DORSET Opera Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary at Bryanston School’s Coade Hall this year, following its move to Blandford from its original home at Sherborne School. This year’s festival will run from 22nd to 26th July, and will include two formal dinners in Bryanston House.

The opera programme is thrilling, with Verdi’s cruel but musically glorious Rigoletto, a bloody drama of sex and revenge, and a crowd-pleasing double bill of Mascagni’s Cavelleria Rusticate and Puccini’s Suor Angelica. Expect a lot of very powerful emotion!

Last year was Dorset Opera Festival’s 50th anniversary, which a successful programme which included a new opera commission, based on Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree, and a triumphant production of Madama Butterfly.

This year, once again, says artistic director Roderick Kennedy, “we are pulling out all the stops to bring you an exciting programme, involving some of our favourite composers, whose works have enthralled our audiences over the years.”

For full details of the programme, booking arrangements and the anniversary dinners, visit dorsetopera.com