Opera Holland Park Will Postpone 2020 Season

Opera Holland Park's James Clutton, Michael Volpe and Charles MacKay (Chairman) have released a statement on behalf of The Trustees, management and staff at Opera Holland Park:

As a consequence of the UK government's advice relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, Opera Holland Park is extremely sorry to inform you that the 2020 season scheduled to take place between June and August in our theatre in Holland Park will now not take place.

We have been examining all of our options but the safety of our patrons and all of our staff on and off stage is paramount. OHP is currently exploring opportunities to mount operas scheduled in our 2020 season at a future date, at alternative venues.

These are unprecedented times that have come at a critical point in our development and they do of course place us in a difficult financial position as a relatively young charity without ongoing public funding. However, we are confident that with the support of our remarkable patrons and supporters, we will show the resilience to withstand this turn of events.

Crucially, we also have concerns for the performers, creatives, musicians and all who contribute to our productions, including all disciplines on and off stage, who will now suffer as a consequence. We are acutely aware that they are in a precarious position as self-employed/freelance workers and the COVID-19 crisis has already had very serious ramifications for all of them. We believe it is imperative that we try to assist them as best we can by agreeing to pay a portion of their fees for the season. We feel obliged to do what we can and not force those, who make us what we are, to take all of the pain. We would urge all those who have the ability to do so to make whatever gesture they can to help us meet this obligation. We will offer the option to turn your ticket purchases into donations and if you agree we would be extremely grateful for your generosity.

Credits and refunds will also be available, and OHP will be contacting all patrons over the next few weeks to explain the process going forward. Please be patient as our box office team will be extremely busy and will often be working from home.

In the meantime, we are exploring innovative ideas to enable us to continue our longstanding commitment (via our Inspire project) to bring opera to the community and the community to opera, until a time when we can return to our social visits as normal.

Once again, we are deeply saddened to have to take this course of action and very much hope to have more positive news in due course. We will do our very best to keep everybody informed by email as well as on social media.

We would like to thank our donors and patrons for your wonderful support.

We wish all of our donors, patrons and colleagues on and off stage the best of health and look forward to seeing you back in our theatre soon.

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