Five Opera Heroines: hear the world's best sopranos sing their hearts out

By Claudia Pritchard on 12/2/2018

They live and die for love and art: meet the leading ladies who put emotion into song

Soprano Lauren Fagan plays society hostess Violetta in La Traviata. Photo: Victoria Cadisch

Verdi's La Traviata, Opera Holland Park

International Opera Awards nominee Lauren Fagan stars as the doomed society hostess Violetta in a new production of this moving and melodious classic. Photo: Victoria Cadisch

WHEN

29 May 2018 – 28 Jul 2018, 10 performances, including 2pm matinee 17 June

WHERE

Opera Holland Park
Stable Yard, Holland Park, London , W8 6LU

Angela Gheorghiu plays Tosca in some performances at Covent Garden. Photo: Catherine Ashmore

Puccini's Tosca, Royal Opera House

A painter and an opera singer, living, loving and working in Rome, put themselves in great danger as they defy a tyrannical chief of police. The title role of Tosca includes the great aria Vissi d'arte – 'I lived for art'.

WHEN

15 Jan 2018 – 03 Mar 2018, 13 performances, including three matinees

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Verdi's La Traviata, English National Opera, Coliseum

Violetta appears to live the high life from day to day, but when real love arrives, she has to choose between her own future and her duty to the family of her lover, Alfredo. First production for ENO by new artistic director Daniel Kramer

WHEN

16 Mar 2018 – 08 Apr 2018, eight performances, plus 31 March (6:30PM) and 8 April (3PM)

WHERE

English National Opera
London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES

Soprano Eleanor Dennis sings the lively Fiordiligi at Opera Holland Park. Photo: Christina Raphaelle

Mozart's Così Fan Tutte, Opera Holland Park

Two pairs of lovers swap partners when a challenge is thrown down to the young men. Luckily the genius of Mozart can unravel this knot. Listen out for Eleanor Dennis in the florid role of Fiordiligi

WHEN

31 May 2018 – 22 Jun 2018, eight performances

WHERE

Opera Holland Park
Stable Yard, Holland Park, London , W8 6LU

Madama Butterfly opens Glyndebourne's 2018 season. Photo: Clive Barda

Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

The heartbreaking story of a young Japanese woman married on a whim by an American naval officer and abandoned by him is the inspiration for Puccini's ravishing opera, Madama Butterfly, with wonderful music for the soprano in the title role.

WHEN

19 May 2018 – 18 Jul 2018, times vary; 17 performances lasting four hours, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Five Opera Heroines: hear the world's best sopranos sing their hearts out

They live and die for love and art: meet the leading ladies who put emotion into song

Verdi's La Traviata, Opera Holland Park

Puccini's Tosca, Royal Opera House

Verdi's La Traviata, English National Opera, Coliseum

Mozart's Così Fan Tutte, Opera Holland Park

Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA

OPERA HOLLAND PARK

GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL OPERA

PUCCINI

VERDI

MOZART

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English National Opera, 2017/18: the operas, singers and must-sees

Opera Holland Park 2018: book now for the best seats

Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2018

Garsington Opera 2018

Angela Gheorghiu interview: the superstar soprano on love, tradition and the healing power of music