Opera Garden is the Aberdeen International Youth Festival's Opera Project. Named after the world famous Aberdonian opera singer, Mary Garden, the project aspires to continue her work, providing new challenges and performances for young singers.

Conceived by Artistic Director Gidon Saks, the project brings together young singers from across the world and in three weeks they produce a dazzling full scale opera production. Opera Garden has staged Cosi fan tutte, Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni, Carmen, The Magic Flute, Falstaff and Turn of the Screw, to critical acclaim.

"Saks's Turn of the Screw was up close and personal, unflinchingly, uncomfortably challenging at every turn.
An international cast of young but experienced singers seized the opportunities offered by a five- week rehearsal period and offered mesmerising portrayals in which acting and singing were inseparable.

In giving these young musicians - and their audience - this unforgettable experience, Opera Garden contributed much to the 2006 International Youth Festival.

This was as original and complete a realisation of Britten's masterpiece as one could hope for. Haunting indeed"

Jim Brooks in Opera magazine.

Opera Garden has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Shell and Robert Gordon University.