GPO_Prog-03_Sect_1:GPO_Prog-03_Sect_1 19/05/2011 10:36 Page 2
Patron’s Foreword Welcome to another exciting programme of opera – our sixth, which will, I am confident, be a wonderful experience for us all. With each succeeding season here at The Grange, the supporters – Notable Greeks, members and the remarkable group of people drawn from the local community who work so hard to make the festival run smoothly – have increased steadily in size. This is a great tribute above all to Wasfi Kani but also to her immediate executive circle. Michael Moody has of course been in charge, on behalf of Grange Park Opera, of the new building while Carol Butler doubles as Finance Director and Company Secretary. Judith Becher, Rachel Pearson and Lorna Clive oversee a myriad tasks, often unseen but essential, not only during the Festival but contributing during the rest of the year to the enormous amount of preparation. There are many other volunteers from the surrounding area and elsewhere, but I know that to name individuals when all contribute so much would be invidious. I want also to mention two other people whose support has contributed enormously. First, Donald Kahn with his wife, who have been our largest donors by a considerable margin and we see them here regularly. Second, Janis Kelly, who has been associated with GPO since its early days, and either as a performer – The Turn of the Screw, for instance – or director – Così fan tutte in 2001– has been a stalwart of our activities. She is here again this year as director and I feel this level of involvement must mean she enjoys her time here. As many of you are aware, each year a small tour of one of that season’s productions has been run. Wasfi started the Pimlico Opera tour 12 years ago and it visits about 15 theatres around the country. Though each theatre only seats around 400, it actually adds enormously to the size of the audience that has access to GPO’s successes. In 2002, for example, while there were just over 10,000 tickets available here at The Grange, there were a further 4,000+ available on the tour, mostly at lower prices than here, but of course without the landscape – and the weather! Wasfi is properly proud of what has been achieved so far in this way and the Board has been discussing over quite a period how to enable more people to enjoy what is done here. With our new larger stage at The Grange, touring to larger theatres (seating 800 people) is an obvious way forward. We are putting plans in place for 2004 for such a tour and we hope that the Arts Council decides to support this. A short season in another country house in another part of the UK is an easier, though nonetheless arduous, way of tapping a reservoir of