The Chocolate Soldier
Oscar Straus and Bernard Shaw

Tuesday June 23 - Saturday June 27th 2026

Wilton’s Music Hall
Graces Alley,
London E1 8JB

Oscar Straus’s 1908 opéra bouffe is closely based on George Bernard Shaw’s classic anti-war play Arms and the Man. Shaw did not approve of his play being turned into an operetta and forbade any of his dialogue or his characters’ names being used. Now that Shaw’s work is out of copyright, Opera della Luna have created a new version of the show, restoring much of Shaw’s witty dialogue, and re-instating his original characters. 

It was given in a rehearsed reading two years ago at Wilton’s Music Hall and Opera magazine reported that it was brilliantly judged and executed. Timing and tone were spot on, with a new orchestral arrangement by James Widden, conducted by James Ham.

This new fully staged production; the first in the UK since 1941, when its run at the Shaftesbury Theatre was cut short when the theatre was bombed.