This is my 8th season shooting all of Longborough Festival Opera’s productions and I absolutely love it! The grounds are like a second home, with a wonderful group of friendly people who put on world-class performances in an opera house that was once a chicken shed! The opera on this occasion was La Traviata, by Verdi, and this interpretation definitely did justice to the world’s most performed opera. Being there to capture it was a fantastic experience.

Full cast and set of La Traviata at Longborough Festival Opera

The attention to detail in every aspect of the opera was absolutely breathtaking, directed superbly by Daisy Evans. The set followed a movie set theme. While this type of set up can often look cluttered in images, in this instance it merely added to the photographic potential. I was able to use the lighting stands and equipment to frame some shots, and could also use the stage-within-a-stage setting to create unique compositions.

One of the photogenic props on stage during La Traviata

As a theatre and opera photographer, one of the challenges in to capture depth in the images. The lighting set on stage helped me to do this.

Each act had similarly dramatic, but very individual lighting styles. The atmosphere was manipulated using smoke to create light beams, windows to create interesting shadows and the film set equipment to produce light on areas of the stage that would normally be inaccessible. This has created an interesting variety to the set of opera production photographs. The huge sheets dangling from the ceiling in the first act offered lots of compositional potential with shadows being cast onto them. One of the most striking moments was when the scene was devoid of décor, with one single spotlight beaming down onto Violetta, letting her emotions and voice take over.

Violetta, singing under a spotlight during the performance of La Traviata at Longborough

Light beams, caught in the smoke

Violetta at the party at the beginning of La Traviata

Jake Wiltshire’s stunning lighting was an absolute pleasure to photograph! There was never a dull moment! At times, light would come through the window of the movie set, creating a nice warm glow on the characters’ faces, while at other times, strong blue shafts of light would contrast beautifully with warm orange hues on the singers faces, lit by the on stage lighting of the film set.

La Traviata Opera Photography at Longborough Festival Opera

Opera is by definition dramatic, but this really was next level, and it made photographing the opera a joy! The emotions portrayed by the singers, the dynamic film-set backdrop, the vibrant costumes and the rich tones in the lighting made for wonderful photography opportunities. The challenge here was not to capture beautiful pictures, but not to be distracted into simply watching and listening to the opera!

The final scene was extremely powerful