Garsington Opera
Il ritorno d’Ulisse, Garsington Opera at Wormsley
★★★★★ Il ritorno d’Ulisse is probably the hardest of Monteverdi’s trilogy to bring off on stage. First heard during Venice’s 1639–40 carnival season, Ulisse will be followed by L’incoronazione di Poppea at Garsington in 2028. Much of Ulisse‘s drama is internal, Penelope’s unbroken fidelity, Ulisse’s disorientation on returning to a home he barely recognises, and…
Garsington Opera’s 2026 season announced
The operas for Garsington Opera’s 2026 Festival, which will run from Wednesday 27 May – Saturday 25 July 2026: Verdi’s La traviata, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse, and Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest. La traviataGiuseppe Verdi Conductor – Douglas BoydDirector – Louisa Muller Der RosenkavalierRichard Strauss Conductor – Finnegan Downie DearDirector – Bruno Ravella Il ritorno d’UlisseClaudio Monteverdi Conductor – Laurence CummingsDirector –…
Gorgeously sung, clean and stylised Rodelinda
Garsington Opera **** This is a superbly sung Handel, the drama full of fire, with the complicated baroque story given a clean and stylised theatrical telling. Rodelinda may be a tangled tapestry of dynastic plots, romantic fidelity, and moral reckonings, but at Garsington this summer, the ensemble of exquisite voices cut through the intrigue with…
Fun and frivolity at Garsington Opera for Verdi’s Giorno di Regno
**** Well, I never. A staging of a comedic opera that is actually funny. Purists may argue Verdi’s Un Giorno di Regno, owes more to Donizetti or Rossini but who cares? In this delightful new staging by Christopher Alden for Garsington Opera we are given a contemporary arms dealer’s office Kelbar Defence Ltd. rather than…
Mitridate, re di Pontus, earns his (zebra) stripes, Garsington Opera
***** Sometimes it is a bore being an opera-loving academic classicist. On one hand it can be very helpful knowing the classical and mythological tales that so many operas are based on. On the other, however, directors and their designers can really get your purist heckles up. However, when this Mitridate, Re di Ponto opens…
An Ariadne auf Naxos to bring the Olympian gods to their feet, Garsington Opera
***** Great things are now expected from the acclaimed Natalya Romaniw, and in Bruno Ravella’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos for Garsington Opera the warm, golden-voiced soprano delighted. She has enjoyed great success with this glorious opera company in a variety of roles that have demonstrated versatility of singing and acting across genres. Here Romaniw…
A sunny seaside Cosi fan tutte at Garsington Opera
I am not certain I understood the closing of John Cox’s 2004 staging of Cosi fan tutte, revived with a splendid cast at Garsington Opera this season, as the two “soldiers” leave their lovers and head off to war. Have they decided that women really are all the same and they are better off with…
An Arcadian idyll: Orfeo at Garsington Opera
One of the many delights of Garsington Opera is how the glass walls of the pavilion allow for the “action” to begin and continue beyond the actual stage and auditorium. Being set in the exquisite Wormsley Estate, itself an Arcadian idyll, this is wonderfully appropriate for the first act of John Caird’s charming production of…
Natalya Romaniw can tell Houston that having survived Covid and lockdown there really isn’t a problem
It is a very long way between lockdown in Cardiff and rehearsing in Texas for the opening of Houston Grand Opera Dialogue of the Carmelites in Texas. For soprano Natalya Romaniw that journey, from the cancellation mid run of Madam Butterfly at English National Opera in 2020 to February 2022’s opening of the Poulenc opera,…
Amadigi weaves modern magic at Garsington Opera
This glorious production of Handel’s Amadigi is both a splendid, spirits (literally) raising experience and why our independent festivals are the shining stars of opera as they have struggled and overcome Covid restrictions. While most of our state funded opera houses and arts companies remained the domain of tumbleweed, Garsington and others have kept opera…