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.
Denne historien er fra June 29, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 29, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
