OPERA NORTH LIMITED

Registered charity 511726 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The principal activities of the charity are to encourage the understanding and appreciation of the lyric art by providing, presenting, organising and conducting opera performances, symphony concerts and educational events primarily in the North of England.

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the group incurred an operational deficit of £210,428 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in a decrease in net assets. Per the trustees' report, free reserves for the group were £2,264,645, which is below the stated policy target of £2,526,133 (representing 12 weeks of operational overheads). The trustees maintain that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by RSM UK Audit LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 01550778
• Trading subsidiary: OPERA NORTH TRADING LIMITED Companies House 09231729

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Opera North (matched by registered charity number).

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• MCRAE, Merran — director, appointed 28/07/2026on trustee list
• CANNING, Laura Frances — director, appointed 19/05/2025on trustee list
• KAPREKAR, Aniruddha Dinanath — director, appointed 23/07/2024on trustee list
• FREUD, Anthony Peter — director, appointed 23/07/2024on trustee list
• GARDINER, Kaley Victoria — director, appointed 23/07/2024on trustee list
• WHARTON, Victoria Emma Louise — director, appointed 15/12/2022on trustee list
• ABEDIN, Minhazul — director, appointed 24/03/2022on trustee list
• HALL, Sarah Elizabeth — director, appointed 16/12/2021on trustee list
• ELWELL, Rachel Louisa — director, appointed 16/12/2021on trustee list
• WALLIS, Dominic Laurence Carden — director, appointed 16/12/2021on trustee list
• GATISS, Howard Charles — director, appointed 12/12/2019on trustee list
• MILLARD, Rosemary Harriet — director, appointed 15/01/2018not on trustee list
• JOWITT, Henrietta — director, appointed 12/01/2018on trustee list
• LEE, Paul Anthony — director, appointed 12/05/2014on trustee list
• BROWNE, Edward Anthony — secretary, appointed 17/08/2026

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

6 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.4 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (67% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 2.4% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Merran McRaechair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Aniruddha Dinanath Kaprekar · trustee of 2 other charities
• Anthony Peter Freud
• Dominic Wallis
• HENRIETTA JOWITT · trustee of 1 other charity
• Howard Charles Gatiss · trustee of 1 other charity
• Kaley Victoria Gardiner
• Laura Frances Canning · trustee of 1 other charity
• Minhazul Abedin
• ROSIE MILLARD · trustee of 1 other charity
• Rachel Louisa Elwell · trustee of 1 other charity
• Sarah Hall · trustee of 2 other charities
• Victoria Emma Louise Wharton · trustee of 1 other charity

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with OPERA NORTH FUTURE FUND.

• OPERA NORTH FUTURE FUND income £121k
• THE MERRY OPERA COMPANY income £178k
• LONGBOROUGH FESTIVAL OPERA income £3.0m
• OPERA CIRCUS LIMITED income £217k
• OPERA PRELUDE income £143k
• THE STOCK EXCHANGE DRAMATIC AND OPERATIC SOCIETY income £157k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.