Garsington Opera

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Garsington Manor photographed in 1865 by Henry Taunt
Garsington Manor photographed in 1865 by Henry Taunt

Garsington Opera is an open air opera festival held each summer in the gardens of Garsington Manor, in the village of Garsington, near Oxford, England.

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[edit] Opera at Garsington

A characteristic feature of the programming at Garsington has been the combination of well known operas with discoveries of little known works. These have included the British premieres of Richard Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena, Rossini’s La gazzetta and L'equivoco stravagante; and the first British professional productions of Haydn’s La vera costanza, Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae, Janácek’s Šárka and Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki. The 2008 season will include the first UK performance of Vivaldi's 1716 opera L'incoronazione di Dario.[1]

Opera-goers at Garsington are served champagne on the croquet lawn before the performances which begin in the early evening. Like Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Garsington Opera has long dinner intervals and evening dress is suggested. [2] All operas are performed in their original language with English surtitles.

[edit] History

In 1982, financier Leonard Ingrams (brother of Richard Ingrams, the founder of Private Eye) and his wife Rosalind bought Garsington Manor and soon realised the opportunities it offered for outdoor performance. The family became well-known for organizing this annual season of opera in the manor gardens, and also for letting the local Amateur Dramatics Society and the Church use the grounds.

Garsington Manor saw its opera first performance in 1989 when English Touring Opera performed Le nozze di Figaro in aid of the Oxford Playhouse. The success of the performance led to the founding of Garsington Opera soon afterwards. In 1990, the company's first season comprised Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and the British premiere of Haydn's Orlando paladino. In the early years some productions were 'imported' using visiting companies. However, Garsington Opera, with its own orchestra, eventually began presenting complete four-week seasons on its own.

Leonard Ingrams died from a heart attack on 27 July 2005 at the age of 63. In November of that year, Garsington Opera announced that it would continue following the appointment of Anthony Whitworth-Jones as General Director. Rosalind Ingrams (Leonard’s widow) became President, her daughter Catherine Ingrams joined the Board. Anthony Whitworth-Jones had been General Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 1989 to 1998 and of the Dallas Opera from 2000 to 2002. Upon taking over the company, Whitworth-Jones noted that "under Leonard Ingrams’ passionate leadership, (it) has established a reputation for musical excellence, the presentation of some fascinating operatic rarities and the promotion of young singers. I will try to uphold and develop this tradition"[3] In the first season under Whitworth-Jones' leadership (2006), the company performed Rimsky-Korsakov's Mayskaja Noch, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, and Der Stein der Weisen (The Philosopher's Stone), a collaborative work by Emanuel Schikaneder, Mozart, and other members of Mozart's circle.

In April 2008, the Ingrams family announced that due to the high levels of organization required, the Manor would not be able to host performances after the 2010 season, although the family would continue its support for the company. Garsington Opera is currently seeking a new home.[4] [5] The company is financed by The Leonard Ingrams Foundation, corporate and private sponsorship, and the support of other foundations.

[edit] Garsington Opera's theatre and its neighbours

Initially, operas were performed in a barn adjacent to the Manor House. The barn is now used for an annual series of chamber music concerts and operas are given in a purpose-built auditorium which seats around five hundred people. The auditorium is noted for its natural acoustic and good sight-lines. The stage is partly covered by a PVC fabric canopy completed in 1995 but is open to the gardens behind. Each year at the end of the season the entire edifice is dismantled and the fabric returned to Architen Landrell, the canopy's designers, for maintenance and storage.[6]

Sound-proofing screens surround around the theater in response to complaints from a group of Garsington residents living near the Manor. In 1996, they won £1,000 compensation for "noise disturbance" caused by the operas. When the award was overturned on appeal, local resident Monica Waud, led her neighbors in a civil disobedience campaign during the 1997 performance of Haydn's Le Pescatrici. The protesters simultaneously began cutting their lawns with electric lawnmowers and diesel tractors, trimming their hedges, and turning on their hoses. Car alarms were set off and as a grand finale, a private plane piloted by Miss Waud's companion, flew overhead.[7] In 2001 the protesters tried unsuccessfully to use the Human Rights Act to block Garsington Opera performances, claiming that they prevented them from the right to the "peaceful enjoyment of their possessions".[8] The South Oxfordshire environmental health service undertook in-house monitoring of opera performances in each season from 2000 through 2005, but on each occasion concluded that there was no statutory noise nuisance.[9]

[edit] Notable performers

Amongst the notable singers who have performed with the company are Susan Chilcott (The Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, 1993 ) Susan Bullock (Helena in Die ägyptische Helena, 1997) and Yvonne Kenny (Christine in Intermezzo, 2001). Conductors include David Parry, Ivor Bolton, Jane Glover, and the founder of Grange Park Opera, Wasfi Kani. In addition to conducting Garsington Opera performances, Kani also served as the company's General Director from 1993 to 1998.[10]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Michael Church, A royal opera to Garsington manor is born, The Independent, June 2, 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  2. ^ Glyndebourne Festival Opera Dress Code; Garsington Opera Vistors' Information
  3. ^ Clare Adams, New Appointment for Garsington Opera, Press Release, November 7, 2005. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  4. ^ Clare Adams,Garsington Opera's Future Plans Press Release, April 30, 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  5. ^ Andy Bloxham, Opera festival has to find new stage, The Daily Telegraph, May 1, 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  6. ^ Garsington Opera House, Architen Landrell. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  7. ^ Sarah Lyall, From the Opera's Neighbors, a Reply (Fortissimo), New York Times, July 7, 1997. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  8. ^ Chris Walker, Garsington Opera must move, The Oxford Mail, May 2, 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  9. ^ Sally Coxell (Head of Environmental Health), Acoustic report for Garsington Opera (2005 season), South Oxforshire District Council, December 8, 2005. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  10. ^ Archives of Garsington Opera. Retrieved 2 June 2008.

[edit] External links