Thinking big, thinking Wagnerian

With the summer country-house-opera season in full swing, delightful Longborough Festival Opera in the Cotswolds is distinguished for the ambition of its programming. Henrietta Bredin reports

- Henrietta Bredin

LONGBOROUGH FESTIVAL OPERA was once almost a secret delight, cherished and supported by a select, regular audience. Back in 1991, it was known as Banks Fee Opera, named after the Cotswolds house owned by Martin and Lizzie Graham, who began their operatic adventures by inviting Travelling Opera to give two charity performances on a temporary stage in the courtyard of their stable block.

It was a great success and the relationship continued until 1998 when, having got a taste for it, the Grahams decided to launch their own company at their new house, New Banks Fee. Here, an existing barn struck them as having irresistible potential as a theatre that could seat up to 500 people. (The seats, incidentally, were the result of a feat of salvage sleuthing by Mr Graham, who acquired them from the Royal Opera House when it was undergoing refurbishment.)

Many operas have been performed by Longborough, but what made the festival stand out, the wild ride upon which the Grahams embarked in 1999, which seemed positively reckless in its ambition, was taking on Wagner. Wise counsel might have dictated sticking to works requiring small forces, such as works by Britten or, indeed, reduced versions of Wagner, such as the brilliant small-scale 'Ring' cycle made by Jonathan Dove. They did start with that-Das Rheingold, followed by a 90-minute supper interval, and Die Walküre, with 20 players-then came complete 'Ring' cycles in 2002 and 2004, featuring the magnificent bass Donald McIntyre, lured out of retirement to sing Wotan.