Opera Holland Park and City Of London Sinfonia Make UN BALLO IN MASCHERA Available To Rent Online

Opera Holland Park announces today that its acclaimed production of Un ballo in maschera will be available for audiences to rent online for a fee of £6.99 on Vimeo on Demand.

All income from paying viewers will be shared with all freelance creatives, cast and crew, including chorus, stage management, and the company's resident orchestra, City of London Sinfonia.

Recorded live in 2019 by Tall Wall Media, the film was originally commissioned as part of Opera Holland Park's award-winning Inspire project to address social isolation and reach an audience resident in hospitals and care homes. Online access to Un ballo in maschera will remain free of charge to viewers in these settings.

Simon Wall's film captures the immediacy of live performance on a balmy summer evening, the enthusiasm of the audience, and the full width of the stage in a theatre set in one of London's most beautiful parks. A link to a handsomely illustrated digital programme, containing essays by the historian Professor Jeremy Black and the Verdi scholar Professor Susan Rutherford, will be included in the rental fee.

Designed by takis, with sets and costumes that moved the action to the glamour and shadows of the 1940s, Un ballo in maschera was directed by Rodula Gaitanou and conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren. French soprano Anne Sophie Duprels (Amelia), Italian tenor Matteo Lippi (Gustavo) and British baritone George von Bergen (Anckarström) led the cast.

They were joined by rising star Alison Langer (Oscar), the distinguished mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright (Madame Arvidson) and baritones Benjamin Bevan (Ribbing), John Savournin (Horn) and Ross Ramgobin (Cristiano), with the Opera Holland Park Chorus and City of London Sinfonia. Lighting was by Simon Corder, with choreography by Steve Elias and fight direction by Bret Yount.