About Return of The Queens - Kings Arise

Across three distinctive programmes, The Opera and Song Collective explores the interplay of light and shadow in music, drama and human connection. From the charged histories of Return of the Queens: Kings Arise, where power and private truth collide, to the intimate, contemporary voices of Stormlight, where composers and performers share living works, and culminating in the luminous contrast of Shadow to Champagne: Strauss & Strauss, the series traces a journey from darkness to brilliance.

Together, these concerts reveal light not as a single idea, but as something shifting — psychological, sensory and celebratory — at the heart of musical experience.

Programme 1. 'Return of The Queens - Kings Arise'

Following the great accolades received for TOSC’s first Opera Queens concert, Return of the Queens: Kings Arise , the opening concert in our Stormlight Series, brings royal drama back to the stage with renewed power and splendour. This vivid programme explores queens, rulers, princes and usurpers as they confront ambition, love, betrayal, duty and destiny. From Catherine of Aragon and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, to King Arthur of England, Peter the Great of Russia, Macbeth, usurper of the Scottish throne, the concert moves through history, legend and operatic imagination.

Featuring returning stars Louise Keast, soprano, and Michael Lampard, bass-baritone, alongside TOSC’s other much-loved artists, Return of the Queens: Kings Arise brings together a rich cast of soloists and ensemble. With music by Chabrier, Donizetti, Gounod, Handel, Lortzing, Purcell, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Rossini and Verdi, the programme moves between baroque brilliance, bel canto virtuosity, Romantic colour and theatrical fire.

Crowns are challenged, defended and reimagined as power, identity and hidden truth collide. After the performance, audience members are warmly invited to mingle with the artists over a glass of wine or soft drink in the courtyard