2022 Annual Review

2022 REVIEW

Cover: Orfeo 2022

Inside Cover: Camilla Harris & Seán Boylan (Così fan tutte 2022)

Photo Credits: Julian Guidera, Craig Fuller, Clive Barda, Alice Pennefather

OUR AIMS

ENRICH

the lives of audiences and participants

PRODUCE an exceptional experience for members and audiences at Wormsley

theatrically compelling productions with the highest artistic standard

EXPAND

appreciation of opera through participation and digital work

PROVIDE

DISCOVER

and nurture the best young performing talent

BUILD ON

financial stability to support future productions and infrastructure

ORFEO

Conductor: Laurence Cummings

Director: John Caird

RUSALKA

Antonín Dvořák

Conductor: Douglas Boyd

Director: Jack Furness

COSÌ FAN TUTTE

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Conductor: Tobias Ringborg

Director: John Cox

THE TURN OF THE SCREW

Benjamin Britten

Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth

Director: Louisa Muller

Claudio Monteverdi

RPS Award Best Opera Nominee

ARTISTIC REVIEW

The exceptional artistic quality of the 2022 festival was acclaimed and appreciated by our members, audiences and the media. This was achieved despite the continuing challenges of the ongoing pandemic.

Alongside our four professional productions, we were delighted to showcase the work of our creative learning programme with our newly commissioned community opera, Dalia.

Following the season at Wormsley we made our debut at the Edinburgh International Festival when our Rusalka (italics) production transferred for 3 performances, and was recieved with a rare standing ovation.

“Sometimes everything comes right in the theatre. You know it when it happens, and Garsington Opera’s Orfeo is such a moment”

The Guardian

“Those of us already inclined to think of Così fan tutte as something like the perfect opera will find every confirmation here”

The Arts Desk

“This [Rusalka] is as good as opera gets, on a par with anything you’d experience in a major international house’

The Spectator

“[The Turn of the Screw is] a powerful and brilliantly performed take on Britten’s opera of dark, ghostly suggestion”.

The Stage

“Dalia: tackling the refugee crisis and cricket, this community opera knocks them for six.”

The Telegraph

DALIA

Roxana Panufnik

Conductor: Douglas Boyd

Director: Karen Gillingham

LEARNING & PARTICIPATION

Our year-round programme of learning and participation projects aim to open the world of opera to as many different people as possible, enabling them to discover and give voice to their creative potential.

It has long been acknowledged that art is beneficial to well-being and social cohesion. It helps us make sense of the world around us. In opera, we not only hear, but use our voices to be heard, to tell stories and create other worlds.

These aims were beautifully realised in our 2022 community production, Dalia, a new commission by composer Roxanna Panufnik, librettist Jessica Duchen and director Karen Gillingham. Cocreated and performed by 240 community and professional participants, this story of a young refugee girl was also devised with two international groups who joined the performance digitally, Amwaj Choir (Bethlehem and Hebron) and Al Farah Choir (Damascus).

We were immensely proud that Dalia was the winner of Excellence in Music Theatre Award at the Music and Drama Education Awards.

2022 Award Winners:

John Findon, Polly Leech, Ella de Jongh, and Frazer Scott

ALVAREZ YOUNG ARTISTS’ PROGRAMME

“Garsington has provided me with some of my most memorable and rewarding career moments so far. This wouldn’t happen without the incredible support, guidance and nurturing of everyone at the company who I now look upon as friends.”

Jennifer France, Alvarez Young Artists Alumni

The nurture and encouragement of professional young singers is proudly championed by Garsington Opera through the Alvarez Young Artists’ Programme. Each season we work closely with Conservatoires in the UK and further afield to select and showcase the finest young performing talent.

In 2022, 39 talented young artists were selected from 475 applicants to form the Garsington Opera Chorus. In addition 75% were given opportunities to understudy principal roles or given small roles to perform, and some took on major roles in Orfeo.

The whole understudy cast of Alvarez Young Artists, accompanied by The English Concert, performed Cosi fan tutte to an audience of excited primary and secondary school children who had taken part in introductory OperaFirst workshops.

2022 Award Winners

Each year, in honour of our founder, Leonard Ingrams, and two former colleagues, Helen Clarke and Simon Sandbach, we make financial awards to exceptional artists and colleagues who have excelled during the season.

Leonard Ingrams Award

John Findon (Gamekeeper and cover Prince in Rusalka)

Polly Leech (Dorabella in Così fan tutte)

Helen Clarke Award

Frazer Scott (Caronte and Ensemble in Orfeo)

Simon Sandbach Award

Ella de Jongh (cover Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw; cover Foreign Princess and Chorus in Rusalka)

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

“Thank you for the most wonderful season of opera. We have had a spectacular time and Garsington has been, as ever, spot on. We can criticise nothing, enjoyed everything. A tribute to absolutely everyone.”

“We had a fantastic evening. Everything was 5*. Please don’t change anything. The setting, ambience, food offering and of course music was the best.”

“Orfeo is probably one of the most extraordinary performances we have seen in our long life as opera lovers. Thank you for an unforgettable evening.”

“Absolutely wonderful again!!! Musical and artistic standards are so high.”

“It was the most perfect evening bathed in the glorious weather. Starting with the walled garden, immaculate as always, to the stunning performance of Così. All of this set in the epitome of Britishness. Congratulations to all involved.”

“I loved my visit to Garsington. Thrilled to see one of my favourite operas, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, I found the production thoughtful, inventive, beautifully played and sung and the post-curtain encore madrigal was a touch of genius and had me in tears. It was stunning and I’m so glad I came.”

“Probably the best evening we have ever had at Garsington. Can you beat it next year?”

AUDIENCE REACH

2022 marked the first full year back post-lockdown where we could welcome full-capacity audiences to our pavilion. Three new productions and a popular revival plus a fifth community opera were presented in 2022 alongside our partners the Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert.

Meanwhile, through our partnership with OperaVision, new and global audiences were able to share in our highly-acclaimed production of Orfeo online. Garsington Opera’s digital creative learning work continued as a legacy of our lockdown work with the GO Create series offering practical workshops to explore our productions.

Board of Trustees

Bernard Taylor CBE DL (Chairman)

Miranda Curtis CMG (Deputy Chair)

Dr John Drysdale

Professor Jonathan Freeman-Attwood CBE

Nigel Higgins

Catherine Ingrams

Neil King QC

Iain Mackinnon

Lady Marks

David Suratgar

Advisory Council

Bernard Taylor CBE DL (Chairman)

The Hon Mrs Susan Baring OBE

Dr Margaret Bent CBE FBA

Dame Hilary Boulding DBE

Dominic Burke

Annette Campbell-White

Sir Stuart Hampson

Diana Hiddleston

Peter Maniura

Helena Dix (The Turn of the Screw 2022)

Back Cover: Natalya Romaniw and Sky Ingram (Rusalka 2022)