Who we are

New Palace Opera aims to present riveting, dramatic and often unusual repertoire from both the orchestral and operatic canon

New Palace Opera was formed in 1993 by the late Anya Kubrick and Jonathan Finney as ‘Palace Opera’. Their first production was at that year’s Holland Park Opera, with a double bill of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

In 1995, the company presented Hansel and Gretel at Holland Park, with Finney conducting and Kubrick performing the Witch. Keeping it in the family, the show was designed by Kubrick’s mother Christiane, wife of the film director Stanley Kubrick. This show was revived for two Christmas seasons at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s Southbank Centre.

The following two years saw Verdi’s Falstaff performed at Holland Park and the QEH. The double bill of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Massenet’s La Navarraise, in arrangements by Finney, was produced at the Bloomsbury Theatre in 1999, followed by UK tours of The Marriage of Figaro in 2001 and 2002.

For the last few years, the company has presented concert performances from the operatic repertoire at St John’s Church, Waterloo, London, where Finney, when not singing, shares conducting duties with Michael Thorne. Recent work includes Ariadne auf Naxos, The Turn of the Screw and extracts from Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre.

New Palace Opera Orchestra

Our orchestra is recruited from a wide range of sources: music colleges or recent graduates, professional musicians of all ages and gifted players from outside the profession. Many of the band return from production to production building a strong ensemble capable of tackling the most challenging repertoire.

Each of New Palace Opera’s concerts are preceded by rehearsals in London, when a high standard of execution is achieved and the musical drama is shaped and polished by the conductor and the musicians.

At the heart of this preparation is the musical commitment from this highly committed and enthusiastic group of individuals with a shared passion for the magnificent and often unusual music presented in our concerts. High levels of preparation, drama and expression are the hallmarks of New Palace Opera’s performances

If you would like as a musician to participate in future New Palace Opera projects, send us your details at opera@AKindMan.co.uk.