AFTER six years in its second venue, Belcombe Court in Bradford on Avon, Iford Arts’ If Opera moves to the beautiful surroundings of Church Farm, Wingfield, south of the town, for the 2025 season.

This year’s festival runs from 7th to 17th August. The Clare Teal picnic prom on Sunday 10th August is now sold out, but a few tickets remain for the three opera productions, Rigoletto, Orpheus in the Underworld and a baroque double bill performed in the church next to the farm.

The first opera of the season is Verdi’s classic story of obsessive love, betrayal and murder, Rigoletto. Directed by Nina Brazier, it is conducted by If Opera’s artistic director Oliver Gooch. Performances are on 7th, 9th, 14th and 16th August, starting at 7pm.

Simon Butteriss returns to the stage for performances of his adaptation of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, which he also directs. It pokes fun at po-faced classical opera in general and Gluck in particular, as Orpheus is dragged to hell to rescue an unwilling wife, accompanied by the Gods in search of Bacchanalian joy. This promises to be an outrageously joyous version of the comic masterpiece.

The opera is conducted by Michael Waldron and performed at Wingfield on 8th, 12th and 15th August, also starting at 7pm.

The 2025 festival ends with Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda performed alongside the lesser-known Historia Jonae by Giacomo Carissimi, with two performances on Sunday 17th August, starting at 3 and 6pm.

For more information about the venue, the operas and picnics, visit the ifopera.com website, or bathboxoffice.org.uk