The Impresario/Pagliacci

The Garden Opera company presents a pair of shorts for one night only. First Mozart's 'The Impresario', in which the opera world is stripped bare, with its pretentions, sky-rocketing egos and blind optimism laid out for all to see. An hilarious 'casting couch' comedy teeming with outlandish characters and sexual innuendo (English translation Frank Watson). Then, the mood changes as the company transforms into a riotous troupe of travelling players in Leoncavallo's masterpiece about what might lie behind the clown's smile – a tour de force of love, jealousy and disaster. Directed by Saffron van Zwanenberg. (Gates open at 4.15pm, so come early and don't forget your picnic.)