Friday 17 July 2026 at 7.30 pm

In 2016 Justin Lavender, the British tenor of international repute, and his  friend Alison Marshall realised their long held ambition to launch a new opera company. For several years they had worked successfully in partnership producing opera for other opera companies but often felt artistically compromised.  In 2015 Justin moved to Buckinghamshire and it became possible to establish a local company under their own direction. 

The lack of any local opera singing groups was a strong incentive to found a company for opera loving singers at Stowe.  The establishment of Arcadian Opera has therefore provided an opportunity to sing opera as well as accessible but serious classical opera for local audiences. The company sings in English to enhance the understanding of the sung text in a belief that reading subtitles distracts from being able to concentrate on the performance.  In addition, by encouraging local children to join in the chorus work, Arcadian Opera hopes to bring the joy of opera to a new generation of singers. 

To extend the remit of debunking the elitism of opera and encouraging new audiences Arcadian Opera encourages students from local schools to join us on an individual basis in both singing and acting roles.  Arcadian Opera also frequently introduces ballet in its productions as composers originally intended.  Production principals are usually drawn from the graduating students of the leading British conservatoires, while the orchestra  uses many local professional free-lance players.