OFFICE CURRENTLY CLOSED
The Dorset Opera Summer School
The Dorset Opera Summer School

The world’s foremost residential opera summer school
Next summer school 7th July 2021
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Social Events & Bluffers’ Lunches
Social Events & Bluffers’ Lunches

We will be resuming our schedule of events as soon as possible.
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VIEW EVENTS DIARY

Press Reviews

  • ...in all respects, worthy of an international opera house...

    Michael Tanner The Spectator

  • ...led by two casts of singers that Opera North or WNO might envy...

    Rupert Christiansen The Telegraph

  • ...as good as any of their country-house rivals...

    Michael Tanner The Spectator

  • …a perfect union of high professionalism and community effort

    Fiona Maddocks The Observer

  • Nothing short of phenomenal

    Opera Magazine

  • Spectacular and magnificent

    Independent on Sunday

Every summer, the Dorset Opera Festival gives six performances of at least two fully-staged operas, in the original language with full orchestra and professional soloists. The performances are of exceptional quality, attracting the attention of national critics and opera-goers from across the UK and abroad, as well as entertaining local audiences.

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