2020 Annual Review

2020 REVIEW

Inside Cover: Toby Spence (Fidelio, 2020)

Photo credits: Clive Barda, Julian Guidera Johnny Langridge, Johan Persson

Cover: Katherine Broderick & Toby Spence (Fidelio, 2020)

ENRICH the lives of audiences and participants

P RO D U C E theatrically compelling productions with the highest artistic standards

E X PA N D appreciation of opera through participation & digital work

D I S C OV E R and nurture the best young performing talent

P ROV I D E members and audiences with a memorable experience at Wormsley

E S TA B L I S H

nancial stability to support future productions

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OUR AIMS

weekly livestream

cross-arts discussion

MUSIC FOR THE EYES

M O N DAY M O T I VA T I O N

a musical reunion

in concert

UNMUTE

FIDELIO

A RT I S T I C REVIEW 2020 was a year of unprecedented challenges and refreshing innovation for every performing arts organisation across the globe.

At Garsington Opera, we developed new projects on stage and online which allowed us to continue to create, delight and engage.

We were overjoyed that our 2019 production of The Turn of the Screw was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society award for Opera.

We thank all our members for their support and trust, enabling us to weather the harshest of times.

[Fidelio] is haunting, beautiful and extraordinarily moving ★★★★ The Guardian

[UnMute] is the most elegant and eloquent argument for reviving our precious cultural scene ★★★★★ Culture Whisper

[Monday Motivation] sessions have proved a hit…it's the motivation we need now more than ever Classical Music Magazine

Garsington Opera have been doing things di erently with Music for the Eyes, a series of insightful documentaries examining operas in relation to painting and literature The Guardian

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Roderick Williams (UnMute, 2020)

LEARNING & PA RT I C I PAT I O N Garsington Opera’s year-round Learning & Participation programme provides opportunities, both in the communities surrounding Wormsley and throughout the UK, to learn about opera through participation.

2020 was a year of unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the work that Garsington Opera delivers for its community participants. However, we did not stop our work. We reacted quickly and, drawing on our existing R&D projects, we launched an extensive programme of digital work to support our participants during some of the most dif cult and isolating times in recent history, maintaining regular contact with them and growing our community online until we were able to meet in person once more.

During the rst 17 weeks of UK lockdown we delivered a weekly programme of livestreams for people of all ages coping with lockdown. Covering a new opera each week, the session covered dramatic singing, movement and design to uncover the multiple aspects of the operatic art-form. With this project we reached an online audience of 302,547 people across the globe The existing groups of participants in our Youth and Adult Companies continued to be engaged through Zoom workshops, creating performance lms together with stroke survivors and with other young people from the area

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Each of these new digital project was devised with our core aims in mind. Whilst we remain committed to working in-person with our participants, the value of this work was profound for our community and we have shown greater impact than ever before through our programme

YO U N G A RT I S T S ’ P RO G R A M M E The nurture and encouragement of young singers is proudly championed by Garsington Opera through the Young Artists’ Programme. Each season we work closely with Conservatoires in the UK and further a eld to select and showcase the nest young performing talent.

In 2020 there were 42 young singers on the Young Artists’ Programme. With the cancellation of our Festival, support of our Young Artists continued as a digital programme for learning and development.

• LEARNING SESSIONS – Nine weeks of training sessions shared essential aspects of building a career: tax, auditions, agents, language skills and direct insights from leading singers.

• COACHING & MASTERCLASSES – Online 1-to-1 sessions were provided for each young artist with members of Garsington Opera’s music staff as well as masterclasses with major artists.

These sessions covered vocal, language, CV and website training.

• PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES – Facilities for free video recording were made available for artists to create digital audition tapes now for casting applications across the world.

• COMMUNITY – As well as creating learning and professional development opportunities, we also provided regular informal forums online for young artists to feel part of the Garsington community in a dif cult time.

“Just wanted to say that this is amazing. The e ort that must have gone into organising this must have been huge, and I am, as I know everyone else is, so grateful for this.”

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“What a real comfort it has been to be a Young Artist this year! On a personal level, just seeing that there are other artists out there, still learning, still developing and 'keeping on going' has been a balm to an otherwise di cult time.”

A selection of past productions was streamed from our archive for a global audience

THE BARTERED BRIDE [2019] Viewership: 135,686

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO [2017] Viewership: 226,860

THE SKATING RINK [2018] Viewership: 9,663

THE TURN OF THE SCREW [2019]

Viewership: 18,220

RE-LIVE

FINANCIAL REVIEW 2020 Income (£’000)

2020 Expenditure (£’000) £27 £57 £216

£24 £94 £100 £162

£275

£309

£2,074

£1,929

Fundraising & Membership Corporate Sponsorship Learning & Participation Donations Box Of ce (tickets & donations) Other Restaurant, Shop & Other Sales INCOME SOURCE

Opera Production Learning & Participation Overheads & VAT Filming & Digital Shop & Other Sales

2020 Final (£’000)

2019 Final (£’000)

YoY

100

3,265

-97%

1,929

1,871

3%

Learning & Participation Donations

162

231

-30%

Corporate Sponsorship

309

326

-5%

24

588

-96%

-

69

94

110

-15%

2,618

6,460

-59%

2,074

5,086

-59%

275

276

-0%

27

254

-89%

216

195

11%

57

102

-44%

2,649

5,913

-55%

Depreciation

(406)

(389)

4%

Other income

117

529

-78%

(320)

687

-147%

Box Of ce - Tickets & Donations Fundraising & Membership

Restaurant, Shop & Other Sales Legacy Donations Other Total Income EXPENDITURE Opera Production Learning & Participation Shop & Other Sales Overheads & Irrecoverable VAT Filming & Digital Total Expenditure

Surplus/De cit (see Reserves Policy)

excludes restricted capital donations & expenditure

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* Includes investment gain/loss, tax relief

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“Our starved ears and eyes relished the magni cent performances.

We could not have felt safer.” fi

AU D I E N C E FEEDBACK

We really enjoyed the evening and cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to have live music. It was actually wonderful to follow the orchestra so openly and having the singers in front worked brilliantly.

It was a thrill to be at Garsington again and to hear live music and opera done so well.

All of those who worked to stage the performance deserve a huge vote of thanks. The evening was most enjoyable and the choice of Beethoven on his 250th anniversary and Fidelio was most appropriate. We are looking forward to next season when, hopefully, the worst of COVID-19 will lie behind us.

It was wonderful to be all together at Garsington and to have the feeling of a return to some semblance of normality.

This was an exceptionally enjoyable evening. The artistic team did a tremendous job. Well done to everyone.

The performance was world class. It all felt very safe but not excessive. Very well thought through.

AU D I E N C E R E AC H Whilst in 2020 our ability to welcome audiences to Wormsley was limited, we took the opportunity to engage and grow our audience online through live streams, re-live performances and a comprehensive digital programme of Learning & Participation work.

Together with our partners at Philharmonia Orchestra, The English Concert, OperaVision, Classic FM, BBC iPlayer & BBC Radio 3, we shared our work with people across the world at a time when performing arts were never so vital.

The gures below show how we shared our work with our largest audience ever, even though our doors were closed for much of the year. We streamed The Bartered Bride, Le nozze di Figaro, The Skating Rink and The Turn of the Screw from our archive. In addition, we created programmes speci cally for digital release, including UnMute: A Musical Reunion, Music for the Eyes, The Opera Garden and Fidelio in Concert. Perhaps most extensive has been our digital provision for schools and the community, creating innovative new ways of engaging people in the performing arts through MondayMotivation and Design Challenges throughout each of the UK lockdowns.

Through this work, we have been able to keep in touch with our existing audience and supporters as well as grow our reach and reputation across the globe.

IN PERSON

2020

2020

Performances

952

Opera Productions & Series

995,148

Learning & Participation

112

Learning & Participation

302,547 1,297,695

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TOTAL

1064

TOTAL

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ONLINE

Soraya Ma (UnMute, 2020)

The Hon Mrs Susan Baring OBE Dr Margaret Bent CBE FBA Dame Hilary Boulding Dominic Burke Annette Campbell-White Sir Stuart Hampson Diana Hiddleston Peter Maniura

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

A D V I S O RY C O U N C I L

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B O A R D O F T RU S T E E S

Registered Charity No. 1003042