The world has never needed opera more and opera companies have never needed their audiences more.
So that is why we are asking you, our most loyal friends, to come and enjoy yourselves with us and book MORE seats for MORE operas …
We have made summer as possible: three great love stories and a Welsh knight. You can book in January by phone 01962 73 73 73 or online. Next summer our lives will be enriched by the extraordinary art form we love so much, and we must protect it.
Wasfi Kani CBE Founder / CEO
Your summer evening
Guests arrive early to wander in the historic walled gardens, champagne glass in hand, and a convivial atmosphere reigns: the city seems far away
A short walk through the ancient orchard –passing a 300-year-old mulberry tree – takes you to the five-tier opera house with a superb acoustic. We affectionately call it The Theatre in the Woods
Take your seat for Act 1 with internationally recognised artists, rousing opera choruses and 60 players in the orchestra pit
The leisurely long interval is all-important. A three-course meal with fine wines is served in the 14th century house. Or stake out and claim your own secret picnic spot in the walled gardens. What better way to spend a summer evening? Many say it is like opera in the old days.
Booking opens in January
On the edge of London by the Surrey Hills KT24 6AN 01962 73 73 73 info@grangeparkopera.co.uk grangeparkopera.co.uk
Summer 2023
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Thu 8 Tristan & Isolde Sat 10 Tosca Thu 15 Tosca Sat 17 Werther Sun 18 Tristan & Isolde Wed 21 Tosca Thu 22 Tristan & Isolde Sat 24 Tosca Sun 25 Werther 5:15pm Wed 28 Tosca 5:45pm Thu 29 Werther 5:45pm July Sat 1 Tristan & Isolde 3:30pm Sun 2 Tosca 5:15pm Wed 5 Tosca 5:45pm Thu 6 Tristan & Isolde 4:00pm Sat 8 Werther 5:15pm Sun 9 Tristan & Isolde 3:30pm Wed 12 Werther 5:45pm Thu 13 Bryn Terfel Gala 5:45pm A glorious sprawling ancient house, grand but welcoming, formal gardens with a Crinkle-Crankle wall (too majestic to describe), secret corners for picnickers, an orchard of aged fruit trees and a glorious sense of history and occasion
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For ambition, none can top Grange Park Opera, boasting a jewel box of an opera house modelled on La Scala
FINANCIAL TIMES 2022
Where we are
By car Off the A246, between Leatherhead and Guildford, 10 minutes from the intersection of the A3 & M25.
Your guests can leave London mid-afternoon and arrive with time for a glass of champagne before the opera.
B y train Horsley station is a mile away with frequent trains from Waterloo, Vauxhall, Clapham Junction (45 mins). Woking Station is 8 miles away (London 25 mins; 8 trains/hour). SAT NAV KT24 6AN
CENTRAL
M11 M1 A1 M20 A406 A23 A205 A20 A24 M23 M25 M25 DORKING
HORSLEY
LONDON
M25
STATION
WAGNER
Tristan und Isolde
OPERA IN THREE ACTS
Thu 8, Sun 18, Thu 22 JUNE Sat 1, Thu 6, Sun 9 JULY
VIEW THE CAST
This must be the greatest love story ever told.
From that puzzling first phrase, landing on the Tristan chord, Wagner’s late masterpiece weaves its magic. Epic – in every sense –it is one of the most extraordinary experiences, not just in the opera canon, but in Western Art. It is not surprising that the final act has induced heart attacks in a number of conductors.
Wagner wrote it while in temporary exile and enamoured with his mistress, Mathilde. The story – of the noble knight Tristan and his passionate love for Isolde, who has, alas, been promised to another, King Marke – reflects the composer’s emotional upheaval.
For this mighty undertaking, director/designer Charlie Edwards creates a staging inspired by Wagner’s original set designs.
Gwyn Hughes Jones will sing Tristan at the Paris Opera before arriving at the Theatre in the Woods and Rachel Nicholls is the feisty Isolde.
ALMA MAHLER
“Only one opera exists in the whole world: my Tristan”
“I have lived for art I have lived for love”
TOSCA
PUCCINI Tosca
OPERA IN THREE ACTS
Sat 10, Thu 15, Wed 21, Sat 24, Wed 28 JUNE Sun 2, Wed 5 JULY
VIEW THE CAST
The opera has been called a “shabby little shocker” ...
. . . but ever since it was premiered in 1900, operagoers can’t get enough of it. Fuelled by revenge, lust, murder, and suicide – the opera continues to grip its audience.
Rome, June 1800 and the city is in ferment. The malevolent Baron Scarpia (Brett Polegato) wants to hunt down Angelotti, his political rival, but he is also in pursuit of the opera singer, Tosca (Izabela Matula), for entirely other reasons, but no less malign.
The key to both prizes is the artist Cavaradossi sung by Georgian tenor Otar Jorjikia fresh from presenting the role at La Scala, Milan.
With Francis O’Connor’s “epic” sets (The Times) and heart stopping arias delivered with lashings of love – and jealously – this is an unmissable experience.
MASSENET Werther
OPERA IN
FOUR ACTS
S at 17, Sun 25, Thu 29 JUNE Sat 8, Wed 12 JULY VIEW THE CAST
Rekindle the experience of first love.
Massenet’s gentle love story has the dazzling American mezzo Ginger Costa-Jackson (Charlotte) breaking the heart of the shy poet played by Leonardo Capalbo (Werther).
Will Charlotte succumb to the ardent charms of Werther, her gentle charming lover? Or will she stick with Albert, her dashing betrothed? She suffers the agonies of the conflicted. His heart soars and plunges
Massenet’s heartrending score captures all this: their joys – shot through with an dark undertow. Goethe wrote the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther when he was just 24 and it became an overnight sensation, read – and much copied – throughout European literary circles. Napoleon, carried a copy on his Egyptian campaign, and it inspired new fashions and even a perfume. Alas, it also inspired self-harm and not only the novel was banned in Denmark and Leipzig, but also the distinctive blue suit and yellow waistcoat that Werther wore.
wonderful exhilaration took complete hold of my spirit”
“A
Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774)
Bryn Terfel Gala
Thu 13 JULY
Our favourite Welsh knight is visiting us for just one evening.
There is something about the way he stands on that stage: he bewitches the entire auditorium.
Bryn starred in our Fliegende Holländer last summer and the theatre was packed to the Attic. His Falstaff (2021) was hilarious and his Tevye Fiddler on the Roof (2015) was heart-breaking.
Share the Bryn magic next summer.
9 Orchard Marquee & pavilions 10 Crinkle-crankle garden & pavilions 11 Croquet Lawn Marquee & pavilions 12 Illustration by Theo Creswell 7 10 5 Lavatorium Rotundum 6 Opera House 7 Kiosk (shop) 8 Mole’s Lawn & pavilions 1 Entrance & Box Office 2 White Wisteria Champagne Bar 3 Duchess lavatories 4 Duchess Restaurant 12 1 6 You can picnic in the Formal Gardens & the Crinkle-crankle Garden
THE ARTICLE LA GIOCONDA 2022
Grange Park Opera’s production must surely rate as one of the great operatic performances of the summer
Janáček’s most eccentric opera is a perfect match for the quixotic venture of Grange Park Opera’s Theatre in the Woods THE TELEGRAPH THE EXCURSIONS OF MR BROUCEK 2022
