- Grange Park Opera
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Grange Park photographed in 1870
Grange Park Opera is a professional opera company whose base is The Grange in Hampshire, England. The company was founded in 1998 by Wasfi Kani OBE and Michael Moody. The annual opera festival takes place in the months of June and July in an award-winning theatre concealed within a Greek revival temple seating 550 people.
There is an extension to the season, with performances at Nevill Holt near Market Harborough in Leicestershire in the a 300 seat theatre concealed within the 17th century stable courtyard.[1]
Notable singers who have performed with the company include Bryn Terfel, Claire Rutter, Susan Gritton, Wynne Evans, Philip Langridge, Andrew Kennedy, Roddy Williams, Colin Lee, Sally Matthews, Emma Bell, Alfie Boe, Robert Poulton, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Anne Sophie Duprels. The festival has included non-operatic events including Mara Galeazzi with dancers from the Royal Ballet, an evening with Ray Davies, London Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Boyz, Harry the Piano, Kit & the Widow, Boy Blue, Henry Armburg Jennings Big Band, the orchestra of Welsh National Opera in a concert performance of The Flying Dutchman.
A sister company Pimlico Opera works in prisons and with younger artists.
Contents
History of the festival
The four festivals 1998 - 2001 took place in the Orangery into which had been fitted a raked seating structure, stage and orchestra pit. There was no space for wings so singers would use a scaffolding "wrap around" to enable them to leave stage left and appear stage right.
The new theatre was announced in 2000 when work began on the design, fund-raising and legal permissions.
Performance history
1998 Gala Opening, Mozart Figaro’s Wedding, Grimethorpe Colliery Band
1999 Ravel L’Heure Espagnole, Poulenc Breasts of Tiresias, Rossini Barber of Seville, Grimethorpe Colliery Band
2000 Gilbert & Sullivan Mikado, Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, Handel Rinaldo
2001 Mozart Cosi fan tutte, Bellini I Capuletti e I Montecchi, Messager Fortunio
2002 Verdi La Traviata, Cole Porter Anything Goes with Kim Criswell and Graham Bickley, Britten Turn of the Screw
2003 Puccini La Boheme, Gilbert & Sullivan Iolanthe, Chabrier Le Roi malgre lui
2004 Rossini Cenerentola, Tchaikovsky The Enchantress, Wonderful Town, and at Nevill Holt Mozart Cosi fan tutte
2005 Mozart Don Giovanni, South Pacific, Donizetti Maria Stuarda, and at Nevill Holt Donizetti Elixir of Love
2006 Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro, Massenet Thais, Donizetti Elixir of Love, Bruce Ford and friends evening and at Nevill Holt Rossini Barber of Seville
2007 Mozart Magic Flute, Prokofiev The Gambler, Verdi Falstaff, a concert performance of Handel Semele, 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) and at Nevill Holt Verdi Falstaff (revival) and concert performances of Purcell Dido & Aeneas and Eccles Judgement of Paris
2009 Cavalli Eliogabalo, Janacek The Cunning Little Vixen, Bellini Norma, a concert performance of Wagner Flying Dutchman and at Nevill Holt Verdi Rigoletto
2010 Puccini Tosca, Richard Strauss Capriccio, Prokofiev Love for Three Oranges, and at Nevill Holt Puccini Madama Butterfly
2011 Verdi Rigoletto, Wagner Tristan Und Isolde, Dvorak Rusalka and at Nevill Holt Puccini Tosca
See also
- List of opera festivals
- Country house opera
- Country House Theatres
- Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners who advised in development and conservation
References
- Notes
- ^ Opera at Nevill Holt, Grange Park Opera website
- Further reading
- Christiansen, Rupert, "Ugly opera, winning performance", The Daily Telegraph, June 6, 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- Christiansen, Rupert, "The house that Wasfi built", The Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2002. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- Sutcliff, Tom, "To the manor sung", The 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
External links
- New theatre at The Grange, 2002
- The project
- The traditional building methods and materials
- The labyrinth which cools the building
- The treasure trove
- Modern finishes to the building
- Recent work to The Grange
- Other links
Categories:- British opera companies
- Musical groups established in 1998
- Opera company stubs
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