NHO performs for the first time in Lincoln Cathedral, with a concert version of Puccini’s heartbreaking La bohème. This special one-off performance will be on 18th June 2022 at 7.30pm.

Manchester Camerata (“Britain’s most adventurous orchestra” – The Times) accompanies a cast of exceptional operatic talent, under the baton of conductor Nicholas Chalmers, NHO’s Artistic Director.

Puccini’s glorious music scores one of opera’s greatest and most tragic love stories. When the beautiful seamstress Mimì knocks on the door of the penniless poet Rodolfo their passionate connection is instant, but their happiness is threatened by a tragic discovery.

The role of the beautiful seamstress Mimì will be performed by Nigerian-American soprano Francesca Chiejina, a graduate of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme; Peter Scott Drackley (Sweeney Todd, Des Moines Metro Opera; Tosca, Anchorage Opera) takes the role of the bohemian Rodolfo; Alexandra Oomens, a Harewood Artist and regular principal singer with English National Opera, is Musetta; Frank Spedding Leider Prize-winning Christopher Nairne is Marcello; Jette Parker Young Artist Dominic Sedgwick is Schaunard; Colline is played by Dingle Yandell (Akhnaten, English National Opera; The Magic Flute, Scottish Opera), who returns after performing at NHO in 2021; and Andrew Tipple (Silverlake, ETO; Le nozze de Figaro, NHO; Death in Venice, Garsington) will perform as Benoit/Alcindoro.

The performance will also feature a chorus of children from Bringhurst Primary School and Lodge Park Academy, both schools local to NHO’s Leicestershire base. The formation of this Children’s Chorus is part of NHO’s year-round and well-established education and community programme, which sees the company work with thousands of local young people each year through.

The stunning Lincoln Cathedral provides an atmospheric and beautiful setting for this one-off concert performance. Lincoln Cathedral was once the tallest building in the world after the spire was added in 1311, overtaking the Great Pyramid of Giza until 1549 when the spire collapsed in a turbulent storm. Despite the cathedral’s dramatic scale there are many small and intricate hidden surprises to discover, including the famous Lincoln Imp. Lincoln Cathedral has been described as “out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have” by John Ruskin, leading Victorian art critic and writer. Lincoln Cathedral today remains recognised as one of the most precious pieces of architecture in the British Isles and on an international scale.