Next month, the doors of Surrey’s new opera house will open to the public for the first time. Tinx Newton goes behind the scenes to speak to Wasfi Kani who, 30 years after launching her first opera company, is taking on her biggest challenge to date.
WASFI Kani’s first foray into producing operas in unusual settings was in 1987, when she founded the small-scale touring company Pimlico Opera. Following many successful performances in marquees, village halls, banks, castles and a hospital, she staged Sweeney Todd in Wormwood Scrubs, where prisoners took on roles alongside professionals. Her concrete belief that opera is good for our well-being and should be available to all was gathering pace.
In 1998 she founded Grange Park Opera as a charity and since then she has produced over 50 operas, raised tens of millions of pounds, and built a family who think of ‘The Grange’ as central to their summer season. But Wasfi is not one to sit back and reflect on her successes when there is work to be done. She is now frequently seen donning a yellow builder’s hat and pacing the grounds of her biggest venture to date, the relocation of Grange Park Opera to West Horsley Place.
Seemingly unfazed by the enormity of the project she says, “I have built a theatre once before, but this new theatre, with a brilliant acoustic and a bigger pit size, will allow a greater vision. With the help of our thousands of generous supporters, Grange Park Opera at Horsley will let us introduce more people than ever - and young people especially - to the magic of opera and the wider arts. It will also allow us to give the local area something it can support and own, one of the most powerful reasons for holding a festival in the regions.”
Denne historien er fra May 2017-utgaven av Surrey Life.
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Denne historien er fra May 2017-utgaven av Surrey Life.
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The House That Rocks
Transforming an impressive, seven-bedroom Victorian property in Dorking wasn’t without its challenges, but the result is a stunning family home that has had the interiors world raving
REMEDY FOR SUCCESS
Surrey’s Tracy Borman discusses the return of her heroine healer in the final book of her best-selling fictional trilogy
Love Celia
Actress Celia Imrie has travelled the world for work and leisure but wherever she goes there is a part of her which is forever Surrey
EXHIBITION OF THE MONTH
Art & Action: Making Change in Victorian Britain at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village in Compton focuses on the Victorian roots of art activism
Electric dreams
The Range Rover plug-in hybrid brings silent electric motoring to this iconic luxury car
THE OPEN ROAD
Chris Pickering rounds up some of the best drives in Surrey
TOWN AND COUNTRY: Oxted & Limpsfield
With the North Downs looming nearby and glorious countryside surrounding it, Oxted is a town with real “escape from London” appeal and character, while nearby Limpsfield has a superb village vibe with its own community-run pub
Artist to the stars
Known as ‘The Face of Modern British Impressionism’, Mickleham-based Sherree Valentine Daines is celebrating four decades at the forefront of her field
A RIGHT ROYAL WELCOME
The Signet Collection’s inaugural hotel project is a reimagining of a former royal guest house, situated directly opposite Hampton Court Palace
TOWN AND COUNTRY: Godalming & Hascombe
On the banks of the River Wey, Godalming is a watercolour pretty town surrounded by pristine countryside and in-demand rural villages, such as Hascombe