Opera Rara and The Hallé have announced their next collaboration: the UK premiere of Offenbach’s political satire Barkouf, about a dog who is appointed governor of a fictitious place called “Lahore”, whose population has reached its wits’ end with the corruption and incompetence of successive leaders.

Using musicologist Jean-Christophe Keck’s critical edition of Offenbach’s 1860 opéra-bouffe, Opera Rara reunites with conductor Paul Daniel who led the charity’s award-winning revival of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde (ORC63).

Anne-Catherine Gillet, Antoinette Dennefeld and Katia Ledoux, who all appeared in La Princesse de Trébizonde, are joined by Opera Rara newcomers Mathias Vidal, François Piolino, Philippe Talbot and Thibault de Damas. Yann Beuron returns to Opera Rara following his appearance on Wekerlin’s La Laitière de Trianon (ORR245). A week prior to the performance on 4 October 2026 in Manchester, Opera Rara and The Hallé, together with the English National Opera Chorus, will make the first-ever recording of Barkouf.

Opera Rara and The Hallé’s latest collaboration is the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (ORC65) conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Following a concert performance in Manchester in April 2024, the first ever studio recording of the original Simon Boccanegra was released a year later to critical acclaim. To date the recording has been nominated in the International Opera Awards, Gramophone Classical Music Awards, International Classical Music Awards and voted as one of Presto Music’s Top 100 Recordings of the Year.

 

Sunday 4 October 2026 | The Bridgewater Hall 

Tickets: https://bit.ly/HalleBarkouf1026