Die Meistersinger – Sun 14th September 2014
- Paul Dawson-Bowling – Wagner News
-Saffron Hall celebrated its first birthday with the best performance of Die Meistersinger that I have witnessed for 40 years. …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
- Strong Wagnerian Debut for New Saffron Opera GroupUnited Kingdom Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Soloists, Saffron Opera Group Chorus, St Albans Symphony …
- Michael Tanner – Opera Magazine
-I don’t suppose that anyone who wasn’t in Saffron Hall, the splendid new concert venue in Saffron Walden, will believe …
The Rake’s Progress – Sun 13th September 2015
- Michael Tanner – Opera Magazine
-This was quite an event. The Saffron Opera Group, now in its second year, put on a concert performance of …
Das Rheingold – Sun 17th January 2016
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-This was my second – and what a second – experience of a full concert performance by the Saffron Opera …
- Charlotte Valori – Bachtrack
-A concert performance can be almost a contradiction in terms for opera: music built to hold a powerful narrative, rich …
- Paul Dawson-Bowling – Wagner News
-Das Rheingold at Saffron Walden was magnificent. Die Meistersinger 15 months ago had been a brave and admirable attempt, but …
Die Walküre – Sun 9th October 2016
- Paul Dawson-Bowling – Wagner News
-It was remarkable that it could happen at all, this performance of Die Walküre; but it was even more remarkable …
- Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
-After the techno high jinks of the Met’s cinema relay of Tristan und Isolde the day before, Saffron Opera Group’s …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-It was time to be back in rural Essex where the Saffron Opera Group are working their way through Wagner’s …
- Charlotte Valori – operissimawhispers
-Usually, a Ring Cycle hits you as a sudden burst of musical and philosophical intensity, its four huge evenings sprawling …
Siegfried – Sun 12th February 2017
- Andrew Clements – The Guardian
-This concert performance, part of the new opera group’s Ring Cycle, made the lack of any theatrical setting cease to …
- Paul Dawson-Bowling – Wagner News
-Is it possible to base a successful Siegfried simply on Erda and the Woodbird? Perhaps not, but Saffron Walden came …
- Charlotte Valori – operissimawhispers
-Since their affecting Das Rheingold and resplendent Die Walküre in 2016, the Saffron Opera Group’s Ring Cycle has become something …
Götterdämmerung – Sun 17th September 2017
- Roger Lee – Wagner News
-Dämmerung! We take it to mean “dusk” referring to the decline and demise of the gods. It can just as …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-Although I said this in previous reviews, I need to restate that the enormity of Saffron Opera’s task in putting …
- Charlotte Valori – operissimawhispers
-Saffron Opera Group’s Ring Cycle finally culminated in a direct, satisfyingly shattering Götterdämmerung, in which we felt the world change …
- Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
-It has taken Saffron Opera Group the best part of two years to complete its Ring cycle, but the long …
Parsifal – Sun 16th September 2018
- Anthony Negus – Wagner News
-A beautiful sunny day and relaxed atmosphere, meeting old friends, and knowing that we had all made the effort to …
- Gavin Dixon – The Arts Desk
-www.theartsdesk.com/opera/parsifal-saffron-opera-group-review-drama-and-focus
It is a pleasure to report on the continuing success of the Saffron Opera Wagner project. …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-Some self-plagiarism is good for the soul, so I will remind readers of something I have written before and how …
Tristan und Isolde – Sun 15th September 2019
- Michael Tanner
-Each year in September the Saffron Opera Group gives a performance in the magnificent Saffron Hall of a Wagner opera, …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-It was a day when you had to double-check your diary because it said it was September though it seemed …
Così fan tutte – Sun 13th February 2022
- Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
-The Saffron Opera Group has had its share of Covid casualties – its Tannhäuser was cancelled twice (third time lucky, …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-I never mind repeating myself and when writing about Così fan tutte a few years ago I began ‘Looking back …
Tannhäuser – Sun 11th September 2022
- Irene Richards – Wagner News
-There can be very few Comprehensive schools in the country that are blessed with a space like Saffron Hall. Saffron …
- Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
-After a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, Saffron Opera was back to their Wagner project with this fine concert performance of Tannhäuser. …
Don Giovanni – Sun 19th February 2023
- Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
-Someone at Saffron Opera has got their ear to the ground for mainly young singers, and you may well wonder …
- Katie Barnes
-The Saffron Opera Group, currently celebrating its tenth anniversary, began marking the occasion with this concert performance of Don Giovanni …
Der Rosenkavalier – Sun 10th September 2023
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-Remarkable singing actors makes Saffron Opera Group’s Rosenkavalier a significant achievement.
In composing Der Rosenkavalier Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, respectively …
Le nozze di Figaro – Sun 25th February 2024
- Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
- Le nozze di Figaro - Once again, Saffron Opera fielded an astutely chosen cast, led by Lucy Hall’s wise and sassy Susanna, Pauls Putnins’ cleverly realised Count, and Frederick Long’s personable Figaro.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Sun 15th September 2024
- Edward Christian-Hare
- Since its inaugural performance of Die Meistersinger in 2014, the Saffron Opera Group (SOG) has presented eight of Wagner’s ten canonical operas in rural Essex. - Peter Reed – Opera Magazine
- Ten years ago Saffron Opera group made its debut at Saffron Hall with Wagner’s comedy of aesthetics - Katie Barnes
- Saffron Opera Group celebrated its tenth anniversary with the opera that got them started, Die Meistersinger. - Jim Pritchard – Seen and Heard International
- Saffron Opera Group’s Meistersinger for its 10th anniversary was a triumph over adversity - Flora Willson – The Guardian
- The ambitious Saffron Opera Group’s concert performance of Wagner’s opera had lost its leading man ... - Geoff Brown – The Times
- "this gimmick-free Wagner won me over"
Der fliegende Holländer – Sun 14th September 2025
- Wagner Journal
-The programme book for the enterprising Saffron Opera Group’s Fliegender Holländer includes a piece by chorus member Caroline Galwey, imagining the …
- Jim Pritchard – Seen & Heard International
-Conductor Michael Thorne wrote in the programme how Wagner – is supposedly to have – changed the location of the …
- Katie Barnes
-Saffron Opera Group’s 2025 opera in concert was another foray into Wagner, their first Der Fliegende Holländer, and it was …