2025 Review
The Queen of Spades
OUR MISSION
To stage high-quality productions in a setting of exceptional beauty and to reach as wide an audience as possible through the promotion and understanding of the arts, including opera, music and drama.
Board of Trustees
Miranda Curtis CMG (Chair)
Nicola Creed
Professor Jonathan Freeman-Attwood CBE
Nigel Higgins
Catherine Ingrams
Neil King KC
Iain Mackinnon
Lady Medina Marks
Gary Powell
Lady Jennifer Stringer
Garsington Ambassadors
Lady Alvingham
Anna Barry
Peter Bennett-Jones
Lord Hall
Hugh Bonneville
Dominic Burke
John Derrick
Gini Gabbertas
Sir Stuart Hampson
Dan McRae
Peter Maniura
Milly Soames
Nina Frost 1
Rob Murray as Florestan, Fidelio 2025
Photo credits: Julian Guidera, Craig Fuller, Clive Barda, Richard Hubert Smith, Verity Milligan, Kevin Potter
GARSINGTON STUDIOS
Nominee for Theatre Building of the Year 2025, The Stage Awards
With the first 12 months of a working Garsington Studios under our belts, we can reflect on a year where our artistic ambitions flourished and new working relationships were made.
Things you might have seen were you to have wandered through our oak-beamed portico included:
• An excited GO festival cast wondering over a full Italian village set on the first day of rehearsals for L’elisir d’amore. Quote of the day: “Please can I be the green grocer?”
• A cast of 180 children, young people, adults and professional singers coming together in one space to rehearse our award-winning community opera, A Trip to the Moon
• The English Concert recording in one studio while students from several secondary schools created their own opera in the neighbouring space, followed by lovely mingling in the café with both groups at lunch.
• A film crew transforming all three studios to film a BBC drama series. Each space became a yoga studio, tented marquee and school exhibition.
• An acclaimed German pianist, Albert Mamriev, recording a range of repertoire in the Lady Stringer Studio on our Steinway Model D piano with Floating Earth and produced by multi Grammy-nominated producer Anna Barry.
• Buckinghamshire Culture hosting their annual conference bringing together creatives from all across the region, fostering new collaborations and partnerships.
• Young people who had no idea about opera being totally immersed in a Discovery Workshop – operating lights, learning about costume and wigs and finding their voices!
3
L’elisir d’amore rehearsals, 2025
ENRICH
We aim to enrich the lives of our audiences and participants by producing operas which are theatrically compelling and of the highest musical standard.
L’ELISIR D’AMORE
Gaetano Donizetti
RODELINDA
George Frideric Handel
FIDELIO
Ludwig van Beethoven
THE QUEEN OF SPADES Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
L’ELISIR D’AMORE
“Luscombe and his uniformly excellent cast understand that while comedy provides the surface appeal of Donizetti’s enduring piece, not far beneath lies an essential pathos”
The Stage
THE QUEEN OF SPADES
“Jack Furness’s staging is something of a collector’s item among productions of The Queen of Spades”
The Times
RODELINDA
“A feast of glorious singing, brilliant production and the most accomplished orchestral performance you could ever hope to hear”
MusicOMH
“…an evening of ambitious staging, superb singing and fascinating playing”
Music OMH
FIDELIO
Rodelinda
PRODUCE
We aim to produce theatrically compelling productions of the highest artistic standard.
“Ambitious and welcoming, Garsington is now considered by many opera lovers to be the place to be during the summer months” Musical America
Nominated for International Opera Awards: Festival of the Year
The 2025 Season was a stellar year with all five productions, including our Youth Company opera, garnering widespread acclaim. Working again with our two superb resident orchestras, The English Concert and Philharmonia Orchestra, audiences, members and supporters were delighted by our mix of muchloved and lesser-known repertoire which cemented our faith in the extraordinary power of opera to move and to entertain.
This year we were delighted to partner with BBC Radio 3 to broadcast two of our operas from the 2025 Season; The Queen of Spades from Saturday 11 October 2025 and Rodelinda from Saturday 18 October 2025. Building on our acclaimed performance at The Proms, we are delighted to enable a broader audience to engage in our productions.
We aim to provide an exceptional experience for our members and audiences
34 Performances
35x 3 - 5* Reviews
3,165 Members 98.8% Capacity Achieved
20,493 Tickets 6% of our tickets allocated to young people or those experiencing financial barriers to attendance
This free-to-view international platform provides an opportunity for global audiences to see our work on demand for six months.
19,000 streams between April and October 2025
April
Un giorno di regno
Rodelinda Screening from
2026
L’elisir d’amore Screening from October 2025
Garsington Studios Open Day
Connecting with our local community
Garsington Opera fundamentally believes that opera should be accessible to all ages and backgrounds. So what better way to demonstrate that than to use the new Garsington Studios for a free annual event to demystify the artform.
A wide range of ages gathered in the workshops to either watch or take part, with participants leaving with infectious smiles and glowing with a sense of achievement. The studios buzzed with activity, featuring an array of captivating elements - from set models of past productions and costumes to try on, to makeup, wigs and quick-change costume video demonstrations. The Studios were vibrant and alive, drawing visitors in at every hour of the afternoon.
The free Open Day not only highlighted the depth of Garsington Opera’s offerings, but also strengthened ties
within the local community, inviting people through the gates to explore the incredible spaces and have a go at finding their own creativity.
” For the last few years residents have seen the building work from afar. But it was always our intention to share the wonderful Studios with them and show them what opera is all about. Today we proved that not only is it a beautiful and accessible art form, but we also hope that we will have encouraged some people to begin to consider a career in opera, either on or off the stage.”
Douglas Boyd, Artistic Director
This September was our second open day and we broadened our offer to cover career progression in the arts, backstage training opportunities, jobs and volunteer positions within the Festival.
Garsington Studios Open Day 2025
DISCOVER
We aim to discover and nurture the best emerging performing talent
Garsington Opera’s Alvarez Emerging Artists’ Programme is committed to developing the next generation of world-class opera singers. The programme recruits annually, in search of young singers with the talent and flair to become the operatic soloists of tomorrow.
L’elisir d’amore, 2025
The Programme offers a unique and invaluable professional development experience for the singers who form the Chorus of Garsington Opera’s Festival productions. They gain experience of performing in productions of the highest quality, and working alongside leading singers, directors, conductors, and orchestral musicians. In addition to this, many Emerging Artists understudy a principal role, rehearsing with assistant directors and conductors, which culminates in a cover run of each opera attended by Garsington’s artistic team. On top of this there are many other opportunities to develop and perform including our OperaFirst schools’ performances, Green Theatre recital series, an industry showcase and professional development seminars and coaching.
For the 2025 Season, Garsington Opera received a record number of applications with 654 singers applying to join the programme. 39 candidates were invited to join us as Emerging Artits and part of the Garsington Opera Chorus.
While we primarily recruit UK talent, we are also aware of the exceptional singers in overseas conservatoires who are unable to travel for auditions. In 2024, our Head of Music, Jonathon Cole-Swinard, travelled to Cape Town to work with students at the South African College of Music (SACM) and to hold auditions for our 2025 Season. During his visit he coached 14 artists, observed production rehearsals for their forthcoming Turn of the Screw, attended the 23rd Annual Schock Singing Competition, and held auditions for those singers who applied for our 2025 Emerging Artists’ Programme. As a result, we welcomed four exceptionally talented South African artists to Garsington this summer, who covered principal roles and sang in the Garsington Opera Chorus.
Above: The Queen of Spades, 2025. Below: Fidelio, 2025
Fidelio, 2025
EXPAND
We aim to expand the appreciation of opera through participation and digital work
Garsington Opera’s learning and participation programme, GO Participate, engages people of all ages and backgrounds to create opera: working with the local community, local Primary and Secondary schools, as well as with international partners.
2025 Projects
Youth Company: Uprooted
The end of the 2025 Season saw our 85 strong Youth Company and Youth Backstage Team take to the stage alongside a professional soloist and orchestra in the pit for their annual summer production. Uprooted was a new Youth Opera by Hannah Conway and Hazel Gould which was commissioned for Garsington Opera by our Creative Director of Learning & Participation, Karen Gillingham.
Uprooted is a powerful portrayal of the repercussions and stresses on a family thrust into temporary accommodation. The housing crisis is one of the great issues of our time in the UK, particularly for young people. Hannah and Hazel took inspiration from real stories both within Buckinghamshire and further afield.
OperaFirst schools programme
OperaFirst delivers bespoke workshops to primary and secondary schools, and the opportunity to visit Garsington to watch an professional opera curated and led by a presenter. Activities with each school are co-created to meet their aims and needs, embedding music and drama in schools with little to no other arts provision. This project provides a key entry point to future participation in the Youth Company. It also serves as an entry point to our new Pathways programme leading to technical training and talent development opportunities.
Youth Company
The Youth Company is made up of a diverse range of up to 100 young people each year, aged 9-11 (junior company) and 12-21 (senior company). There are no barriers to participation: all places are fully funded and awarded on potential. Participants develop singing and performing skills, or are given backstage experience, all of which may lead into technical training and further talent development. The Youth Company also provided the
children’s chorus in the main stage Festival production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.
Adult Company
Participation in the Adult Company is free and open to all, with commitment only required on a project-byproject basis. The opportunity is advertised through GO communications and local partnerships, with everyone welcome to attend an open event. There are no auditions and both speaking and singing roles are available to encourage participation.
Create-an-Opera
This intensive programme for secondary schools involves immersive workshops at Garsington Studios in school time. Students collaborate with professionals to create and devise their own opera. The experience culminates in several schools coming together to share their collective creations; last year, this included a digital link between UK schools and our partners at The Alsama Project in Beirut.
Discovery Workshops
These are free one-off events that are designed to give people the opportunity to “come-and-try” a participatory session for a day. Taking place at Garsington Studios, there’s no experience necessary and they cover a range of topics such as performance, stage management, set design and video production.
An award-winning programme
• Winner: ‘Excellence in Musical Theatre’ Music & Drama Education Awards for 2022 community opera Dalia
• Winner ‘Best Participatory Project.’ Young Audiences Music Award (YAMawards) for 2023 community opera A Trip to the Moon.
THE FUTURE
Sustainability
is a key part of our future planning.
Garsington Opera is fortunate to be located at Wormsley where both the Studios and the Opera Pavilion are surrounded by the beautiful Chilterns countryside. We take our responsibility to the natural world seriously, with a company working-group taking the lead to create a Greener Garsington.
In our buildings
• The new Studios have achieved a Very Good BREEAM rating (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) and an Excellent rating for water efficiency
• our surface water drainage strategy includes green roofs over the two main studios, pervious paving, swales and soakaways discharging by infiltration
• we have installed efficient air source heat pumps and low energy ventilation solutions
• we have electric car charging points in the Studios’ parking area
• we commissioned a detailed Ecological Mitigation, Compensation and Enhancement Strategy, taking into account the natural world, biodiversity and nature which surrounds the site
• we recycle all our waste across the site and ask our audiences to dispose of their own picnic waste
• we have installed drinking water fountains to encourage our company, cast and audiences to use less single use plastic
• we promote a “digital first” approach in our administration to reduce paper use.
• we have invested in an electric minibus for transporting our cast and teams.
On the festival site
• Opera set designers are encouraged to work to the “Theatre Green Book” which sets levels of re-use and recycling targets. From 2025 all productions are expected to meet baseline, if not intermediate benchmarks in the “Theatre Green Book”
• we have increased vegetarian meals served in the Green Room with no throwaway elements (e.g. compostable containers)
• we actively track energy use effectively to find areas for improvement
• we encourage car sharing and use of High Wycombe bus
• we have installed more energy-efficient LED lighting across the site.
Garsington Studios, Wallace Hill Farm, Stokenchurch, HP14 3YF
Box Office: 01494 376037
boxoffice@garsingtonopera.org garsingtonopera.org