HURN Court Opera, Dorset’s professional opera company, is this year staging Puccini’s much-loved La Boheme, touring from 11th to 15th April, to Christchurch, Salisbury and Winchester.

The company has been gaining excellent reviews for its productions, which give young professional singers a chance to perform great roles, as well as bringing opera to new audiences.

The tragic story of the impoverished seamstress Mimi and the poet Rodolfo unfolds through some of the most beautiful music Puccini ever wrote, including some of the most touching arias in all opera.

Hurn Court Opera’s production features an exceptional cast of young singers who are close in age to the characters they play. With an orchestra directed by Lynton Atkinson, and sung in Italian with English surtitles, this Bohème will melt your heart

Hurn Court Opera showcases some of the finest emerging singers in the country, bringing professional opera and recitals to audiences in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire and staging an annual national Singer of the Year competition.

The performances, all at 7.30pm, are at Christchurch Regent Centre, on Tuesday 11th April, the Blackledge Theatre at Godolphin School, Salisbury, on Thursday 13th and the Theatre Royal, Winchester, on Saturday 15th.

The production, directed by Joy Robinson, is fully staged. The young singers, auditioned from a shortlist after a nationwide advertisement, have been working on their individual parts before coming together for rehearsals in mid-March.

It is a long process, that starts about a year before the tour, says Hurn Court Opera’s musical director Lynton Atkinson. “La Bohème is a perfect introduction for anyone new to opera, but our production will appeal to aficionados too.

“As Hurn Court Opera is all about giving exciting singers a platform early in their careers, this cast comes to the opera free of preconceptions, bringing their authentic, spontaneous interpretation of the story, as young singers playing young people, just when their voices have maximum elasticity and beauty.”

Pictured: The cast rehearsing the final act.