University College Opera is possibly the most ambitious and audacious university opera company in the country. Since its formation in 1951, UCO has brought many rarely performed operas back into the public eye, and caused many neglected operas to be reevaluated. In total it has staged 12 British premieres and 3 world premieres including the first performance of Beethoven’s Leonora in 1969 and the complete version of Cesar Franck’s Hulda in 1994. Alfonso und Estrella was Schubert’s first German opera. He had loved Weber’s ‘Der Freischutz’ (played in Vienna in November 1821, as he was writing this piece) and this piece similarly inhabits the romantic, fantastic, outdoor world of the forest.The story is not untypical of the sort of knightly heroic subject matter to be found in other operas of the period.

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