Grange Park Opera
Encyclopedia
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
company whose base is The Grange
The Grange, Northington, Hampshire UK
The Grange is a mansion near Northington in Hampshire, England. It is owned by Lord Ashburton's family. English Heritage have a guardianship deed on the Grade I listed building and the exterior of the monument can be viewed...
in Hampshire, England
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. 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
Nevill Holt
Nevill Holt is a hamlet and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It is situated at about northeast of Market Harborough and northwest of Corby and lies close to the borders with Northamptonshire and Rutland. It lies on the north side of the Welland valley...
near Market Harborough in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
in the a 300 seat theatre concealed within the 17th century stable courtyard.
Notable singers who have performed with the company include Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....
, Claire Rutter
Claire Rutter
Claire Rutter is an English operatic soprano.-Biography:Claire Rutter studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the National Opera Studio. Her title role performances have included those in Tosca, La Traviata and Aida at English National Opera...
, Susan Gritton
Susan Gritton
Susan Gritton is an English soprano.Susan Gritton was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of London, where she studied Botany....
, Wynne Evans
Wynne Evans
Wynne Evans is a Welsh tenor. Popularly known for his role as the tenor Gio Compario in the Gocompare.com insurance adverts on television in the United Kingdom, he sang, , in the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall...
, Philip Langridge
Philip Langridge
Philip Gordon Langridge CBE was an English tenor, considered to be among the foremost exponents of English opera and oratorio....
, 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
Mara Galeazzi
Mara Galeazzi is an internationally recognized ballet dancer, currently a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet in London, England.-Biography:...
with dancers from the Royal Ballet, an evening with Ray Davies
Ray Davies
Ray Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
, London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
, Ballet Boyz, Harry the Piano, Kit & the Widow
Kit and The Widow
Kit and The Widow are a double act, performing humorous songs in the vein of Tom Lehrer or Flanders and Swann; they also cite Anna Russell as an influence. They are Kit Hesketh-Harvey and Richard Sisson . They have performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and in West End theatres, and accept private...
, Boy Blue, Henry Armburg Jennings Big Band, the orchestra of Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
in a concert performance of The Flying Dutchman.
A sister company Pimlico Opera works in prisons and with younger artists.
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 BandGrimethorpe Colliery Band
The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band, based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, England. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the colliery, by members of the disbanded Cudworth 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 operaCountry house operaCountry house opera is opera performed at a country house, whether in the house itself, in the grounds, or in an adapted or purpose built theatre in the grounds. It is a feature in particular of the English summer. Country house opera is usually initiated by private enthusiasts, and relies on...
- Country House Theatres
- Nathaniel Lichfield and PartnersNathaniel Lichfield and PartnersNathaniel Lichfield and Partners is an independent British town planning consultancy originally founded in 1962 to provide specialist advice on all aspects of the planning process. Over more than four decades the practice has built up extensive planning and development experience...
who advised in development and conservation
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
- Grange Park Opera website
- Northington Grange Park page from English HeritageEnglish HeritageEnglish Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
- Grange Park Opera official channel on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....