Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera is a professional opera company whose base is West Horsley Place in Surrey, England. Operating since 1998, the company founded by Wasfi Kani, OBE and Michael Moody has staged an annual opera festival at an award-winning theatre seating 550 people at The Grange, in Hampshire. In 2017, the company moved to a purpose built ‘Theatre in the Woods’ at West Horsley Place – the 350 acre estate inherited by author and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne in 2014.[1] A 99-year lease from the Mary Roxburghe Trust, into which Bamber Gascoigne placed his inheritance, has been agreed.
With four tiers of seating in a horseshoe shape (modelled on La Scala, Milan), the Theatre in the Woods is designed to target an optimum acoustic reverberation of 1.4 seconds.
Singers who have performed with the company include Bryn Terfel, Simon Keenlyside, Joseph Calleja, Claire Rutter, Rachel Nicholls, Bryan Register, Susan Gritton, Wynne Evans, Sally Matthews, Alfie Boe, Robert Poulton, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Sara Fulgoni, Clive Bayley and Alistair Miles. In recent years, the festival has also included well known musicals with productions of Fiddler on the Roof in 2015[2] and Oliver! in 2016.[3] Fiddler on the Roof was subsequently staged in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the 2015 BBC Proms.[4]
Grange Park Opera is a not-for-profit organisation. Sister charity Pimlico Opera, founded in 1987, has presented co-productions with prisons for 26 years and has taken more than 50,000 public into prison.[5] Each week, its Primary Robins project gives a singing class to 2,000 KS2 children in schools in deprived areas.[6]
History
![West Horsley Place in Surrey](../I/m/West_Horsley_Place.jpg)
In 1998, the founders of Grange Park Opera leased The Grange, Northington from Lord and Lady Ashburton, who became the patrons.[7] The four festivals from 1998 to 2001 took place in the Orangery, into which the opera company had fitted a raked seating structure, stage and orchestra pit. This theatre seated 360, using seats discarded from the refurbished Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.[7]
The auditorium was then rebuilt and expanded in time to re-open for the 2002 season.[8] The capacity increased to 550,[9] again re-using Royal Opera House seating.[8] Its horseshoe shape,[9] with boxes, follows the design of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, which was built by William Wilkins,[10] the architect who first applied the Greek Revival style to The Grange.[7] In the main house, the opera company created a dining salon[10] and basement-level dressing rooms.[7]
From the production of one opera in 1998, the festival expanded to three in 2000, over a five week season,[11] and to four operas in 2013 over seven weeks.[9] From 2003 until 2012,[12][13] an extension to the season ran at Nevill Holt near Market Harborough in Leicestershire, in a 300-seat theatre concealed within a 17th-century stable courtyard,[14] for which each year Grange Park Opera provided one opera production.[15]
In February 2016 co-founder Michael Moody left Grange Park Opera to join The Grange Festival, the company that will continue opera at The Grange, Northington.[16]
Grange Park Opera relocated to West Horsley Place after the 2016 season, ready to occupy a new, purpose built theatre that provides a permanent home for the company. Phase 1 of this project commenced in June 2016[17] and will host its first performance – a production of Tosca featuring Joseph Calleja – on June 8, 2017.[18] Phase 2 continues after the 2017 festival and includes exterior brickwork.[19]
Performance History
In addition to many operas which are part of the current repertoire, the company has included some more unusual fare:
- 1998: Gala Opening included a performance by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Mozart Figaro's Wedding
- 1999: Ravel L’Heure Espagnole, Poulenc Breasts of Tiresias, Grimethorpe Colliery Band
- 2000: Gilbert & Sullivan Mikado, Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, Handel Rinaldo
- 2001: Mozart Cosi fan tutte, Bellini I Capuleti e i Montecchi, André Messager Fortunio
- 2002: Verdi La Traviata, Cole Porter Anything Goes (with Kim Criswell and Graham Bickley), Britten Turn of the Screw
- 2003: Puccini La Bohème, Gilbert & Sullivan Iolanthe, Chabrier Le roi malgré lui
- 2004: Rossini Cenerentola, Tchaikovsky The Enchantress, Bernstein Wonderful Town and at Nevill Holt Mozart Cosi fan tutte
- 2005: Mozart Don Giovanni, Rodgers & Hammerstein South Pacific, Donizetti Maria Stuarda and at Nevill Holt Donizetti Elixir of Love
- 2006: Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro, Massenet Thaïs, Donizetti Elixir of Love, Bruce Ford recital, and at Nevill Holt Rossini Barber of Seville
- 2007: Mozart Magic Flute, Prokofiev The Gambler, Verdi Falstaff, a concert performance of Handel Semele, 10th anniversary celebration: London Symphony Orchestra, the Kings Singers, O Duo, Boy Blue, Kit & the Widow, and at Nevill Holt Bellini I Capuletti e I Montecchi (revival)
- 2008: Offenbach Blue Beard, Dvorak Rusalka, Puccini La Fanciulla del West, Brideshead Revisited (film), Bryn Terfel recital, Prima ballerina Mara Galeazzi and friends from the Royal Ballet, and at Nevill Holt Verdi Falstaff (revival) and concert performances of Purcell Dido & Aeneas and Congreve Judgement of Paris
- 2009: Cavalli Eliogabalo, Janacek The Cunning Little Vixen, Bellini Norma, a concert performance of Wagner Flying Dutchman, a night of revelries: Ray Davies of The Kinks, BalletBoyz, O Duo, Harry the Piano, Brahms sextet played by members of the London Symphony Orchestra, and at Nevill Holt Verdi Rigoletto
- 2010: Puccini Tosca, Richard Strauss Capriccio, Prokofiev Love for Three Oranges, Jazz Evening with the Henry Armburg Jennings Band, and at Nevill Holt Puccini Madama Butterfly
- 2011: Verdi Rigoletto, Dvorak Rusalka, Wagner Tristan & Isolde, Bryn Terfel, and at Nevill Holt Puccini Tosca
- 2012: Puccini Madama Butterfly, Mozart Idomeneo, Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades, 15th Birthday concert with Simon Keenlyside and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and at Nevill Holt Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin
- 2013: Poulenc Les Carmelites, Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, Bellini I Puritani, Joseph Calleja and Messager Fortunio
- 2014: Verdi La Traviata, Britten Peter Grimes, Massenet Don Quichotte, and Tchaikovsky Queen of Spades (revival)
- 2015: Stein Fiddler on the Roof, Puccini La Boheme, Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila, Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin (revival)
- 2016: Bart Oliver!, Puccini La Fanciulla del West (revival), Verdi Don Carlo, a concert performance of Wagner Tristan & Isolde
- 2017: Janáček Jenufa, Wagner Die Walküre, Puccini Tosca, an evening with Bryn Terfel and Zenaida Yanowsky
Under-35s schemes
- The "Meteors" scheme is open to opera fans aged between 18 and 35. Meteors can apply for tickets on selected dates at a flat rate of £35 per ticket.[20]
- The "Musical Chairs" scheme is open to young people aged 14 – 25 who otherwise could not come to the opera.[21]
See also
- List of opera festivals
- Country house opera
- Country House Theatres
- Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners who advised in development and conservation
References
Notes
- ↑ "Bamber Gascoigne to save 500-year-old manor after 'accidental' inheritance". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ Hall, George (2015-06-05). "Fiddler on the Roof review – Bryn Terfel outstanding in focused, vigorous production". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Grange Park Opera's Oliver!: great show, shame about the audience - review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Prom 11: Fiddler on the Roof - Prom 11: Fiddler on the Roof". BBC Music Events. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Pimlico Opera | History of Pimlico Opera". pimlicoopera.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Pimlico Opera | Primary Schools". pimlicoopera.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- 1 2 3 4 Deitz, Paula. "Midsummer Night's Idyll: Opera in the Orangery", The New York Times 23 May 1999. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- 1 2 Clements, Andrew. Anything Goes, The Guardian (London), 17 June 2002. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- 1 2 3 Reynolds, Mike. Wasfi Kani in Conversation and Grange Park Opera's 2013 Season, MusicalCriticism.com 10 May 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- 1 2 Christiansen, Rupert. "The house that Wasfi built", The Daily Telegraph (London), 3 June 2002. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- ↑ Reynolds, Mike. "The irresistible rise of Grange Park Opera", MusicalCriticism.com, 11 May 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- ↑ Vorasarun, Chaniga. "Opera Man", Forbes, 3 July 2008. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- ↑ Blackwell, Alex (14 June 2014). "Plans revealed for permanent Nevill Holt theatre". Harborough Mail. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
- ↑ Opera at Nevill Holt, Grange Park Opera website
- ↑ Kimberley, Nick. "Best garden operas in London", London Evening Standard, 19 May 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
- ↑ Wright, Katy (22 August 2016). "Grange Festival announces key appointments".
- ↑ Edwards, Mark (2016-01-20). "Plea to raise £10 million for new West Horsley Place opera house". getsurrey. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Grange Park Opera's new £10m plot". Financial Times. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "The Theatre in the Woods - GRANGE PARK OPERA". GRANGE PARK OPERA. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Under 35 - GRANGE PARK OPERA". GRANGE PARK OPERA. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
- ↑ "Musical Chairs - GRANGE PARK OPERA". GRANGE PARK OPERA. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
Further reading
- Christiansen, Rupert, "Ugly opera, winning performance", The Daily Telegraph, June 6, 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- Sutcliff, Tom, "To the manor sung", Evening Standard, 1 June 2001. Retrieved via subscription 2 June 2008.
- Topping, G., "What Wasfi did next", Oxford Today, Volume 18 Number 3, June 2006. Retrieved 2 June 2008
- Under 35s schemes. Retrieved 5 January 2012
External links
- Grange Park Opera website
- Northington Grange Park page from English Heritage
- Grange Park Opera official channel on YouTube