This July, Ugbrooke House was delighted to welcome the Devon Opera to perform at St Cyprian’s. Devon Opera is the only professional opera company in the south west and Ugbrooke House has been fortunate enough to host them and their intimate, accessible performances for a number of years. In addition to bringing opera to the south west, the company also has a long standing history of supporting Sense, a Devon charity supporting the deaf blind.

The warm summer sunshine bathed guests as they picnicked in the gardens ahead of the performance, with much laughter and sharing between picnic tables and rugs.

This year’s performance of ‘The Follies of Love’ treated an enthralled audience with a collection of arias from Puccini, Verdi and Mozart. Familiar faces included soprano Natasha Day, and tenor Leonel Pinheiro, joined by a new face to Ugbrooke, Julien van Mellaerts. Accompanied by Project Music Director Natalie Burch on the piano, the trio wove an intricate story of love, deception and heartbreak through their incredible performances.

A sincere thank you to all those that attended, together raising close to £1000 for Sense.