If Opera is a registered charity dedicated to producing and promoting opera to the highest artistic standard. Our mission is to make opera accessible, relevant, and engaging to diverse audiences through innovative productions, community outreach through performances in care homes, running annual opera/arts education programmes in local schools, and supporting emerging artistic talent. We believe opera can inspire, challenge, and enrich lives. We are also one of the very few opera companies in the UK which has adopted the repertory ensemble model, ensuring that our artists receive a fair and regular income.

If Opera was founded 30 years ago as Iford Arts Ltd, a small but enthusiastic company, which over many years has established a strong national reputation for its opera productions and young artists programmes presented in the Italianate gardens of Iford Manor, near Bradford on Avon.

When the company moved from Iford Manor in 2018, a dedicated group of supporters re-branded Iford Arts as ‘If Opera’, re-defined it as a new repertory ensemble company with emerging artists, access and inclusion at its heart, and launched its first season in 2019 with successful productions of Die Fledermaus and L’elisir d’amore

Activities in 2020 and 2021 were inhibited by the pandemic but with strong fundraising efforts, supplemented by a cash infusion from the government’s Cultural Recovery Fund, 2022 was an artistic and financial success with works by Puccini and Donizetti performed in an acoustically designed Saddlespan tented auditorium located in the gardens of Belcombe Court, Bradford-on-Avon.

Belcombe Court remained the primary venue for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, which included productions of Umberto’s Fedora, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. 

Last year our primary venue moved to Church Farm, Wingfield, near Bradford on Avon, a bucolic setting which allowed an expansion of our seating capacity from 300 to 340 per performance and the use of the adjacent 15th century chapel for a Baroque double-bill. Although growth in public awareness and ticket sales continues to be extremely encouraging, Like every Arts charity, If Opera additionally relies on individual donations and sponsorships.

If Opera champions three main principles: supporting emerging and re-emerging artists, fair and weekly pay and, crucially, a repertory ensemble model which it has successfully adopted since 2023. If Opera is recognised nationally for the high quality and unique character of its performances and for its contribution to the development of young artists. Our audiences appreciate the level of intimacy achieved through its venues and innovative staging ‘in the round’ and young people are encouraged to attend with complimentary tickets for those under 18. Both young and older members of the local community act as volunteer stewards during the season and are rewarded with attendance at dress rehearsals.

In addition, If Opera aims to increase children’s awareness and appreciation of music storytelling through its Creative Learning Programme involving regular visits to four local schools every summer. These visits are complemented by our artists performing annually at residential care homes.

 If Opera’s medium-term goal is to extend its period of employment and frequency of performances for artists, enabling it to deliver a varied programme of opera and associated music to all ages, and extend its existing work in the local community.