Hampshire's opera festival has announced its major new events for its first season next year.

Verdi’s Requiem and A Celebration of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Rodgers & Hart with The John Wilson Orchestra will all take place at the The Grange Festival in June and July 2017.

The programme also includes three operas never before staged at The Grange: Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Bizet’s Carmen and Britten’s Albert Herring.

The Grange Festival was founded in 2015 to continue opera at Grange Park in Northington.

Casts include established artists and a host of up-and-coming international singers including Robin Blaze, Anna Bonitatibus, Susan Gritton, Alastair Miles, Paul Nilon, Paul Whelan.

The season will open with Monteverdi’s masterpiece Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, in the 450th anniversary year of the composer’s birth.

The Grange Festival’s artistic director, Michael Chance, British stage director Tim Supple and designer Sumnant Jayakrishnan will join forces to create the production.

Verdi’s Requiem, with the full force of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, will be conducted by Italian conductor Francesco Cilluffo.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra will also return with a brand-new production of Bizet’s Carmen, conducted by the French conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud and sung by leading Israeli mezzo-soprano Na’ama Goldman.

In their debut at The Grange, John Wilson and his Orchestra are joined by a host of guest soloists for an evening of songs from hit musicals including Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Sound of Music and South Pacific.

Exactly 70 years on from its first performances at Glyndebourne, Britten’s Albert Herring completes the inaugural season, with an all-British line-up of performers.

Michael Chance, artistic director of The Grange Festival, said: “The variety on offer is wide, and the quality of performers and directors we have managed to secure humbling. I am personally delighted that so many of my deeply-valued world-class colleagues have chosen to spend the summer with us at The Grange.

"The determination and resilience of many loyal and skilful friends have ensured a first Festival of real substance and allure, and I look forward to welcoming audiences to the many treats we have in store at our treasured opera house.”

Priority booking for The Grange Festival is now open and audiences are encouraged to become a Friend or Founder to gain access to the tickets: www.thegrangefestival.com.

General booking opens in Spring 2017.