The Grange Festival 2021 | Festival Programme by The Grange Festival

2021

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM B RITTE N June | 24, 27, 29

July | 2

LA CENERENTOLA RO S S I N I June | 25, 28, 30

July | 3, 7

M A N O N L E S CAU T P UC C I N I June | 26

July | 1, 4, 22, 24

M Y FA I R L A DY L E R N E R & LO EW E July | 8, 16, 18

KING LEAR S H A K E S PE A R E July | 14, 15, 17

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Chairman’s Foreword

A warm and heartfelt welcome back to The Grange Festival for our 2021 Season. We are delighted (and relieved) to be able to put on a full and exciting programme for you this summer of Rossini’s Le Ceneretola, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lerner & Lowe’s My Fair Lady, and Shakespeare’s King Lear. It is a particular privilege to have Sir John Tomlinson and his stellar troupe of opera stars performing one of the Bard’s finest works on our stage. A world first. I would like to pay tribute to the remarkable efforts, ingenuity and resilience of Michael Chance, Michael Moody, Rachel Pearson and the whole team in the office this past year. It has been an enormously difficult time for all performing arts organisations and they have done tremendously well to navigate the many exigencies that the pandemic has put in our path. They are passionate about The Grange Festival and what they do. I would also like to pay tribute to my cotrustees who have been steadfast in their support for me and the senior management team.

The Rt Hon Sir Charles Haddon-Cave

As I write, there of course remain uncertainties as to how far along the Government’s ‘roadmap’ we will be by the time of curtain up. But we all hope and pray that Apollo and the deities of the arts will smile and we will be able to play to as full houses as possible. You can be assured that everything is being done to ensure that the theatre, house and site are fully Covid-safe at all times. We lost our beloved Patron, John Ashburton last year, who died aged 91. He loved The Grange and has been a huge inspiration to us all for many, many years. In consultation with the family, we have named his favourite spot, the top terrace just outside the west door to the theatre, simply “John’s Terrace”. We are grateful for the invaluable support and kindness of the new Lord and Lady Ashburton, Mark and Sophie Baring, and the whole family. We remain, as ever, eternally grateful to you, our friends and supporters, for your continued support and generosity. I would like to thank, in particular, the trustees of the John Lambton estate, for their outstanding generosity. We hope that your experiences at The Grange this year will be magical and unforgettable once again.

The Rt Hon Sir Charles Haddon-Cave Chairman, The Grange Festival

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The Grange Festival Winter Revels Photos © Leela Bennett

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Furthermore... . . .where were we? Oh yes, it’s all flooding back now. Theatres go ‘dark’ when they’re not staging performances to audiences. Like every other theatre in the land, and most in the world, we went ‘dark’ in the middle of March 2020. And for the most part, dark is where we have remained. Until now. Covid-19 has caused all of us to think about our lives and everyone and everything around us. As Keith Warner, the director of our King Lear says, it has given us a kick up the backside: for us in the performing arts, particularly so. Nothing can ever be taken for granted again. Performers tend to find positives in everything they do. There haven’t been many positives for anybody involved in making or presenting any form of art for a long time. Our team is proud to be lighting up our theatre again and bringing back together the great community of performers and technicians and cooks and waiters and volunteers and, most importantly, the audience. As a young festival with high aspirations we were frighteningly vulnerable, until you answered our call to arms with unbelievable loyalty and commitment and generosity. For that we are able to give you an undiluted festival of five different productions this year. And for that we will perform with the depth of gratitude which Puck encapsulates so perfectly at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We have all slumbered these last 16 months, and, for many of us, visions certainly have appeared. But the performance you will watch this evening will hopefully restore amends. And we on the stage will thrill to the gift of your hands as we invite you to join us on an adventure of imagination.

In this programme book we try to tell you about what we have been doing this past year and more, a complete what and who and why about the performances this summer and also give you a glimpse of what’s coming in the future. We compile these full programmes in the hope that they will be required reading beside your bed, or on your coffee table, or perhaps even in more private retreats, for weeks or months to come. During the dark months, we have tried to stay in touch with you via playlists, podcasts, blogs and live performances at The Grange. Our outdoor show last summer, Precipice, was challenged but certainly not bowed by the strongest winds of the year, courtesy of Storm Ellen. We have been able to showcase many young artists, and to stage the ‘pop-up’ production of Pagliacci which caught the imagination of all who saw it. And there have been imaginative school projects on Zoom. We sadly lost our community opera, The Monster in the Maze, which would have put over 220 performers of all ages on and below the stage. If you haven’t done so, please watch the video which was made instead, with over 60 amateur singers from all over the UK and from the Netherlands singing the final chorus from their homes.

Photos © Leela Bennett

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p74 James Bowman on Twenty Five Years of Differing Oberons — Michael Chance as Oberon, La Monnaie, Brussels (2004)

On pages 8–9, we pay tribute to two wonderful friends of the festival, recently deceased. Mary Caroe was an early victim of Covid. The other, John Lambton, never came himself to The Grange, but the executors of his estate made us a substantial bequest knowing that he would approve. We have put his generous benefaction to good use: a completely new seating arrangement in the balcony, now named The John Lambton Balcony, and in the Circle; a new stage revolve; a permanent lighting rig and a new surtitle machine. It has also enabled us to undertake an exhaustive process of planning, design, and consultation to submission of planning consent for a substantial development in and around the theatre. You will hear much more about this at a later date. But I think the news that one of its ingredients is to install permanent lavatories may bring some overdue relief. All these initiatives are about making the Festival more sustainable over the long term. We are proud of our collaboration with WWF and 8 different regional schools and colleges and the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, each writing and composing original material to think about the planet and how to improve its future. Nine separate films will emerge. Please read about this inspiring project on page 14. Straight theatre comes to The Grange for the first time this year. It’s a unique event, and as I keep reminding all taking part, we are pinching ourselves that it’s happening with us. Who knows what this will lead to. With a cast and creative team of this pedigree, it is not surprising that theatre directors around Europe are showing keen interest. The desperation for us all to get back together again, sit in a theatre, watch a performance, and celebrate the joy of the festival must necessarily be tempered by an understandable trepidation to do so. You are all to be congratulated for daring to commit. Thank you for coming.

Michael Chance CBE Artistic Director and C EO of The Grange Festival

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

A tribute to

John Baring, 7th Lord Ashburton

John Ashburton was hard-working, decent, generous and incorruptible. He was incredibly tall and thin with owl-like eyes that missed nothing. He was discreet to the point of being secretive which came with the job of being a banker to kingdoms and a friend of monarchs. He was a countryman whose favourite time for a walk was at dusk, alone in order to catch the wildlife busy about their work. He was knowledgeable about trees, which he could identify if you brought him even a single leaf, and he knew not just about birds but their habits and their seasons. He had a curious and special empathy with amphibians and reptiles. His eyes lit up with delight in the company of newts, frogs, toads and snakes. His favourite season was the autumn, ‘after the harvest is in and counted’. He had a puritanical streak which emerged every year with his annual attempt to cancel the fuss of Christmas. But he was in fact a very generous host, who took care to pay his staff well enough that they did not need to look to tips from his friends. His children delighted in holidays watching their all-powerful father slowly defreeze from the habitual stress of his life, quoting filthy limericks and sunbathing naked on the rocks after lunch like a lizard. His ancestors had lived between Bath House in Piccadilly, their Norfolk estate, fishing lodges in Scotland and Devon, aside from the 20,000 acre Grange Estate in Hampshire. But his grandfather Frank succeeded in consuming this inheritance, finally selling even The Grange itself in 1932. John worked at Barings Bank for good reason, as had his father, Alec Ashburton. When The Grange came back on the market in 1964, John and his father asked an agent to bid at the public auction at Winchester, while they stood at the back, pretending to be innocent bystanders. When the hammer fell, they found that

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the entire room had risen, turned around and was applauding them. After a thirty-year interregnum, the Barings had got themselves back on their feet. John Baring started a three-year apprenticeship at Barings as a 22 year old. He was Chairman of the bank from 1974–89, which crossed over with his role as a Director of the Bank of England from 1983–91. When he joined the Bank it employed 200 staff with a balance sheet of £30 million; when he left this had grown to 2,400 employees and a balance sheet of £3 billion. After retiring as Chairman of Barings John had an extraordinary second career as Chairman of BP. John was instrumental in creating the Baring Foundation (a charity that has given away more than £100 million since inception). In 1969 he succeeded in transferring the ownership of the bank to this charity which became the 10th largest grant-giving charity in the UK. The sudden internal collapse of Barings in 1995 was therefore a double tragedy. John was first married to Susan Renwick, daughter of Lord Renwick, whilst his fagmaster from Eton, and subsequently great friend, the handsome athelete, Antony Rowe married her sister Jenny. His second wife was Sally Churchill, the divorced wife of his old friend, Colin Crewe. His four children breathed a sigh of relief, for there had been some alarming other candidates whilst Sally (and her three children) had been a happy presence on family holidays throughout their childhood. John was knighted twice, built two country houses, was married twice, served as the Chairman of two great British institutions and helped establish two Country Operas. He had worked for the Prince of Wales and was a personal friend of the Queen. It is not a record that is likely to be equalled.

Barnaby Rogerson Eland Publishing Ltd

Opposite: A painting of John Baring for BP. Above, left to right: John at his Garter ceremony, John Baring with daughter Lucy, John and HRH Princess Margaret, Ashburton and Airlie at Jerash, and John with Rose

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

The Honourable John Lambton

John Lambton was a shy man of great intelligence, whose pronounced stammer inhibited communication of his thoughts and ideas to all but a few. His interests covered a wide range: opera, theatre, horse racing — he ran a stud and owned race horses for most of his life — the roses in his garden; and, above all, the challenge of the most difficult crossword in The Times each day. This he would usually complete in 15 minutes, occasionally confronting, when stumped, any passing visitor with an impenetrable 15 across which even he could not untangle. He was the only child of the second marriage of the 5th Earl of Durham, the prominent land-owning family in the north east. His ancestors on his father’s side of the family included “Radical Jack” (the 1st Earl of Durham), who helped draft the Reform Bill of 1832.

His mother was the daughter of Sir George Bullough, whose family made a fortune in the manufacture of machinery for the textile industry in Lancashire, with which they bought the Island of Rum in the Hebrides, where Sir George built Kinloch Castle just before the outbreak of the First World War. John’s 21st birthday was celebrated in the castle in 1952, shortly before the island, the castle and its eclectic contents were transferred to the nation. In addition, the Bulloughs were ardent followers of horse racing, and maintained a large house and stables at Newmarket, from where John’s own interest in racing was born. John died in 2012, leaving no descendants. Given his interest in opera, and the proximity of his home to The Grange, his Trustees have been delighted to help secure the future of The Grange Festival.

Mark Bridges

The Honourable John Lambton, in whose memory we are naming the new Balcony in the theatre

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Mary Caroe Mary Caroe, who was a great supporter of The Grange Festival and gracious host of Grange events

Having just come in from the garden where I was trying to plant Lilies of the Valley (they have very long roots) and not having Mary there to ring and ask how it’s done, I am in the right frame of mind to remember her. Mary died of Covid-19 last year. She was both a huge supporter and Friend of The Grange Festival. Her life was cut off far too soon. She was in the middle of doing so much. Mary’s nom de plume for the Hambledon Parish Magazine was ‘Earthworm’. What could have been less apt? She shone her light from a hill of bushels and did everything with gusto, passion and enthusiasm. Whether seeking out hidden Iznik tiles in an Istanbul mosque or eliminating ground elder, she did nothing by halves. As chatelaine of the ethereally beautiful Vann, the exquisite rambling house and garden in West Surrey she and her late husband Martin inherited, she indulged not only her love and formidable knowledge of plants but also of people. Vann was a magnet for garden cognoscenti internationally. The original house was William and Mary; in family ownership for a century it has evolved. It was W D Caroe, Mary’s Grandfather-in-Law, who added the magnificent Arts and Crafts extension and was friends with his near neighbour Gertrude Jekyll. She advised on the planting in parts of the garden and indeed supplied many of the plants herself. Generations continued the work and the garden was Martin and Mary’s great passion and triumph. Beautiful in all seasons, it has Miss Jekyll’s quality of blending totally harmoniously into its landscape. But it was not just those interested in gardens who flocked to Vann. Mary started holding concerts and one of her early successes was a group of Cambridge choral scholars called The Light Blues; it was terrific and they promised to return, but it was not to be for another forty years that Michael Chance finally came back. This time he brought with him a privileged group of Friends of The Grange Festival for a tea concert like no other. This idea had been her head gardener’s, who was of course also a musician.

Mary’s welcome, historical garden talk and tour were Shakespearian. Roberto Lorenzi (Figaro at The Grange) sang. Thunder clapped and it poured. We drank tea and ate cake in the parlour. The sun shone again. E M Forster would have loved it. It was heaven. As a huge supporter of The Grange Festival, Mary seemed to feel that it was a personal compliment to her that this delectable cultural icon in the Summer music calendar should have landed so very near her. In her antique Turkish Ikat coat and trademark strong jewellery she was a regular at the Grange. She seemed to know everybody there. But equally if you walked with her down Guildford High Street she knew a great many there too. Tramps and the homeless would great her warmly with shrieks of “my Doctor!” As a Police Surgeon she became an institution and somewhat of a celebrity. Less well known was her tireless work for, and innovations in, the care of the victims of violent or sexual crimes. Her Well Women clinics looked after patients in a really humane way. She was holistic before it was fashionable. Her acting career was just taking off. She had bit parts in, not one, but two films being made at Vann. Having appeared twice as a mourner she planned a change — she felt she risked becoming typecast. Mary was a tireless traveller, whether with friends or alone. She raced from cherry blossom in Japan, to family holidays in Wales, Crusader castles with the Knights Templar, Italian villas, Transylvania or Suffolk churches. As a twin in a family of six children and marrying Martin, one of five, the Caroes had an enormous extended family, with their five children and eight grandchildren. All of these, plus friends, Godchildren and general hangers-on, would descend on Vann, where they would often be promptly put to work. They loved it. There were festivals, reunions, parties, concerts and sometimes just simple weekends of solace. “Come down and weep here” Mary would say to the lovelorn. Mary made everything festive. She would have loved to be here now.

Clare Heath 9

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Photos © Leela Bennett

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is delighted to continue its long-term artistic collaboration with The Grange Festival. It is a partnership of the highest shared ambition, trust and friendship which has enabled us to find innovative shared solutions to the challenges of staging opera in these most extraordinary of times. By recording the Britten, Rossini and Puccini scores in a pioneering digital format we are able to give you the full symphonic splendour of the BSO within a live performance environment. Of course, ‘in person’ performance is why we exist, and we hope very much that updated government guidance will enable the orchestra to be back with you, on stage, for My Fair Lady. We cannot wait.

Dougie Scarfe Chief Executive, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

One of the UK’s best-loved orchestras, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is a professional ensemble known for igniting change both on and off the stage. With residencies in Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter, Poole and Portsmouth it is also the largest cultural provider in the South West of England, serving one of the biggest and most diverse regions. Maintaining the highest artistic ideals, the Orchestra remains committed to new and lesserknown repertoire whilst remaining relevant to its broad audience’s tastes. Under Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits, the Orchestra’s Voices from the East series of music from former Soviet countries continues to receive critical acclaim, and its recent recordings of Prokofiev and Walton are outstanding modern performances. The Orchestra is also loved for its performances of film and light music, and its discography charts a number of landmark moments in 20th century music.

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Following the longest break in its 127-year history, the Orchestra was one of the first British ensembles to launch a series of live symphonic broadcast performances in autumn 2020. During the first six months of its inaugural livestreamed series the BSO sold 38,000 digital tickets to audiences around the world; the Orchestra increased its audience by almost 30% during the period, with 65,000 views of its performances. A commissioner of new music, the Orchestra plans to give premiere performances of works by composers Franghiz Ali-Zadeh and Shirley J Thompson in coming seasons. In recent years it has worked with MarkAnthony Turnage, Sally Beamish and James MacMillan. A bold champion of new talent, the BSO boasts an enviable list of principal conductors, including Marin Alsop — who became the first female principal conductor of a major UK orchestra when taking on the role in 2002 — Constantin Silvestri,

Paavo Berglund and Andrew Litton. It has given memorable performances at Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein and Rudolfinum, and gives regular live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. An industry leader for outreach and participatory work, the BSO was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Impact Award in 2019 for its work in improving opportunities for disabled professional musicians. BSO Resound — the world’s first professional disabled-led ensemble as a core part of a major orchestra — made its historic debut at the BBC Proms in 2018. Over 650 community workshops and events take place each year across the Orchestra’s vast region, empowering thousands of lives each year. For more details about Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra visit bsolive.com

Chief Conductor Associate Guest Conductor Conductor Emeritus Conductor Laureate

Kirill Karabits David Hill Marin Alsop Andrew Litton

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Our planet A finite sphere A single entity

F U T U R E V I S I ON S

Future Visions Where every action plays a role. Planet Earth is in danger. From climate change to food and water insecurity, plastic pollution to biodiversity loss, the scale of the environmental risk facing humankind is colossal. Experts tell us we can still save our world — but the clock is ticking. Success will only come if we all act now to modify the way we live. Every one of us can and must make a difference, but it is the youth who carry the biggest burden as future stewards of our planet. This summer, Learning@TheGrange, in collaboration with WWF, will give a voice to over 200 young people aged seven to 23 years, so they can express their hopes for a sustainable future. Through interactive workshops guided by exceptional creative professionals, groups from nine schools and educational institutions will discuss and debate different global landscapes, from the Amazon Rainforest to our Ancient Woodlands here in the UK. They will examine WWF’s scientific truths, explore the steps that countries and individuals need to take to drive transformative change and express a vision for the future.

Watch the trailer: thegrangefestival.co.uk/learning-at-the-grange/ future-visions

In responding, they will be encouraged to dig deep into their imaginations. They will write text, compose music and choreograph dance to represent how they want life to be on our living planet. Their work will be filmed and illustrated with WWF footage. The outcome will be a collection of short films designed to help drive the conversation about how to sustain life on Earth. 2021 has been designated the ‘super year’ for nature, with a series of high-profile environmental events scheduled, many postponed from 2020. Our films are intended to be shown at a number of these global conferences, including COP26, the 26th UN climate talks which are being held in Glasgow. This is the moment to sit up and take note of the next generation, listen to their hopes, and act to make their visions for the future a reality.

University of Winchester

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

PARTICIPANTS & INSPIRATION John Barber and Hazel Gould will lead Preston Candover Primary School (urban nature in our cities), The Vyne Secondary School in Basingstoke (the unique ecosystem in the Arctic) and Hampshire County Youth Choir (fresh water in the Pantanal wetlands of South America).

Preston Candover Primary children talking to Matt Larsen-Daw at WWF

Jessica Maryon Davies and Karen Gillingham will lead Year 7 children at Everest Community Academy (the vast grasslands of the African Masai Mara), Students from Perins School, Alresford (protecting and valuing our fresh water in the Mekong River) and University of Winchester undergraduates (humans and nature living in harmony in urban life).

Perins School

Jessica Maryon Davies at Perins

Pete Letanka and Robert Gildon will lead Cheriton Primary School (the rich biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest) and Cranbourne Secondary School GCSE students (our unique and irreplaceable Ancient Woodlands in the UK). Cranbourne Secondary School

Robert Gildon and Pete Letanka

Jonathan Dove © Marshall Light Studio

In addition, leading British composer Jonathan Dove will lead instrumentalists from Hampshire County Youth Orchestra in composing an orchestral piece that responds to the issues facing the Great Barrier Reef’s coral reefs and the oceans surrounding it. Their finished piece will be choreographed by Wessex Dance.

Project designer Rhiannon Newman Brown and film production company Peanut & Crumb will be responsible for editing the films and shaping them with visual context and the footage provided by Silverback Films for the Future Visions project.

Preston Candover Primary School Cheriton Primary School

F U T U R E V ISION S

CREATIVITY Why connect an arts organisation with a conservation institution? The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report predicts that creativity, innovation and ‘ideation’ — forming ideas and concepts — are key skills for the future. The creative arts build and nurture the essential qualities of imagination, questioning, empathy and communication — the very skills which are uniquely human.

Wood Wide Web in Ancient Woodlands

Our collaboration with WWF aims to encourage young people to look at our damaged world through new lenses. By discovering and developing these kind of life skills, the next generation will be better equipped to plan for a positive future — a future which requires them to work alongside nature — and influence decision makers so that collectively we respect the needs of the planet. We hope Future Visions will demonstrate that through innovative creative activity, young people can devise original ways of tackling big challenges, expressing their opinions, conclusions and proposals persuasively. Robert Gildon at Cheriton Primary School

Susan Hamilton Director of Learning, The Grange Festival

“ STEAM education is the ‘who & why’, the reasoning, to the ‘what & how’ of STEM education” Georgette Yakman

Photos © Leela Bennett

Founding researcher and creator of STEAM Education

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Photos © Leela Bennett

F U T U R E V ISION S

EDUCATION DONORS Peter & Valerie Bedford David & Elizabeth Benson Nic & Maureen Bentley Simon and Rebecca Bladon Mrs Charles H Brown Peter & Jane Clarke Oliver Colman Carl Cullingford The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust The Dyers Company The Four Lanes Trust Tom and Sarah Floyd Martin & Jacky Gillie Peter and Morag James Stephen & Miriam Kramer Oscar & Margaret Lewisohn Anthony and Fiona Littlejohn Nigel and Anna McNair Scott Antony & Alison Milford Patrick Mitford-Slade

Ian & Jane Morrison Tim and Therese Parker Colin and Judy Patrick Michael and Cathy Pearman Jonathan and Gillian Pickering Ernst & Elisabeth Piech Jane and Hugh Powlett The R&I Pilkington Trust Dr Martin Read & Dr Marian Gilbart Read Alan Sainer James & Judy Scott The Seawall Trust Sophie Service Olivia Talbot Sir Tom & Lady Troubridge Peter & Sarah Vey Clare Williams The Woodward Charitable Trust The Wottingers

CORPORATE SPONSORS

Provident Financial

Phillips Solicitors

Lane Monnington Welton Accountants

Barings

Olympia Auctions

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The Challenge

WWF’s vision is for a future in which people and nature thrive together. Saving the planet from environmental crisis is not just about ending or scaling back the human activities that we now know are unsustainable. It is about shaping a different world — one that is in balance with nature. We know that change is necessary, but what the future looks like is not yet defined, and the generation living through the transition to a sustainable society will get to play a key role in shaping this new world. New frontiers of innovation, technology, creativity and exploration will open up as priorities shift and entrenched systems are forced to change, and our greatest hope is a generation of young people approaching the future with optimism, imagination, ambition and creativity.

Ancient Woodlands © WWF

Change brings opportunity, and the result could be a more beautiful, fairer and healthier world for all of us. WWF’s Future Visions challenge aims to inspire and equip young people to imagine the future they would like to work towards, so that they can call for the actions and commitments needed from leaders to achieve it, and approach the challenges to come in the next decade of transition with optimism and a clear sense of their own role in driving the change. Everyone at WWF is excited to see the creative visions of the future shared by the young participants in the Learning@TheGrange workshops, and to share them with decision-makers and the public to focus attention on the potential for a bright future, and the importance of supporting young people to drive, and thrive in, this new world.

Matt Larsen-Daw Education Manager, WWF Above: The Amazon © Nigel Dickinson / WWF Right: African grasslands © Martin Harvey

BBC South News interviewing students from Everest Community Academy © Leela Bennett

F U T U R E V ISION S

“ Change brings opportunity, and the result could be a more beautiful, fairer and healthier world for all of us” Matt Larsen-Daw Education Manager, WWF

Above: Pantanal Wetlands © Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance is proud to support The Grange Festival.

www.cliffordchance.com

Like The Grange Festival, we bring talented people together to achieve something exceptional. Wishing you a wonderful festival.

Proud to support The Grange Festival Barclays supports the continuing partnership between industry and the arts.

A Backdrop for your Imagination www.thegrangehampshire.co.uk 01962 779668 | julia@thegrangehampshire.co.uk

FOR A WORLD-CLASS FESTIVAL, A WORLD-CLASS SPARKLING WINE

INVESTING TO SECURE TOMORROW Sarasin & Partners are delighted to support The Grange Festival Bespoke global investment portfolios for private clients, charities and trustees. For more information please contact Stephen Rothwell at stephen.rothwell@sarasin.co.uk or on +44 (0)20 7038 7015. www.sarasinandpartners.com

If you are a private investor, you should not act or rely on this document but should contact your professional advisor. Please note that the value of shares and the income from them can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested. This can be a result of market movements and also of variations in the exchange rates between currencies. Sarasin & Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC329859 and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. © 2021 Sarasin & Partners LLP – all rights reserved.

COMPOSED C R E AT I V E PERFORMANCE W H O K N E W A RT I ST S A N D FUND M A NAGERS HAD S O M U C H I N CO M M ON?

At Guinness Asset Management, our team of global managers take a composed, creative approach to building equally weighted equity portfolios. We are delighted to support everyone involved in producing The Grange Festival. Enjoy the performance.

guinnessfunds.com 020 7222 5703 all calls will be recorded info@guinnessfunds.com

Past perfomance is not a guide to future returns. The value of your investment and any income arising from it can fall as well as rise as a result of market and currency fluctuations. You may not get back the amount you invested. Guinness Asset Management Ltd. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (223077).

KIRKER MUSIC HOLIDAYS FOR DISCERNING TRAVELLERS It has been a long wait, but we are delighted to be able to support the return of live performances at The Grange this summer, and we are looking forward to returning to some of our favourite opera and music events around the UK, Europe and beyond later this year. One of the highlights of every autumn is the start of the Glyndebourne Tour in October, whilst the Metropolitan Opera in New York is a great treat for any opera-lover and has a fabulous programme in store for the coming season. We look forward to welcoming you on a Kirker Music Holiday – or perhaps an independent short break to one of Europe’s great cities, with tickets for an opera arranged by the Kirker Concierge – very soon.

Italian Baroque Music in Eastbourne

LA SERENISSIMA:

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA & ART GALLERIES OF NEW YORK

A THREE NIGHT HOLIDAY | 22 FEBRUARY 2022 Our first holiday with La Serenissima in Eastbourne has already sold out for October, so we have persuaded them to join us again in February 2022 for a second weekend of Baroque music at the elegant Grand Hotel. Founded by violinist Adrian Chandler in 1994, La Serenissima is an award-winning Baroque ensemble who perform works by an array of composers from the 18th century, particularly those with links to Vivaldi and Venice. Based at the splendid Grand Hotel, which has hosted Debussy, Elgar, Dame Nellie Melba and many others, we will enjoy a muscal short break in comfort and style. Price from £1,298 (single supp. £180) for three nights including accommodation with breakfast, three dinners, three concerts and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.

FIVE NIGHT HOLIDAYS | 30 NOVEMBER 2021, 19 APRIL & 24 MAY 2022 We are looking forward to returning to one of the world’s greatest opera houses and have planned three visits to the long-awaited 2021/2022 season, with performances by some of the world’s leading opera singers. In addition to the opera, we will visit museums and galleries including the Metropolitan, the MOMA, where we enjoy a private visit before the crowds arrive, and the Frick Collection. We stay at the Hotel Empire (4*), located just across the street from the Lincoln Center, and a couple of minutes’ walk from the Met. Price from £3,098 (Nov, single supp. £698), £2,886 (Apr, single supp £550) or £2,844 (May, single supp. £598) for five nights including accommodation on a room only basis, two dinners, tickets for three operas (two are included for the May departure), all sightseeing, entrance fees and gratuities and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.

AUTUMN AT GLYNDEBOURNE THREE NIGHT HOLIDAYS | 11, 15 & 25 OCTOBER 2021 AT DEANS PLACE, ALFRISTON 29 OCTOBER 2021 AT THE GRAND, EASTBOURNE The opening of the annual Glyndebourne Tour at its Sussex home is one of the highlights of the autumn: a perfect treat for all opera lovers. This year’s operas include Mariame Clement’s much-loved production of Don Pasquale by Donizetti, The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky, with David Hockney’s set designs, and Frederic Wake-Walker’s new production of Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera. You can choose from four holidays this October: three based at Deans Place Hotel, located in the historic and picturesque village of Alfriston surrounded by the rolling South Downs, and one based at The Grand Hotel in Eastbourne. Each holiday includes tickets for two performances at Glyndebourne, apart from 25 October, when we will take in all three productions on consecutive evenings. Prices are per person and include three nights accommodation with breakfast, three dinners, tickets for performances as described, two pre-performance lectures and the services of a Kirker Tour Escort.

11 OCTOBER Deans Place, Alfrison

15 OCTOBER Deans Place, Alfrison

25 OCTOBER Deans Place, Alfrison

29 OCTOBER The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne

Don Pasquale Fidelio

Fidelio Don Pasquale

Fidelio The Rake’s Progress

Price from £1,055 (single supp. £240)

Don Pasquale Fidelio The Rake’s Progress Price from £1,155 (single supp. £240)

Speak to an expert or request a brochure:

020 7593 2284 www.kirkerholidays.com

Price from £1,055 (single supp. £240)

WORLD-CLASS OPERA IN THE COTSWOLDS JUNE – AUGUST 2022 WAGNER SIEGFRIED BIZET CARMEN KORNGOLD DIE TOTE STADT (THE DEAD CITY)

Emerging Artist double bill:

FREYA WALEY-COHEN

SPELL BOOK

FRANCESCA CACCINI

LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA (THE LIBERATION OF RUGGIERO FROM THE ISLAND OF ALCINA)

THE COMPANY THAT BROKE THE MOULD FOR SUMMER OPERA Spectator

lfo.org.uk | 01451 830292 Near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 0QF

VAUGHAN We are delighted to support The Grange Festival

www.vaughandesigns.com

Lauren Cuthbertson of The Royal Ballet

WWW.KIKI.CO.UK 12 SYMONS STREET, LONDON, SW3 2TJ +44 (0) 20 7730 3323

24-06-2021

PROUDLY SUPPORTING THE GRANGE FESTIVAL 2021

A tradition of producing distinctly English sparkling and still white wines www.danebury.com Tel. 01264 781851

ENGLISH HERITAGE WISHES THE GRANGE FESTIVAL ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SEASON We hope that you enjoy the world-class opera in this remarkable historic setting. To help keep the story of England alive and ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy inspiring experiences in the places where history happened, please visit: english-heritage.org.uk/support-us

The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a company, no. 07447221, registered in England.

The Grange Festival, 2019 © Leela Bennett

Albert Herring, 2017 © Robert Workman

One of our volunteers taking part in the Like/Unlike warm-up, Education@TheGrange, © Leela Bennett

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

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T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Ways to support us

Festival Founders

The Grange Festival exists to bring the inspiration of the performing arts to The Grange in Hampshire. Year-round we also work in our community with a programme of outreach and education that is featured in detail elsewhere in this programme. Inspiring music lovers of the future and supporting young artists in the early years of their careers are an important part of our work. The fundamental objectives are to be world class in all we do, and to be sustainable over the long term.

It is the Festival Founders who will help secure the brightest of futures for our theatre as we evolve into a hub of cultural excellence, attracting an audience from around the globe.

Ticket sales cover half of the annual income we require leaving us to raise in excess of £1.3m each year. There are many ways in which we can be generously supported.

Founders are invited to develop a bespoke and ongoing relationship with The Grange Festival and all its varied artistic activities. We hope you will join us and take this unique opportunity to be a part of this journey.

SAMWELL FOUNDER

£100,000

Benefit Price £1770 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £98,230

In 1665 William Samwell is commissioned to design the original red brick mansion. Tax efficient giving means this can cost the donor just £55,797

WILKINS FOUNDER

£50,000

Benefit Price £1770 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £48,230

In c1804 William Wilkins turns the Samwell house into a Greek Temple. Tax efficient giving means this can cost the donor just £28,297

COCKERELL FOUNDER

£25,000

Benefit Price £1,080 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £23,920

In c1823 Charles Cockerell builds the orangery as a Greek Temple. Tax efficient giving means this can cost the donor just £14,236

S E A S ON P RO G R A M M E 2 0 21

Please Become a Festival Friend Our annual Festival Friends underpin each festival and are essential to sustaining the high quality of our operas. Friends have access to priority booking and play a crucial part in making the Festival happen. Ticket income covers only half of the cost of each production, so we depend on our Friends’ generosity to fill the gap. After this challenging year, we hope our Friends will continue to be as generous as they can in supporting us. Please spread the word — we can never have too many friends. All our Friends enjoy Priority Booking and all donations are acknowledged in the Festival programme. All Friends levels expire at the end of July each year.

THE SWEET SPOT

£5,000

Every stage has that unique place that projects the voice perfectly and produces a quality of sound to tickle the hairs on the back of your neck. Benefit Price £100 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £4900

£2,500

THE LIMELIGHT

Before electricity, theatres produced intense light by directing a flame at a cylinder of quicklime. Benefit Price £80 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £2420

THE PROMPT CORNER

£1,000

Every theatre needs one. Without this, it may not be alright on the night. Benefit Price £50 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £950

£500

THE ROSTRUM The birds eye view and position of power guiding orchestra with a flick of the wrist.

Benefit Price £33 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £467

£250

THE WINGS

It’s all happening here in the secret, silent world. Prop tables are ready, quick changes are prepared, the crew are primed, the cast are awaiting their cues. Benefit Price £25 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £225

£40

THE FOOTLIGHTS The original theatre lighting: once upon a time as candles, now used as a special effect.

Benefit Price £7.50 | Suggested Voluntary Donation £32.50

THE HIGHFLYERS

(18–35s only)

£10

Traditional Scenery operators worked on the fly walks high above the stage. Benefit Price £10

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Other Ways To Help Us FESTIVAL PEACOCKS — LEGACIES AT THE GRANGE FESTIVAL Have you enjoyed your summer evenings at The Grange? If you have, perhaps you might consider supporting us through a legacy in your will. It is a highly tax efficient way to help us ensure that The Grange Festival thrives and our constant work to instil a love of creativity and music in our community and in our schools continues to flourish. You will be making something wonderful happen each year. The gloriously vibrant peacock is the ancient symbol of immortality. We invite you to become a Festival Peacock. You will be named on a seat in the auditorium and will be listed each year in the programme. Your gift will ensure that this very special theatre continues to inspire artists and audiences for generations to come. Legacies can be made by way of a gift or cash, shares or property and your solicitor can advise you about writing your will. As we are a charity (no. 1165859), no inheritance tax is payable on your gift. This is an effective way of reducing your tax liability whilst also helping a favourite and important endeavour.

CORPS DE BALLET PIONEERS AND NEW COMMISSION FUND Bringing world class Dance and Ballet to this romantic corner of Hampshire is a unique and important development. We are seeking Corps de Ballet Pioneers to help us: a group of generous individuals who will be at the start of something remarkable and be part of its development. Commitment to something new and imaginative like this, which promises to become a high-profile part of the national performing arts scene, is philanthropy with far-reaching consequences in an appropriately inspiring setting. Suggested gifts from £5000

EDUCATION FUND We focus on two areas. First, we offer a range of scholarships and assistant roles to help develop young talent in all those areas of expertise that go into staging a show — singers, conductors and behind the scenes technicians. Secondly, we are working with many schools delivering creative projects during the year that take pupils beyond the confines of the school curriculum. We are currently working in schools and educational organisations on a creative project leading up to COP26 this autumn. Up to 250 children will be invited to consider the challenges of climate change, the future of their planet and how we can live better in harmony with nature. Their creative ideas will be expressed in songs of their own devising that will be filmed and submitted to COP26. Much more about this project can be found on pages 14 –19. We seek gifts of all sizes

CORPORATE SUPPORT We invite companies to support a production or sponsor a single performance during the season. The Grange is an astonishingly beautiful setting and we take great care to ensure any visit you make is perfect from the moment you arrive. Support comes with a range of opportunities. We will even bring a singer to your Christmas or Summer Party.

NAME A SEAT This is a perfect way to acknowledge your appreciation of the theatre or recognise someone else who has loved this place. Your gift will be acknowledged with a plaque of your wording on the seat. Suggested gift according to seating area £250, £500 and £1000

SPONSOR A SINGER OR DANCER Your support for a particular role of your choice enables us to cast performers of the highest standard and makes a real contribution to the overall production. If you would like to hear more about any of these initiatives please contact Rachel Pearson, Director of Development. Email: rachel@thegrangefestival.co.uk Tel: 01962 792201 / 01962 791020

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International Friends of The Grange Festival In March 2019 a group from The Grange Festival arrived in New York to launch American Friends of The Grange Festival. Our first recital was generously hosted by Michele Beiny Harkins and was followed by masterclasses and auditions held by Michael Chance and Gerald Martin Moore. Two years later, with the invaluable pro bono work of Brown Rudnick and the tireless efforts of Sarah Baker, our Executive Director in the USA, the American Friends of The Grange Festival is now registered as a nonprofit in the State of Connecticut. (All donations are tax deductible for USA taxpayers to the full extent allowed by law.)

We now have an accomplished and enthusiastic Board of Trustees and Advisory Board (see page 120). They will work on special projects, supporting our mission for a strong cross-cultural relationship between the US and Great Britain, especially continuing to support artistic mentoring, masterclasses and co-productions. In 2022, we have two special projects: an exciting co-production with a leading American opera house and From Blues to Rhapsody, with 23Arts Initiative. Please let us know if you are interested in what we are doing, or if you would like to become an American Friends member. Please contact: In the USA — Sarah J Baker Executive Director, American Friends of The Grange Festival +1(212)316-5757 sarah@thegrangefestival.co.uk In the UK — Rachel Pearson, Director of Development, The Grange Festival 01962 791020 rachel@thegrangefestival.co.uk

The Grange Festival in Hong Kong With the tireless support of Rumiko Hasegawa and Sonia Ponnusamy, we continue to grow our network of Friends in Hong Kong and welcome more visitors to the Festival every summer. This winter we shall further cement our collaboration with a screening of a cutting edge production of La Bohème produced by Rumiko and her energetic company More than Musical. Our ambition to continue our activity in Hong Kong has been interrupted by Covid, but plans will be made once again when international travel is easier.

For more information about becoming an International Friend of The Grange Festival please contact Rachel Pearson, Director of Development — 01962 791020 rachel@thegrangefestival.co.uk

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

Founders of The Grange Festival COCKERELL FOUNDERS

SAMWELL FOUNDERS Sarah & Tony Bolton The Linbury Trust Delfont Mackintosh Theatres

WILKINS FOUNDERS Richard & Rosamund Bernays David & Simone Caukill Bernard & Caroline Cazenove Malcolm and Sarah Le May Joe & Minnie MacHale Richard & Chrissie Morse Tim & Thérèse Parker Michael & Cathy Pearman Sir Simon & Lady Robertson Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement Richard & Cynthia Thompson and Anonymous Donors

John & Claudia Arney Jamie & Carolyn Balfour Mark & Sophie Baring Robin & Anne Baring Glynne & Sarah Benge Daniel & Alison Benton Sophie Boden Simon & Sally Borrows Anthony & Sarah Boswood Robert & Fiona Boyle Claudia Langdon & Janie Cadbury Sir Euan Calthorpe Bt William & Kathryn Charnley Sir Vernon & Lady Ellis Catherine & Jon Ferrier Mr & Mrs James Fisher Tom & Sarah Floyd Susie, Katie, Anna, Christina & Hwfa Gwyn Sir Charles & Lady Haddon-Cave Rumiko Hasegawa James & Rhona Hatchley Sheelin & John Hemsley Malcolm Herring Charles & Catherine Hindson Herman & Claire Hintzen Roger & Kate Holmes Adrian Hope David & Patricia Houghton Howard & Anne Hyman Andrew & Caroline Joy Owen & Jane Jonathan J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust Thomas & Alexandra Loyd The Peter & Elisabetta Mallinson Trust Simon & Nathalie Marshall-Lockyer Nigel & Anna McNair Scott Joanna & Luke Meynell Patrick Mitford-Slade William & Francheska Pattisson Mark & Rachel Pearson Lord & Lady Phillimore Ernst & Elisabeth Piech John & Erica Simpson Graeme & Sue Sloan Dr Helmut & Anna Sohmen Judy & Graham Staples Tim & Charlotte Syder The Stevenston Trust Lou & John Verrill Andrew and Tracy Wickham and Anonymous Donors

SMIRKE FOUNDERS Peter & Rosemary Andreae David & Elizabeth Benson Anthony & Consuelo Brooke Rex & Sarah Chester Ina De & James Spicer Domenica Dunne Alastair & Robina Farley For Elise Peter & Judith Foy Malcolm Herring Peter & Sue Holland George & Janette Hollingbery Graham & Amanda Hutton David & Penny Kempton Tammy Lavarello Charles & Sue Marriott James & Caroline Masterton Martin & Caroline Moore Mr & Mrs Jonathan Moseley Colin Murray Mr & Mrs Roger Phillimore Jonathan & Gillian Pickering Bianca & Stuart Roden Giles & Sue Schofield David & Alexandra Scholey Sophie Service Paul & Rita Skinner The Band Trust Peter Tilley Esq Alan & Alison Titchmarsh Lucy & Michael Vaughan Mr & Mrs Hady Wakefield and Anonymous Donors

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COX FOUNDERS Bill & Boo Andrewes Tony & Chris Ashford Isla Baring OAM Tom & Gay Bartlam Beaulieu Beaufort Foundation Simon & Rebecca Bladon Simon & Julia Boadle Anthony & Sarah Boswood Michael & Belinda Boyd Britwell Trust Julian & Jenny Cazalet Julia Chute Colwinston Charitable Trust Henrietta Corbett Corin & Richard Cotton Carl Cullingford Edward & Antonia Cumming-Bruce The de Brye Charitable Trust Michael & Anthea Del Mar Mrs Marveen Flack Gamlen Charitable Trust The Golden Bottle Trust Roger & Victoria Harrison Richard & Frances Hoare Lucy Holmes Andrew & Kay Hunter Johnston Howard & Anne Hyman

John & Sara Jervoise Max & Caroline Jonas Ralph & Patricia Kanter Morgan & Georgie Krone Virginia & Alan Lovell William & Felicity Mather Dr & Mrs Jonathan Moore Annette Oakes The Ogilvie Thompson Family Kevin Pakenham David & Sarah Parker Deborah & Clive Parritt The Countess of Portsmouth Richard & Iona Priestley George & Veronique Seligman Rebecca Shelley Brian Spiby Fiona & Geoff Squire OBE Clare & Richard Staughton The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation Robert & Tiggy Sutton Alison & Simon Taylor Peter & Nancy Thompson The Worshipful Company of Dyers The Wykeham Gallery and Anonymous Donors

CORPORATE FOUNDERS Accsys Group Artemis Investment Management Cazenove Capital Charles Stanley Wealth Managers Country Life Hawksmoor Investment Management Hiscox Hunters Solicitors IG Group Meggitt PLC Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Sarasin & Partners Stifel The Zygos Partnership

FOUNDING ADVERTISERS Adam Architecture Architectural Plants Burrells Chalke Valley History Festival Christies Danebury Vineyards Dorset Opera Festival English Heritage Farrow & Ball Gosset Champagne Jamb Kirker Music Holidays Lime Wood Hotel Longborough Festival Opera Martin & Company Moda Rosa Opus Ottoman Silks Pathé News Provident Financial Regents Park Open Air Theatre Saffery Champness Stone, Vine & Sun Wine Merchants Taylor Fladgate The Grange Estate West Green Opera

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

2020 Friends of The Grange Festival THE SWEET SPOT Peter & Rosemary Andreae Nigel Beale & Anthony Lowrey The George Cadbury Foundation Claudia Langdon & Janie Cadbury The Parker Family George & Veronique Seligman Brian Spiby

THE LIMELIGHT Nick & Sarah Allan Robert & Caroline Bordeaux-Groult Mrs Charles H Brown Julian & Jenny Cazalet Simon & Noni de Zoete Rupert & Robin Hambro Mrs Simon Holmes Lady Plastow Rupert & Milly Soames Robin & Sarah Thorne Marion Wake Mr & Mrs Craig Wilson

THE PROMPT CORNER Charles & Clare Alexander The Hon Mrs Susan Baring OBE Geoffrey Barnett Peter & Valerie Bedford Julian & Jane Benson Anthony & Emma Bird Jonathan & Karen Bourne-May Lord & Lady Bridges Mark Burrows Tom Busher & Elizabeth Benson Bernard & Caroline Cazenove Rex & Sarah Chester John & June Chichester Julia Chute Sir Christopher & the Reverend Lady Clarke Peter & Jane Clarke Oliver Colman Pru de Lavison The Viscount Dilhorne & Professor S J Eykyn FRCS FRCP FRCPath Howard & Donna Dyer Jonathan & Tessa Gaisman Lindsey Gardener Clare & Fergus Gilmour David & Bridget Glasgow Scott & Caroline Greenhalgh Richard & Judy Haes Jenny Hodgson Malcolm & Mary Hogg Linda & Peter Hollins Gordon & Francesca Horsfield Mrs Sue Humphrey Nicholas & Jeremy Ralph & Patricia Kanter Diane Katsiaficas

Mr & Mrs Patrick Hofmann David & Mary Laing Anne Longden Mr & Mrs Jean-Paul Luksic Lyon Family Charitable Trust John & Pat Marden William & Felicity Mather Ian & Clare Maurice John & Alison Mayne The McLaren Trust Peter & Brigid McManus Antony & Alison Milford Dr & Mrs Jonathan Moore Michelle Nevers & Nathan Moss Guy & Sarah Norrie Peter & Poppity Nutting Nick & Julie Parker Anthony & Val Pitt-Rivers The Countess of Portsmouth Jill & Michael Pullan Chrissie Quayle Neil & Julie Record Merv & Fenella Rees The Hon Philip Remnant CBE Stephen Riley & Victoria Burch Kristina Rogge Alicia Salter Ginny & Richard Salter James & Judy Scott Nigel Silby Brigitte & Martin Skan Chris & Lisa Spooner Mrs K A Storm Peter & Sarah Vey Mr Niko Vidovich Katherine & Ted Wake Johanna Waterous CBE & Roger Parry CBE William & Madeline Wilks Mary Rose & Charles Wood

THE ROSTRUM Antoinette Albert David & Jane Anderson Lord & Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom Mrs Rupert Beaumont Bob & Elisabeth Boas Longina Boczon Graham & Julia Bourne Mrs Sheila Gay Bradley Julie Bradshaw Viscount & Viscountess Bridgeman Dr Douglas & Mrs Susan Bridgewater Penny & Robin Broadhurst Robin & Jill Broadley Adam & Sarah Broke Hugh & Sue Brown Peter & Pamela Bulfield Anthony Bunker Geoffrey Burnand Mrs Maurice Buxton Peter & Auriol Byrne Jane, Countess of Clarendon Ian Clarkson & Richard Morris, & David Morris Dr & Mrs Peter Collins Dr Neville Conway Anthony Cooke David & Nikki Cowley Johnny & Liz Cowper-Coles Lin & Ken Craig Lady Curtis John & Susan Curtis Anthony Davis Baron & Baroness de Styrcea Patrick & Nikki Despard Dr Graham & Janna Dudding Christopher & Jenny Duffett David & Jennie Wilson Felicity Fairbairn Simon & Hilke Fisher Michael FitzGerald Jonathan & Julia Flory Tim & Rosie Forbes Geoffrey & Elizabeth Fuller Ms Jillian Ede & David Brooks Gendron Mr & Mrs W Gething Martin & Jacky Gillie Jenny Gove Jane & Charlie Graham Mr Robin & The Hon Mrs Greenwood Tim & Jenny Guerrier Max & Catherine Hadfield Allyson Hall Edward & Rosie Harford Wendell & Andrea Harris Mr & Mrs Julian Harvey Rob & Anne Heather Jenny & Bill Helfrecht Michael & Geneviève Higgin Christopher & Jo Holdsworth Hunt David & Mal Hope-Mason Stephen Howis Margi & Mike Jennings

Nigel & Cathy Johnson-Hill Michael & Julia Kerby Stephen & Miriam Kramer Liz & Roger Kramers Dr Hugh Laing Mr & Mrs Bill Lawes Roger & Natalie Lee Mrs Roger Liddiard Derek & Susie Lintott Gussy, the Theatre Cat Lord & Lady Lupton Ian & Jane Macnabb Chris & Clem Martin Fairhurst Estates Colin Menzies Brian & Bernadette Metters Mr & Mrs Hallam Mills Kate & Malcolm Moir Diana & Nigel Morris Ian & Jane Morrison David & Angela Moss Mr & Mrs John Muncey Roy & Carole Oldham Lavinia & Nick Owen Peter & Sue Paice John A Paine Mary-Vere & Jeremy Parr Erik Penser Caroline Perry Robin & Clarkie Petherick Mr & Mrs J Pinna-Griffith John & Elizabeth Platt John & Judy Polak Hugh Priestley Anthony & Trish Proctor Catherine Rainey John Raymond Xavier & Alicia Robert James & Lygo Roberts Miles & Vivian Roberts Peter Rosenthal Julian & Catherine Roskill Dr Angela Gallop CBE & Mr David Russell Ginny & Richard Salter Charles & Caroline Scott Alex & So Scott-Barrett Thomas & Phillis Sharpe Diane & Christopher Sheridan J R Slater David & Di Sommerville Unni Spiller Caroline Steane Mr & Mrs Nicholas Stranks Ron Sullam Tom & Rosamond Sweet-Escott Jeremy H Taylor & Raye Ward Mr & Mrs P M Thomas David & Sarah Thomas George & Lucinda Tindley John & Pauline Tremlett Sir Tom & Lady Troubridge Clive & Tessa Tulloch Kelsey & Rosemary van Musschenbroek Sandra & Paul Walker David & Meriel Walton Bonnie Ward Baroness Warwick Andrew & Tracy Wickham Clare Williams Nicholas & Penny Wilson Louise Woods

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THE WINGS Dr Stewart Abbott Philippa Abell Daphne Alderson Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg Clive Anscott Phillip Arnold, Philip Baldwin & Ann Andrews Charles & Victoria Arthur Mary & Julian Ashby Dr Richard Ashton Julie & Keith Attfield Dr Simon Bailey Mrs Caroline Barber Nicholas & Diana Baring Cara & Oliver Barnes Robin Barton Paul & Janet Batchelor Val & Christopher Bateman Anne Beckwith-Smith Drs Peter & Beatrice Bennett Dr Rebecca & Mr Andrew Berkley Adrian Berrill-Cox Mike & Sarah Bignell Barry & Mary Blacker Annabel & Alverne Bolitho Neville & Rowena Bowen Charles & Patricia Brims Alison & Michel Brindle QC Michael & Val Brodrick Tony & Mo Brooking George Brown & Alison Calver Finn Bruce The Buchler family Mark Burch Jo & Geoffrey Burnaby Martin & Sarah Burton Richard Butler Adams Sandra Carlisle & Angus Carlill Belinda & Jason Chaffer Suzie Chesham Lord & Lady Chidgey Monique Clowes Maria Cobbe John & Suzanne Coke Michael & Virginia Collett

Prof Richard Collin Gill Collymore Mrs Jonathan Cooke Diana Cornish Morella & Robert Cottam Jenefer Coulton Peter & Carole Cregeen Julia & Stephen Crompton Paul & Edwina Curtis Hayward Christine Curzon Lewis Josh & Anna Dale-Harris Peter & Pamela Davidson Anne & Jonathan Dawson Sir John & Lady de Trafford Mrs Elizabeth Dean Linda & Hugo Deschampsneufs Robert & Caroline Dixon Hugh & Christina Dumas Cathy Dumelow Mrs Saskia Dunlop Christina & Andrew Dykes Sir James Eadie Clive & Alison Earl Paul & Pauline Eaton Ken & Sheena Eaton James Ekins Robert & Mary Elkington Julia P Ellis Martin & Eugenia Ephson Alun & Bridget Evans Mike & Rebecca Everett John Farr Mr & Mrs Graham Ferguson Nicholas & Jane Ferguson The Fischer Fund Andrew & Lucinda Fleming J A Floyd Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs John Foster Lindsay & Robin Fox Sir Robert & Lady Francis Rod & Marie Franks Andrea Frears Alan & Valerie Frost Anton Gabszewicz & Mark Gutteridge Paul & Sarah Galloway Joanna Gibbon Michael & Diane Gibbons

Brett & Caroline Gill Bruce & Karin Ginsberg Philippa & Charlie Goodall Susie Grandfield Richard & Marguerite Griffith-Jones Alistair & Jenny Groom Felicity Guinness & Simon Ricketts Catherine & Stephen Hackett Martin & The Hon Mrs Haitham Taylor Rachel & John Hannyngton Susanna Hardman Keith & Sarah Jane Haydon Maggie Heath Mrs Susan Hebeler John & Catherine Hickman Sarah & Rupert Hill Will & Janine Hillary Mr & Mrs I F Hodgson Daniel & Diana Hodson H R Holland Jonathan Holliday & Gwen Lewis Lizzie Holmes Denzil & Kate How Billy & Heather Howard The Howmans Bart & Carole Huby Iain & Claudia Hughes Robert Hugill & David Hughes David & Wendy Hunter Andrew & Juliet Huntley Barnabas & Campie Hurst-Bannister Moira Jackson Allan & Rachel James Peter & Morag James John & Jan Jarvis Anthony Johnson & Terence Drew Rupert Johnson & Alexandra Macdonald-Smith Scot & Sally Johnston Penelope Kellie John & Jennifer Kelly Martin & Philippa Kelway-Bamber Jocelyn Kennard Dinah Kennedy Martin & Clare Knight Dr & Mrs Stephen Knights Peter & Beth Lamb John & Joanna Lang Simon & Sarah Lavers David & Caroline Lentaigne Nicky Levy Anthony & Fiona Littlejohn

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L Kiereen & Nicholas Lock James & Susie Long Mrs Fiona Lunch Sue MacKenzie-Charrington Pamela & Peter Macklin Mr & Mrs JJ Macnamara Emma MacNaughten Bill & Sue Main Mrs Jennifer Makins Harry & Emma Matovu Professor Sean McConville & Sally James Anthony & Sarah McWhirter Nigel & Maria Melville Sarah & David Melville Judith & Theo Mezger Paul & Emily Michael David & Alison Moore-Gwyn Christopher Morcom QC & Mrs Diane Morcom Simon & Fiona Mortimore Wilsons Solicitors LLP Nina & Gary Moss Charles & Martie Nicholson Lady (Bridget) Nixon Steve Norris Lord & Lady Northbrook John & Dianne Norton Carol Orchard Colin & Rosalind Osmer Robin Pauley Lucy Pease Richard & Michelle Pelly Ed & Sarah Peppiatt Jeremy & Bryony Pett Laura & Hayden Phillips Hew & Jean Pike David & Christina Pitman Professor Postma Charles & Catherine Powell Nigel & Vicky Prescot Dr Victoria Preston Tony & Etta Pullinger Christopher & Phillida Purvis Jane & Douglas Rae Dr Martin Read & Dr Marian Gilbart Read Tineke Dales Christopher & Sheila Richards April, Lady Rivett-Carnac James & Catharine Robertson Annie Robertson Michael & Charlotte Robinson

Alan Sainer Simon & Abigail Sargent Mike Sarson Richard & Jackie Scopes Tom Seabrook Joanna Selborne Hugh & Patricia Sergeant David Shaw Julian & Carolyn Sheffield Rebecca & David Sheppard Jeremy Sillem Jock & Annie Slater Mrs Michael Smart Miriam Smith Dr Anthony & Mrs Daphne Smoker Sir Michael & Lady Snyder Andrew & Jill Soundy Rosemary & Michael Steen John & Margo Stephens Mr & Mrs Brian Stevens Jeremy & Phyllida Stoke Rosie Sturgis Tom & Jo Taylor Jeremy H Taylor & Raye Ward Stephen Tedbury & Loveday Shewell Mr & Mrs Roger ter Haar The Tesolin Family Hugh & Sandy Thomas Elaine & James Tickell Sarah Tillie Professor & Mrs Glyn Tonge Sir David & Lady Verey Roger Vignoles Rupert & Vicki Villers Guy & Fizzy Warren Sonia & Kevin Watson Georgina Wells & Ruben Bhagobati Mr & Mrs Graham J West Angela Wheeler Tony & Fiona White Peter & Alexandra White Hamish & Elisabeth Williams Keith & Keren Williams Penelope Williams Peter & Lissa Wilson Jilly Wise William & Celia Witts Richard & Noely Worthington John Wynne-Williams Paul & Sybella Zisman

THE FOOTLIGHTS Adam-Germain William Giles Allen The Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg Dr Martin T Anthony Mrs Claire Baker Patricia Ball Caroline Barber Mr & Mrs David Barrow Mr & Mrs Simon Barrow Mr & Mrs Bartholomew Sefi Carolyn & Michael Bartlett Anthony Bateman Carol Blacker Charles & Ann Bonney David & Diana Briggs Mr & Mrs J M Britton Charles & Amanda Bromfield Nick & Sue Brougham The Buchler family Peter Bull Jim Carroll Karina & Max Casini Jeremy & Kate Cave Grandma Chambers Ann Chillingworth Christie Family Adrian & Leanne Clark The Wottingers Henry & Louise Clay Clemson family Adam Cochrane Tim & Liz Coghlan Mrs Laurence Colchester Richard & Verity Coleman Alan & Ceanna Collett Alastair & Elisabeth Colquhoun Bob & Linda Connell David Coplestone Roseanne Corlett Erica & Neil Cosburn Philippa Crosse & Simon Hopkins Jill Cundy & Alan Padbury Mr Peter Davidson Mr & Mrs Jerome Davidson Mike & Suzette Davis

G & J Devlin Carl & Mary Dore Hilary & Rob Douglas Jonathan & Lynn Dowson Louise Duffy Mr Mark Duncan ln memory of Ann Dussek Nicky Ebdon & Alex Rowland Sir Malcolm & Lady Edge Mark & Margaret Edwards Mr & Mrs John Ellard Helen & Michael Etherington Michael & Margaret Ewing Elaine Fear & Sol Mead Mrs Christopher Ferrer Olivia Fetherston-Dilke Ron & Meg Finlayson Giles & ’Wenna Fletcher David & Caroline Floyd Licia Venturi David & Elizabeth French Robert & Ginna Gayner Carol Geddes Anne Giles Dr Asher Giora Ms P Glidewell Jeremy & Phillida Goad Michael Godbee Colin & Letts Goodwin Sam & Jane Gordon Clark Dr Stephen Goss Mr & Mrs M Griffin Garth Hadley Mr & Mrs Tichy Robert & Elizabeth Haldane Dilys Hall John & Margaret Hall Jane Halsey Robert & Gillie Hanbury Rob Harris Design Ltd Peter John Hayman Greg Heath David & Odette Henderson Peter Hildebrand Robin Hodgson Roger Holden Ron Holmes Catherine Hope-MacLellan Colin & Irene House

Tania Houston Derek Cormack & Suzanne Howe Catharina Hunter David Hunter Margaret Hyde OBE Emily Jarman Chris Jefferies Deborah Jeffs Professor & Mrs J Jennings Mrs Charlotte Johnson Sarah & Peter Jones Alison & Jamie Justham Mae Keary Rupert & Anna Kellock Maral Keoshgerian Oliver & Sally Kinsey Simon Kinsey Stephen & Caroline Kirk Miss R Lamont Oliver & Victoria Larminie Jane Lavers Shaun Le Picq Sue Leach Carola & Adam Lee Simon Llewellyn Mr & Mrs T Llewellyn Mr & Mrs H Lloyd V Lowings & B Cozens Barbara Luginbuehl-Sieber Joyce & Michael Lugton Elizabeth Lynam Stephen & Karen MacDonald Louise Matlock Julia Maxlow-Tomlinson Dr Tom McClintock Mr & Mrs James McGill Paul McKeown & Suzanne Everest John McVittie Mr & Mrs P T Mealing Stephen Meldrum Sarah & David Melville Duncan Menzies Elaine Mills, Grange Festival, Octet Sylvia Mills Ian Monier-Williams Stephen & Fiona Murray Sara Nangle Tim Neill Jenny Newall Nicki Oakes-Monger Steven & Hilary Oldham Denise Osborn Sue & Ken Osman Stephen & Isobel Parkinson Colin & Judy Patrick Robert & Carolyn Peers of Alresford Mr & Mrs Penfold Anthony & Sally Pfiffner Carolyn Phillips Geoffrey & Jan Planer The Pont Family Sue & Peter Prag Raymond Sutton & Judith Prickett Mr Edward Priday Mr & Mrs Pugh Stephen Purse Dick & Fiona Rainsbury Mr & Mrs Nick Read

S E A S ON P RO G R A M M E 2 0 21 Andrew Read Jane & Graham Reddish Anne Reynolds Mr Paul Richards & Mrs Karen Richards Dr Lynne Ridler-Wall Nerys Roberts Roger & Geraldine Robinson Ian & Geraldine Robinson Lynda & Michael Rose Richard & Ruth Saunders Peter Saunders Madi & David Laurence Ian & Rosemary Saxton Midsummer Night's Dream Caroline Sheahan Mary & Thoss Shearer Caroline & Mark Silver Christopher & Lucie Sims Angela Sims Philip Slingsby & Hazel Grant Gill & Barry Smith Mr & Mrs Mark Sorby John Stanning Dianne Steele Mr Steensma & Mrs Steensma Bruynesteyn David & Penny Stern Kate Mather Sir John & Lady Stuttard Della & Sheridan Swallow Canon Ron & Dr Celia Swan Dr Jonathan Swanston & Miriam Coley Ian & Belinda Taylor The Tehranians Sue Thomas Nick Thomas & Eleanor Cranmer David & Joanna Thomas Jonathan Thompson Michael & Cara Thomson John & Christine Thornton Di Threlfall Professor Michael & Dame Jenifer Trimble Andrew & Diane Turnbull Dr & Mrs James Turtle Mary Tydeman Oona van den Berg Mark & Rachel Waller Mr & Mrs Walsh Mandy Warnford-Davis Philip & Annie Watson Richard & Judith Watts Judith Wheatley Antonia Whitley The Whittington Family Louise Williams Mrs David Wilson Jane Wood Elizabeth Caroline Woods Sue & Stuart Woodward Mr & Mrs C Wright The Wyatt Family Geoffrey & Frances Yeowart

THE HIGHFLYERS The Rickards Family Charlotte Baly Aurea Baring Flora Baring Fred Baring William Bird Niall Bird Matthew Bradley Mr Thomas Cahill Natalia Chance Lucy Chiswell Olivia Christie Nathaniel Colman Emiliana Damiani Peter Eckersley Claire Floyd Constance Freer-Smith Miss Charlotte Freer-Smith Laurence Habets Ms Ann Catherine Farrer Hartigan Sophie Heard Mr Tyler W Hill Hei Mun Hong Philip Hunter Miss Flora Johnston Sophie Emma Kjellin Victoria Kleiner Kenneth Law WS Harry Le May Thomas Linton Claudia Da Graca Lopes Elizabeth Mallet Ellie Mallet

Miss C Martin Katie May Mrs Julia McMullan Issy Mitchell Isabel Morgan Laura Murphy Heloise Nangle Edward Nangle Tom & Catherine Neal Millie Pardoe Robert & Emily Paul Sebastian Pont Louisa Quarry Esther Randall Oliver Ratcliffe Sebastian Salek Joseph Saxby Amelia Schicht Ellie Sheahan Dr G X J Sherliker Ben Sheron Poppy Skepper Miss India Smyth Drew Steanson Francesco Tesolin Mr Zi Ken Toh Mary Tydeman John Peter White Jr Max Whitehead Eleanor Wilkinson Daniel & Thomas Wilkinson-Horsfield Phoebe Withrington Miss Woods

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

2020 Festival Birds When we were staring into the abyss in March and April 2020, all those many who had already bought tickets for the Festival came to our rescue in a timely and deeply moving way. We pledged to record their generosity in the theatre in perpetuity. Here you all are:

NIGHTINGALES Dr Stewart Abbott Philippa Abell Mrs Peter Albertini Daphne Alderson Charles & Clare Alexander Rosemary Alexander Nick & Sarah Allan Dr Gerhard Altmann The Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust Rhian & Tony Amery David & Jane Anderson Peter & Rosemary Andreae Boo & Bill Andrewes Phillip Arnold, Philip Baldwin & Ann Andrews Mark & Sophie Ashburton Mary & Julian Ashby Chris & Tony Ashford M D Austen Dr Simon Bailey Niven Baird Jamie & Carolyn Balfour Patricia Ball Caroline Barber The Hon Mrs Susan Baring OBE The Tait Memorial Trust/ Isla Baring OAM Cara & Oliver Barnes Geoffrey Barnett Robin Barton Paul & Janet Batchelor Richard & Patricia Bayley Nigel Beale & Anthony Lowrey Anne Beckwith-Smith Peter & Valerie Bedford Michele Beiny tbc Christina Belloc Lowndes

Glynne & Sarah Benge David & Elizabeth Benson Nic & Maureen Bentley Daniel & Alison Benton Alice & Paul Beresford Richard & Rosamund Bernays Mike & Sarah Bignell Anthony & Emma Bird Simon & Julia Boadle Bob & Elisabeth Boas Sophie Boden David Bogle Sarah & Tony Bolton Robert & Caroline Bordeaux-Groult Anthony & Sarah Boswood Jonathan & Karen Bourne-May Neville & Rowena Bowen Michael & Belinda Boyd The Hon Robert & Mrs Boyle Viscount & Viscountess Bridgeman Lord & Lady Bridges Charles & Patricia Brims Alison & Michel Brindle QC Penny & Robin Broadhurst Adam & Sarah Broke Consuelo & Anthony Brooke Nick & Sue Brougham Hugh & Sue Brown Mrs Charles H Brown Desmond & Jennifer Browne The Buchler family Peter & Pamela Bulfield Anthony Bunker Geoffrey Burnand Mark Burrows Martin & Sarah Burton Tom Busher & Elizabeth Benson Richard Butler Adams Peter & Auriol Byrne Sandra Carlisle & Angus Carlill David & Simone Caukill

Julian & Jenny Cazalet Bernard & Caroline Cazenove Bernard & Caroline Cazenove Belinda & Jason Chaffer Suzie Chesham Rex & Sarah Chester John & June Chichester Seawall Trust Julian & Josephine Chisholm Julia Chute Sir Christopher & the Reverend Lady Clarke Peter & Jane Clarke Ian Clarkson & Richard Morris, & David Morris Henry & Louise Clay Dr & Mrs Peter & Ros Claydon Tim & Liz Coghlan John & Suzanne Coke Dr & Mrs Peter Collins Gill Collymore Oliver Colman Dr Neville Conway Mrs Jonathan Cooke Sindy & Richard Coppin Diana Cornish Corin & Richard Cotton David & Nikki Cowley Johnny & Liz Cowper-Coles Lin & Ken Craig Peter & Carole Cregeen Julia & Stephen Crompton Carl Cullingford Edward & Antonia Cumming-Bruce Jill Cundy & Alan Padbury Geoffrey & Ingrid Dale Niki & Richard Dale Josh & Anna Dale-Harris Peter & Pamela Davidson Mr & Mrs Jerome Davidson Dame Nicola Davies Anthony Davis Ina De & James Spicer Pru de Lavison Baron & Baroness de Styrcea Sir John & Lady de Trafford Jan & Caryn de Walden Mrs Elizabeth Dean Michael & Anthea Del Mar Linda & Hugo Deschampsneufs Patrick & Nikki Despard G & J Devlin The Viscount Dilhorne & Professor S J Eykyn FRCS FRCP FRCPath Robert & Caroline Dixon

The Wykeham Gallery ln memory of Ann Dussek Howard & Donna Dyer Christina & Andrew Dykes Clive & Alison Earl Paul & Pauline Eaton David & Jennie Wilson Mark & Margaret Edwards David & Julie Edyvean Julia P Ellis Martin & Eugenia Ephson Felicity Fairbairn Robina & Alastair Farley Nicholas & Jane Ferguson Catherine & Jón Ferrier Simon & Hilke Fisher Giles & 'Wenna Fletcher Tom & Sarah Floyd Tim & Rosie Forbes Mr & Mrs John Foster Licia Venturi Lindsay & Robin Fox Peter & Judith Foy Andrea Frears Lucy Taylor, Rebecca Bonini, Amy & Bob Mothershaw, Alexander Barr, Harriet Freer-Smith, Constance Freer-Smith, Nicholas Freer-Smith, Flora Thomas, Florence Kickham, Amy Constant, Yasmin Siabi, Caitlin Griffith John & Joanna French Alan & Valerie Frost Jonathan & Tessa Gaisman Dame Janet & Mr John Gaymer Michael & Diane Gibbons Martin & Jacky Gillie Clare & Fergus Gilmour Dr Asher Giora Anne Glyn Jane & Charlie Graham Scott & Caroline Greenhalgh Mr & Mrs M Griffin Tim & Jenny Guerrier Felicity Guinness & Simon Ricketts Laurence Habets Sir Charles & Lady Haddon-Cave Robert & Elizabeth Haldane Allyson Hall Rupert & Robin Hambro Edward & Rosie Harford Wendell & Andrea Harris Roger Harrison James & Rhona Hatchley Keith & Sarah Jane Haydon Sheelin & John Hemsley

David & Odette Henderson John & Catherine Hickman Will & Janine Hillary Charles & Catherine Hindson Dr Alan Hoaksey Mr & Mrs I F Hodgson Robin Hodgson Jenny Hodgson Daniel & Diana Hodson Malcolm & Mary Hogg Christopher & Jo Holdsworth Hunt Peter & Sue Holland The Hollingbery Family Linda & Peter Hollins Roger & Kate Holmes Holmes Family Ron Holmes David & Wendy Hunter Barnabas & Campie Hurst-Bannister Nicholas & Deborah Hutchen Graham & Amanda Hutton Margaret Hyde OBE John & Jan Jarvis Martin & Sandra Jay Anthony Johnson & Terence Drew Nigel & Cathy Johnson-Hill Owen & Jane Jonathan Andrew & Caroline Joy Ralph & Patricia Kanter Diane Katsiaficas Martin & Philippa Kelway-Bamber Dinah Kennedy Kevin Kissane & Jonathan Hume Emma Kjellin Victoria Kleiner Adrian Knowles Stephen & Miriam Kramer Dr Hugh Laing Peter & Beth Lamb Kenneth Law WS Mr & Mrs Bill Lawes Malcolm & Sarah Le May Janet & Julian Le Patourel Shaun Le Picq Sue Leach Nicky Levy Mrs Roger Liddiard Thomas Linton Anthony & Fiona Littlejohn Simon Littlewood Simon Llewellyn Jon Long Virginia & Alan Lovell Mrs Fiona Lunch Lord & Lady Lupton John MacGowan Joe & Minnie MacHale Pamela & Peter Macklin Bill & Sue Main Mrs Jennifer Makins Charles & Sue Marriott Chris & Clem Martin Sue & Nigel Masters James & Caroline Masterton Fairhurst Estates Louise Matlock Harry & Emma Matovu John & Mary Maunsell-Thomas

S E A S ON P RO G R A M M E 2 0 21 Ian & Clare Maurice John & Alison Mayne Mr & Mrs James McGill Kath & Salma McGrady-Badawi Mrs Julia McMullan Nigel & Anna McNair Scott Anthony & Sarah McWhirter Stephen Meldrum Sarah & David Melville Nigel & Maria Melville Brian & Bernadette Metters Antony & Alison Milford Elizabeth Miller Mr & Mrs Hallam Mills Sylvia Mills Patrick Mitford-Slade Kate & Malcolm Moir Dr & Mrs Jonathan Moore David & Alison Moore-Gwyn Christopher Morcom QC & Mrs Diane Morcom Isabel Morgan Diana & Nigel Morris Ian & Jane Morrison Richard & Chrissie Morse David & Angela Moss Colin Murray Tom & Ros Nell Jenny Newall Guy & Sarah Norrie Steve Norris Peter & Poppity Nutting Mr John O'Dowd Ogilvie Thompson Family Lavinia & Nick Owen Major General & Mrs Simon Pack John A Paine For Elise Tim & Therese Parker Nick & Julie Parker Hamish Parker Mary-Vere & Jeremy Parr Clive & Deborah Parritt William & Francheska Pattisson Robin Pauley Michael & Cathy Pearman Geoffrey & Vivienne Pearson Lucy Pease Andrew & Cindy Peck Ed & Sarah Peppiatt Guy & Nathalie Perricone Caroline Perry Roger & Virginia Phillimore Laura & Hayden Phillips Jonathan & Gillian Pickering Ernst & Elisabeth Piech Hew & Jean Pike Mr & Mrs J Pinna-Griffith David & Christina Pitman Lady Plastow John & Judy Polak The Countess of Portsmouth Michael & Sue Pragnell Nigel & Vicky Prescot Dr Victoria Preston Hugh Priestley Richard & Iona Priestley Tony & Etta Pullinger Stephen Purse Christopher & Phillida Purvis Mrs Adam Quarry

Jane & Graham Reddish The Hon Philip Remnant CBE Anthony & Carol Rentoul Judith Rich OBE Dick Richmond Dr Lynne Ridler-Wall Miles & Vivian Roberts James & Lygo Roberts James & Catharine Robertson Sir Simon & Lady Robertson Christopher Marks & Lindsay Rodes Julian & Catherine Roskill Simon & Alison Routh Dr Angela Gallop CBE & Mr David Russell Alan Sainer Alicia Salter Ginny & Richard Salter Mike Sarson David & Alexandra Scholey Richard & Jackie Scopes James & Judy Scott Charles & Caroline Scott Alex & So Scott-Barrett George & Veronique Seligman Katherine Sellon Sophie Service Edward & Philippa Seymour Thomas & Phillis Sharpe Rebecca Shelley Diane & Christopher Sheridan Nigel Silby Jeremy Sillem Brigitte & Martin Skan Paul & Rita Skinner Jock & Annie Slater Miriam Smith Dr Anthony & Mrs Daphne Smoker Miss India Smyth Sir Michael & Lady Snyder Rupert & Milly Soames David & Di Sommerville Andrew & Jill Soundy Hammy Sparks Mrs Heather Spencer Lord & Lady Spencer of Alresford Unni Spiller Fiona & Geoff Squire Richard & Clare Staughton Caroline Steane John & Margo Stephens Mr & Mrs Brian Stevens Jeremy & Phyllida Stoke Ian Strange Della & Sheridan Swallow Canon Ron & Dr Celia Swan Ian & Belinda Taylor The Tehranians Richard Templeton & Belinda Timlin Mr & Mrs Roger ter Haar The Tesolin Family David & Sarah Thomas Sue Thomas

Nick Thomas & Eleanor Cranmer Peter & Nancy Thompson Richard & Cynthia Thompson Jonathan Thompson Michael & Cara Thomson Robin & Sarah Thorne Elaine & James Tickell Mr Peter Stewart Tilley George & Lucinda Tindley Alan & Alison Titchmarsh Mr Zi Ken Toh Mrs Carole Tonkiss Richard & Elizabeth Tottenham John & Pauline Tremlett Professor Michael & Dame Jenifer Trimble Sir Tom & Lady Troubridge Clive & Tessa Tulloch Ian Utting Oona van den Berg Kelsey & Rosemary van Musschenbroek Lou & John Verrill Peter & Sarah Vey Mr Niko Vidovich Rupert & Vicki Villers Marion Wake Mark & Rachel Waller The Band Trust Lisa Hawkins Guy & Fizzy Warren Richard & Judith Watts Tony & Fiona White Peter & Alexandra White Andrew & Tracy Wickham Clare Williams Penelope Williams Jane Williams Nicholas & Penny Wilson Mr & Mrs Craig Wilson Peter & Lissa Wilson Jilly Wise Sue & Stuart Woodward Richard & Noely Worthington John & Diana Wren Tim Wright Paul & Sybella Zisman

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

SKYLARKS The Allenby Sisters Matt & Penny Andrews John & Claudia Arney Charles & Victoria Arthur Dr Richard Ashton Mrs Claire Baker Paul & Helen Baker Mrs Caroline Barber Aurea Baring Mr & Mrs David Barrow Mr & Mrs Simon Barrow Mr & Mrs Bartholomew Sefi Carolyn & Michael Bartlett Val & Christopher Bateman Susi & Marcus Batty Stephen Beard Julian & Jane Benson Dr Rebecca & Mr Andrew Berkley Adrian Berrill-Cox Hugh & Etta Bevan Carol Blacker Simon & Rebecca Bladon Graham & Julia Bourne Robin & Jill Broadley Simon & Dorothy Broadley Charles & Amanda Bromfield Tony & Mo Brooking Jo & Geoffrey Burnaby Mrs Maurice Buxton Karina & Max Casini Mr & Mrs Paul Chase Gardener Ann Chillingworth Christie Family Olivia Christie The Wottingers Mrs Laurence Colchester Mr & Mrs Robin Collet Alan & Ceanna Collett Prof Richard Collin Barry & Pamela Collins Alastair & Elisabeth Colquhoun Dr John Crook Philippa Crosse & Simon Hopkins Annabel & John Crowley Paul & Rosemarie Cundy John & Susan Curtis Emiliana Damiani Mike & Suzette Davis James Davis Anne & Jonathan Dawson J W Dee Carl & Mary Dore Christopher & Jenny Duffett Louise Duffy Mrs Saskia Dunlop Ken & Sheena Eaton Sir Malcolm & Lady Edge

Mr & Mrs John Ellard Rob & Anne England Alun & Bridget Evans John Farr Rosie Faunch Elaine Fear & Sol Mead Michael FitzGerald Marveen & Graham Flack Jonathan & Julia Flory Sir Robert & Lady Francis David & Elizabeth French Carol Geddes Bruce & Karin Ginsberg Ms P Glidewell Philippa & Charlie Goodall Colin & Letts Goodwin Sam & Jane Gordon Clark Mr Robin & The Hon Mrs Greenwood Alistair & Jenny Groom Max & Catherine Hadfield Dilys Hall Robert & Gillie Hanbury BLH Rachel & John Hannyngton Peter John Hayman Basil & Caroline Henley Michael & Geneviève Higgin Peter Hildebrand Jonathan Holliday & Gwen Lewis Lizzie Holmes David & Mal Hope-Mason David & Patricia Houghton Colin & Irene House Tania Houston Stephen Howis The Howmans Bart & Carole Huby Iain & Claudia Hughes Robert Hugill & David Hughes Mrs Sue Humphrey Nicholas & Jeremy Andrew & Juliet Huntley Allan & Rachel James Margi & Mike Jennings Professor & Mrs J Jennings John & Sara Jervoise Helen & Jonathan Jesty Rupert Johnson & Alexandra Macdonald-Smith John & Jennifer Kelly David & Penny Kempton Stephen & Caroline Kirk Martin & Clare Knight

Mr & Mrs Morgan Krone Simon & Antonia Strickland Ian & Georgie Laing John & Joanna Lang Oliver & Victoria Larminie Roger & Natalie Lee Oscar & Margaret Lewisohn Derek & Susie Lintott Mr & Mrs H Lloyd Michael & Margaret Major John & Pat Marden John & Deborah Markham William & Felicity Mather Julia Maxlow-Tomlinson Dr Tom McClintock Paul McKeown & Suzanne Everest Peter & Brigid McManus Colin Menzies Judith & Theo Mezger Paul & Emily Michael Martin Miles Martin & Caroline Moore Brian & Sonia Moritz Cathy, Thea & Susi Mr & Mrs John Muncey Stephen & Fiona Murray Tim Neill John & Dianne Norton Roy & Carole Oldham Steven & Hilary Oldham Denise Osborn Peter & Sue Paice Stephen & Isobel Parkinson Colin & Judy Patrick Peers of Alresford Richard & Michelle Pelly Mr & Mrs Penfold Erik Penser David Pether & Darin Stickley Geoffrey & Jan Planer John & Elizabeth Platt Anthony Powell Anthony & Trish Proctor Mr & Mrs Pugh Louisa Quarry Mary Rackham Jane & Douglas Rae Catherine Rainey Dr Martin Read & Dr Marian Gilbart Read Jane Ridley & Jeffrey Thomas Stephen Riley & Victoria Burch Xavier & Alicia Robert Nerys Roberts Annie Robertson Roger & Geraldine Robinson Lynda & Michael Rose Peter Rosenthal Mr Keith Ross Madi & David Laurence Richard & Ruth Saunders Peter Saunders Tom Seabrook Hugh & Patricia Sergeant Lynn Shaw David Shaw Mary & Thoss Shearer Julian & Carolyn Sheffield

Angus Ian & Stephanie Smith Michael & Wendy Smith Gill & Barry Smith Drew Steanson Kate Mather Mr & Mrs Nicholas Stranks Ron Sullam Dr Jonathan Swanston & Miriam Coley Hugh & Sandy Thomas Mr & Mrs P M Thomas Mrs A J Thorman John & Christine Thornton Sarah Tillie Roger Vignoles Nick & Holly Villiers Sandra & Paul Walker Mr & Mrs Walsh David & Meriel Walton Johanna Waterous CBE & Roger Parry CBE Philip & Annie Watson Eleanor Wilkinson Hamish & Elisabeth Williams Mrs David Wilson Edward & Marja Wilton William & Celia Witts Mary Rose & Charles Wood Louise Woods Mr & Mrs C Wright The Wyatt Family

GOLDCRESTS Adam-Germain The Rickards Family Graham & Stephanie Airs Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg Dr Martin T Anthony Lord & Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom Julie & Keith Attfield Fred Baring Tom & Gay Bartlam Robert Baty Drs Peter & Beatrice Bennett Charles & Ann Bonney Matthew Bradley Mrs Sheila Gay Bradley Mrs Alison Bradley Julie Bradshaw Mr & Mrs J M Britton George Brown & Alison Calver Peter Bull Mr Thomas Cahill Mariacristina Cammarata Jeremy & Kate Cave Jane Countess of Clarendon Clemson family Monique Clowes Maria Cobbe Richard & Verity Coleman Marianne & Harald Collet Nathaniel Colman Bob & Linda Connell David Coplestone Roseanne Corlett Erica & Neil Cosburn Morella & Robert Cottam Alan Cracknell Aimee Curtis Mr Peter Davidson Simon & Noni de Zoete Sandrine Boinet & Erik Dege Hilary & Rob Douglas Jonathan & Lynn Dowson Dr Graham & Janna Dudding Hugh & Christina Dumas Mr Mark Duncan Sir James Eadie Nicky Ebdon & Alex Rowland Peter Eggington Michael & Margaret Ewing Mrs Christopher Ferrer Andrew Foot & Michael Hart Peter Forster-Dean & David Elsley Rod & Marie Franks Geoffrey & Elizabeth Fuller

S E A S ON P RO G R A M M E 2 0 21

Paul & Sarah Galloway N J Gammon Lindsey Gardener Ms Jillian Ede & David Brooks Gendron Joanna Gibbon Brett & Caroline Gill David & Bridget Glasgow Katy Gordon Dr Stephen Goss Gill Graham Maw Susie Grandfield Michael Greaves Dr Carolyn Greenwood Catherine & Stephen Hackett Richard & Judy Haes John & Margaret Hall Dr Sally Hanson Susanna Hardman John Harris Mr & Mrs Julian Harvey Maggie Heath Rob & Anne Heather Roger Holden H R Holland Mrs Simon Holmes Hei Mun Hong Denzil & Kate How Billy & Heather Howard Derek Cormack & Suzanne Howe The Hunter Family The Allenby sisters John & Susan Hyland Howard & Anne Hyman Chris Jefferies Mrs Charlotte Johnson Miss Flora Johnston Scot & Sally Johnston Alison & Jamie Justham The Karran-Smith Family Mae Keary Penelope Kellie Jocelyn Kennard Michael & Julia Kerby Mr & Mrs Patrick Hofmann Cathy & Alan Kinnear Dr & Mrs Stephen Knights Liz & Roger Kramers Lynn Lee David & Caroline Lentaigne Kiereen & Nicholas Lock James & Susie Long Claudia Da Graca Lopes V Lowings & B Cozens Jonathan & Clare Lubran Barbara Luginbuehl-Sieber The Lyon Family

Stephen & Karen MacDonald Ian & Jane Macnabb Mr & Mrs JJ Macnamara Miss C Martin Mr & Mrs P T Mealing Elaine Mills, Grange Festival, Octet Wilsons Solicitors LLP Michelle Nevers & Nathan Moss John Muhlemann Tom & Catherine Neal Emily Neill Lord & Lady Northbrook Nicki Oakes-Monger Colin & Rosalind Osmer Robin & Clarkie Petherick Jeremy & Bryony Pett Anthony & Sally Pfiffner Frank & Doreen Pointon Sebastian Pont Professor Postma Sue & Peter Prag Raymond Sutton & Judith Prickett Chrissie Quayle Dick & Fiona Rainsbury John & Marie Randall Mr & Mrs Nick Read Neil & Julie Record Merv & Fenella Rees Anne Reynolds Mr Paul Richards & Mrs Karen Richards Michael & Charlotte Robinson Charles Rogers Tim & Maitina Rumboll Gillian & Terry Rush Sebastian Salek, Jordan Bergmans, Alex Horkan, Charlotte Bennett, Alex Louch, Rachel Tait Joseph Saxby Ian & Rosemary Saxton Midsummer Night's Dream Ben & Sian Shawley Rebecca & David Sheppard

Caroline & Mark Silver Poppy Skepper Mrs Michael Smart Mr & Mrs Mark Sorby Brian Spiby Judy & Graham Staples Dianne Steele Mr Steensma & Mrs Steensma Bruynesteyn David & Penny Stern AnneMarie Stordiau Rosie Sturgis Tim & Charlotte Syder Simon & Alison Taylor Tom & Jo Taylor Jeremy H Taylor & Raye Ward Stephen Tedbury & Loveday Shewell David Templeman Tim & Jacky Thackeray Professor & Mrs Glyn Tonge John Trewby Andrew & Diane Turnbull Mary Tydeman Katherine & Ted Wake Hady Wakefield Sonia & Kevin Watson Judith Wheatley Angela Wheeler Max Whitehead Antonia Whitley The Whittington Family Kim Wilkie Daniel & Thomas Wilkinson-Horsfield William & Madeline Wilks Keith & Keren Williams Elizabeth Caroline Woods Alan & Eleanor Wright John Wynne-Williams

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

2021 Festival Friends THE SWEET SPOT

THE PROMPT CORNER

THE ROSTRUM

Nigel Beale & Anthony Lowrey

The Hon Mrs Susan Baring OBE Geoffrey Barnett Peter & Valerie Bedford Anthony & Emma Bird Jonathan & Karen Bourne-May Mark Burrows Tom Busher & Elizabeth Benson Julia Chute Peter & Jane Clarke Pru de Lavison The Viscount Dilhorne & Professor S J Eykyn FRCS FRCP FRCPath Howard & Donna Dyer Tim & Rosie Forbes Jonathan & Tessa Gaisman Richard & Judy Haes Malcolm & Mary Hogg Mrs Sue Humphrey Andrew & Kay Hunter Johnston Diane Katsiaficas Anne Longden Lyon Family Charitable Trust William & Felicity Mather Ian & Clare Maurice John & Alison Mayne Peter & Brigid McManus Antony & Alison Milford David & Angela Moss Michelle Nevers & Nathan Moss Guy & Sarah Norrie Peter & Poppity Nutting Sir Desmond & Lady Norma Pitcher The Countess of Portsmouth Chrissie Quayle Neil & Julie Record The Hon Philip Remnant CBE Stephen Riley & Victoria Burch James & Lygo Roberts Kristina Rogge Ginny & Richard Salter Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Diane & Christopher Sheridan Nigel Silby Brigitte & Martin Skan John & Pauline Tremlett Mr Niko Vidovich Katherine & Ted Wake William & Madeline Wilks Mary Rose & Charles Wood

David & Jane Anderson Adrian Berrill-Cox Hugh & Sue Brown Geoffrey Burnand Richard Butler Adams Mrs Maurice Buxton Peter & Auriol Byrne Daphne & Alan Clark Ian Clarkson & Richard Morris, & David Morris Dr Neville Conway Henrietta Corbett David & Nikki Cowley Johnny & Liz Cowper-Coles Lady Curtis Baron & Baroness de Styrcea Dr Graham & Janna Dudding Christopher & Jenny Duffett Domenica Dunne Christina & Andrew Dykes Alun & Bridget Evans Simon & Hilke Fisher Geoffrey & Elizabeth Fuller Ms Jillian Ede & David Brooks Gendron Mr & Mrs W Gething Martin & Jacky Gillie Jane & Charlie Graham Mr Robin & The Hon Mrs Greenwood Alistair & Jenny Groom Max & Catherine Hadfield Allyson Hall Wendell & Andrea Harris Rob & Anne Heather Jenny & Bill Helfrecht Basil & Caroline Henley Michael & Geneviève Higgin David & Mal Hope-Mason Stephen Howis Mrs Diane Hume Mr & Mrs GET Hunt Nigel & Cathy Johnson-Hill Michael & Julia Kerby Stephen & Miriam Kramer Roger & Natalie Lee

THE LIMELIGHT Nick & Sarah Allan Robin & Anne Baring Nic & Maureen Bentley Robert & Caroline Bordeaux-Groult Lord & Lady Bridges Mrs Charles H Brown Julian & Jenny Cazalet Rex & Sarah Chester Sir Christopher & the Reverend Lady Clarke Geoffrey & Ingrid Dale Robert & Pirjo Gardiner Dr & Mrs Jonathan Moore Nick & Julie Parker Roger & Virginia Phillimore George & Veronique Seligman Chris & Lisa Spooner Marion Wake Clare Williams Mr & Mrs Craig Wilson

Nicky Levy Derek & Susie Lintott Chris & Clem Martin Colin Menzies Brian & Bernadette Metters Paul & Emily Michael Julian & Rose Milford Mr & Mrs Hallam Mills David & Alison Moore-Gwyn Diana & Nigel Morris Roy & Carole Oldham Lavinia & Nick Owen John A Paine Caroline Perry Robin & Clarkie Petherick Mr & Mrs J Pinna-Griffith John & Elizabeth Platt John & Judy Polak Sean & Andrea Poston Hugh Priestley Catherine Rainey John Raymond Miles & Vivian Roberts Julian & Catherine Roskill Dr Angela Gallop CBE & Mr David Russell Alex & So Scott-Barrett Andrew & Jill Soundy Unni Spiller Caroline Steane Mr & Mrs Nicholas Stranks Ron Sullam Mr & Mrs P M Thomas David & Sarah Thomas Elaine & James Tickell George & Lucinda Tindley Professor Michael & Dame Jenifer Trimble Sir Tom & Lady Troubridge Clive & Tessa Tulloch Sandra & Paul Walker

THE WINGS Dr Stewart Abbott Philippa Abell Daphne Alderson Rosemary Alexander Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg Phillip Arnold, Philip Baldwin & Ann Andrews Charles & Victoria Arthur Mary & Julian Ashby Julie & Keith Attfield Ariane Bankes Mrs Caroline Barber Cara & Oliver Barnes Robin Barton Paul & Janet Batchelor Anne Beckwith-Smith Julian & Polly Bennett Annabel & Alverne Bolitho Charles & Ann Bonney Mrs Sheila Gay Bradley Charles & Patricia Brims Alison & Michel Brindle QC Michael & Val Brodrick Tony & Mo Brooking Jo & Geoffrey Burnaby Sandra Carlisle & Angus Carlill Suzie Chesham Julian & Josephine Chisholm Mrs Laurence Colchester Michael & Virginia Collett Tim & Penny Cooper Jenefer Coulton Julia & Stephen Crompton Peter & Pamela Davidson Anne & Jonathan Dawson Sir John & Lady de Trafford Linda & Hugo Deschampsneufs G & J Devlin Robert & Caroline Dixon Cathy Dumelow

S E A S ON P RO G R A M M E 2 0 21 Mrs Saskia Dunlop Clive & Alison Earl Paul & Pauline Eaton Robert & Mary Elkington Julia P Ellis John Farr Elaine Fear & Sol Mead Nicholas & Jane Ferguson The Fischer Fund J A Floyd Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs John Foster Anton Gabszewicz & Mark Gutteridge Joanna Gibbon Anne Giles Brett & Caroline Gill Dr Asher Giora Philippa & Charlie Goodall Susie Grandfield Robert B Gray Richard & Marguerite Griffith-Jones Linda Heathcoat Amory John & Catherine Hickman Will & Janine Hillary Mr & Mrs I F Hodgson H R Holland Jill Hooker Denzil & Kate How Billy & Heather Howard Robert Hugill & David Hughes David & Wendy Hunter Barnabas & Campie Hurst-Bannister Allan & Rachel James Peter & Morag James John & Jan Jarvis Scot & Sally Johnston Penelope Kellie James & Clare Kirkman Martin & Clare Knight Peter & Beth Lamb

David & Caroline Lentaigne Anthony & Fiona Littlejohn Gussy, the Theatre Cat James & Susie Long Brigadier & Mrs Desmond Longfield Pamela & Peter Macklin Mr & Mrs JJ Macnamara Bill & Sue Main Sue & Nigel Masters Dr Tom McClintock Paul McKeown & Suzanne Everest Nigel & Maria Melville Sarah & David Melville Duncan Menzies Judith & Theo Mezger Philip & Amanda Mills Christopher Morcom QC & Mrs Diane Morcom Simon & Fiona Mortimore Nina & Gary Moss Anthony & Jenny Newhouse Charles & Martie Nicholson Steve Norris Lord & Lady Northbrook John & Dianne Norton Colin & Rosalind Osmer Robin Pauley Lucy Pease Matthew & Philippa Pellereau

Ed & Sarah Peppiatt Jeremy & Bryony Pett David & Christina Pitman Charles & Catherine Powell Tony & Etta Pullinger Christopher & Phillida Purvis Dr Martin Read & Dr Marian Gilbart Read Jane & Graham Reddish Tineke Dales Christopher & Sheila Richards James & Catharine Robertson Annie Robertson Stuart Robson Alan Sainer George & Rosemary Sandars Simon & Abigail Sargent Katherine Sellon Mary & Thoss Shearer Jock & Annie Slater Mrs Michael Smart Dr Anthony & Mrs Daphne Smoker Sir Michael & Lady Snyder Rosemary & Michael Steen John & Margo Stephens Mr & Mrs Brian Stevens Jeremy & Phyllida Stoke Sir John & Lady Stuttard Tom & Jo Taylor Jeremy H Taylor & Raye Ward Mr & Mrs Roger ter Haar Hugh & Sandy Thomas Jeremy & Rachel Thomas Sarah Tillie Rupert & Vicki Villers John & Alison Wakeham Mrs Jane Wallace M Whalley & K Goldie-Morrison Peter & Alexandra White Tony & Fiona White Melissa Crawshay-Williams Hamish & Elisabeth Williams Peter & Lissa Wilson Jilly Wise William & Celia Witts Richard & Noely Worthington Paul & Sybella Zismana

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

THE FOOTLIGHTS Justin Abercrombie Hope Abercrombie Adam-Germain Mrs Linda Albin Jane Allen M D Austen Penelope Baily Mrs Claire Baker Katie Barnes Mr & Mrs David Barrow Mr & Mrs Bartholomew Sefi Mrs D Bartle Robert Baty Anna Blaxland Janet Bonthron Dr Susan Bracken David & Diana Briggs Roger & Josie Brown Ann Chillingworth Henry & Louise Clay Richard & Verity Coleman Alastair & Elisabeth Colquhoun Mike Compton & Nell Gregory Roseanne Corlett Erica & Neil Cosburn Philippa Crosse & Simon Hopkins David & Peta Crowther Jill Cundy & Alan Padbury Andrew Davidson & Rosina Cottage Mr & Mrs Jerome Davidson Mike & Suzette Davis Krystyna Deuss Carl & Mary Dore Hilary & Rob Douglas Jonathan & Lynn Dowson Mr Mark Duncan Mark & Margaret Edwards James Ekins Mr & Mrs John Ellard Gordon & Elaine Elliot Helen & Michael Etherington The Everson Family Elaine Fear & Sol Mead Mrs Christopher Ferrer Ron & Meg Finlayson Giles & ’Wenna Fletcher Mark & Deborah Foster Benjamin CK Fowler David & Elizabeth French Marion Friend MBE Mr & Mrs Garrow

Virginia Gayner Carol Geddes Sue Gentry Bob & Sue Germon Colin & Letts Goodwin Sam & Jane Gordon Clark Dr Stephen Goss Mr & Mrs M Griffin Mr & Mrs Tichy Robert & Elizabeth Haldane Dilys Hall John & Margaret Hall J M Hardigg Peter John Hayman John H Peter Hildebrand Dr Alan Hoaksey Robin Hodgson Penelope Horner Colin & Irene House Neil & Elizabeth Johnson Ivor & Daphne Johnston Alison & Jamie Justham John & Jennifer Kelly Oliver & Sally Kinsey Judith Lancaster David & Hilary Lane Oliver & Victoria Larminie Jane Lavers Sue Leach Carola & Adam Lee Simon Llewellyn Mr & Mrs T Llewellyn Tara Loader Wilkinson Christel Long Joanna Lorimer-Green V Lowings & B Cozens Joyce & Michael Lugton Stephen & Karen MacDonald Victoria Mackintosh Ben & Sue Mackworth-Praed Julia Maxlow-Tomlinson Paddy & Polly John McVittie Stephen Meldrum Sylvia Mills AA Montague M C Moseley Joseph & Josepa Munoz Stephen & Fiona Murray Penny Neary

Steven & Hilary Oldham Denise Osborn Coralie Ovenden Mr & Mrs Penfold Nigel & Vicky Prescot Mr Edward Priday Mr Jan & Mrs Sue Pringle Stephen Purse Dick & Fiona Rainsbury Patricia Raymer Dr John Rea Liz & Nick Reeve Mr Paul Richards & Mrs Karen Richards Dick Richmond Dr Lynne Ridler-Wall Andrew & Camilla Ritchie Roger & Geraldine Robinson Ian & Geraldine Robinson Peter Saunders Ian & Rosemary Saxton Bill Shipton Caroline & Mark Silver Christopher & Lucie Sims Gill & Barry Smith The Shenker Smiths Mr & Mrs Mark Sorby John Stanning Kate Mather Gilly Stewart La Cenerentola Della & Sheridan Swallow Canon Ron & Dr Celia Swan Ballet Press Ian & Belinda Taylor Mrs Patricia Taylor The Tehranians Nick Thomas & Eleanor Cranmer Jonathan Thompson Michael & Cara Thomson Mrs A J Thorman Nicholas & Jane Tuck Dr & Mrs James Turtle Katharine Chasey Turton Christopher Vigar MBE Charles & Elizabeth Vyvyan Judith Wheatley Louise Williams Elizabeth Caroline Woods Mr & Mrs C Wright Nicholas Yeo

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Fairy Tales and Femme Fatales

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“Everyone suddenly burst out singing; And I was filled with such delight As prisoned birds must find in freedom...” — Siegfried Sassoon Julian Barnes found nothing could still the raging sorrow inside him after his wife Pat Kavanagh died — until he was taken to the opera. He hadn’t much liked operas: ’They felt,’ he wrote, ’like deeply implausible and badly constructed plays, with characters yelling in one another’s faces simultaneously.’ 1 But ’in the darkness of an auditorium and the darkness of grief... quite unexpectedly, I fell into a love of opera.’ He points to what he sees as the form’s ’main function’: ’to deliver the characters as swiftly as possible to the point where they can sing of their deepest emotions’, and he concludes with an ironic flourish, ’Here was my new social realism.’ 2 The writer had found an exterior public channel for his interior world; the outpourings and intensity of the singers voiced his inner turmoil. What he observed in himself can be extended to many others, as shown by the intensifying interest of audiences in live performances and film screenings. But tragic and sublime passions aren’t the only psychological materials opera deals with, nor did Barnes seek solace only from opera seria. Rossini’s La Cenerentola dazzlingly punctures pomposity and greed and delivers a fairy-tale ending — forgiveness, love and delight. I am writing this during the widespread turmoil of the Coronavirus pandemic, which is spreading fear across the world and has caused the cancellation of almost all gatherings, including all concerts, festivals, and the 2020 seasons in every opera house. It no longer seems far-fetched to remind ourselves of the profound roots of opera in human efforts to withstand despair, uncertainty, and ensure survival through imagination, with music, art, literature. Féeries, fairy entertainments held at Versailles and other courts, filled with supernatural personae and effects; they are recognisable precursors of grand opera.3 But it doesn’t strike me as over-mystifying to remember the deep roots of opera in performances, rituals and mysteries farther from us — not only in ancient Greece but in India and North America before colonisation.

The art historian Aby Warburg made a trip to New Mexico and Arizona in l895–96 and in lectures he gave many years later, explored the connections he now perceived between the ceremonies he witnessed there and the Renaissance intermezzi he had been researching in Europe — entertainments such as masques, pageants and processions.4 In the light of his wide readings in anthropology, this immensely learned — and hitherto traditional — scholar recognised that the ritual assemblies of the Hopi and other inhabitants of the Pueblos in the American desert shared psycho-social purposes with European works of art. The affinities did not arise from exact similarities of method or appearance, of course, but in shared functions: the serpent rituals in which the Hopi confronted the rattlesnake — a daily, deadly danger to them — resembled the representations during the marriage feast of Florence’s rulers in the l6th century, which staged, for example, a combat with a dragon. They were all lavish rituals, involving every art and craft, and united a society towards a common purpose — to deal with enemies, obtain the mercy of fate, spread blessings all round, and secure the community’s future. To achieve this, they drew on the very means of expression towards that goal — music, movement, story, costume, art — and performed to the utmost of intensity and at the height of their powers. Warburg was struck by the ecological sensibility at work in the rituals: ’This synchrony of fantastic magic and sober purposiveness’ he wrote, ’for the Indian ... is ... a liberating experience of the boundless communicability between man and environment.’ 5 I can think of many operas which explore this ’boundless communicability’. Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, follows Shakespeare’s vision of a major disruption of the natural order, as Oberon and Tytania sing: Therefore the winds have suck’d up from the sea Contagious fogs... The seasons alter: the spring, the summer, The childing autumn, the angry winter change Their wonted liv’ries...

Femme Fatale by Novak Andor, Hungarian School, 19th Century © Artepics / Alamy Stock Photo

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But the need to express resistance to trouble need not be grandiloquent. It can inform a reflex as simple as whistling in the dark, as Bottom does when, finding himself ’translated ’into the shape of an ass, he decides, ‘I see their knavery; this is to make an ass of me, to fright me, if they could; but I will not stir from this place, and I will sing that they shall hear I am not afraid.’ (Emphasis added) It’s interesting that in one of his radio broadcasts for children, Walter Benjamin observes that a rattle isn’t just a functional object to develop a baby’s sense of hearing, but rather an instrument to keep evil spirits at bay 6 — think how many forms of music are also spells to bring sleep, inspire love, or waft souls across the threshold of death to rest in peace. Thus, singing bravely, Bottom defies his fate. His song — his braying — leads to a turning point of rich, cruel comedy as Titania wakes up and asks in her ethereal soprano voice, What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed? In some ways, when we in the audience become all absorbed in an opera, we may find we feel connected to powerful, unnameable feelings, which loose us from our disorientation and forebodings — like Bottom, like Barnes. But opera, being a profane, secular entertainment, generally put on in highly worldly — and often expensive — settings, is obviously not identical with rituals enacted in places of worship. Yet the correspondences are close enough to be worth exploring further: broadly speaking, if you are aiming at averting harms and dangers, you either model the danger you need to keep at bay (the dragon, the illness) and play-act its defeat, or you offer up something valuable to cajole fate into kindness. Magical rituals operate in these two chief modes, mimesis and sacrifice. The classic shape of romantic opera, with the doomed figure at its heart — not infrequently a beautiful woman, often socially marginal if not polluted — borrows its structure from sacrificial plotting at its most fundamental — think how Wagner dramatizes the death of Brunhilde and how in Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring, the death of the Chosen One provides a ferocious, implacable climax. Manon Lescaut and any number of others — La traviata, La bohème — drive towards this sacrificial finale, in which a woman dies on stage after giving of herself to others in her story and to us, in the audience. The French classical scholar Catherine Clément has trenchantly discussed the ’Undoing of Women’ in

opera: ’When the thread draws taut,’ she writes, ’when it stretches the whole length of anguish, and when it breaks, releasing the tension and discharging its affect, the girl flies far, so far that it drives her crazy ... That is called delirium, an ‘unreading’. It could be called ’dechant’ ... an ’unsinging’... driving these innocent girls, caught in others’ webs, mad’.7 Clément is herself flying here on the wings of her own rhetoric, since neither Manon nor her sisters in death are invariably innocent or put upon — Manon is self-willed and unprincipled, and that is key to her fascination. But the image of soaring captures the voice of the soprano in extremis, and her power to enthral us wholly. Powerful feelings of empathy sweep over us as we are caught up in the desperate farewells of Manon (’Sola, perduta, abbandonata...’) and Des Grieux’s strenuous, raging laments. The opera’s finale delivers tragic catharsis, leaving with a feeling of something satisfactorily resolved — someone has died on our behalf, and intense suffering has taken place at a safe remove, where experiencing it rallies and fortifies us rather than breaks us. With Manon Lescaut, as with Puccini’s La bohème, Julian Barnes’s remark about opera as social realism turns out to be no mere quip. Puccini, in collaboration with his several librettists, was uniquely sensitive to social milieux, and brought to the operatic stage certain social settings of inclusion and exclusion with a such musical vitality that Bohemia has really come to be imprinted in the collective imagination through his work (who reads his source, the novel by Henri Murger?).

English writer and former Man Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes © GL Portrait / Alamy Stock Photo

FA I RY TA L E S A N D F E M M E FATA L E S

Top: Kevin Kline as Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Directed By Michael Hoffman Above: Dress rehearsal of the Puccini opera La Bohème starring Angel Blue as Mimí at the London Coliseum Top: © AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo. Above: © Bettina Strenske / Alamy Stock Photo

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Vittorio Grigolo (Chevalier des Grieux), Anna Netrebko (Manon Lescaut) in Manon, The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London © Donald Cooper / Alamy Stock Photo

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“This synchrony of fantastic magic and sober purposiveness ... is a liberating experience of the boundless communicability between man and environment” In the case of the original novel Manon Lescaut (1731) by the Abbé Prévost, Puccini was plumbing an account of an earlier demi-monde and its libertinism and decadence; 8 the sacrificial figure is there, the only woman in the story, a capricious, irresistible, wild, erotic idol who, in a stroke of devastating historical verismo, is sentenced to deportation ... to New Orleans, then in French Louisiana. (Deportation used to be a historical relic, but it has become horribly timely, as the recent production by Jonathan Kent for the ROH noticed: the scene when Manon and her fellow convicts embark resonated with the fates of the Windrush arrivants and asylum seekers who are flown out of the country on clandestine planes.) Mimetic sacrifice offers only one mode of confronting tragedy; as in the case of the Dream, facing it down with mockery another. Jacopo Ferretti, the librettist for Rossini’s version of Cinderella, takes laughter for his chief defence against harsh realities in his original and thoughtful variation on the original fairy tale, written by Charles Perrault in 1697. Perrault was a courtier placed at the very hub of power, as Secretary for some twenty years to le Grand Colbert, the immensely powerful financier and treasurer to the Sun King Louis XIV. Perrault therefore knew the inner workings of rank and power and his urbane fairy tales reflect that insider knowledge. Ferretti picks up on his sardonic vein — the opera does not spare Don Magnifico and his daughters, their pretensions and the venality of his whole family and class. From the start, the opera makes wonderful fun of the wicked patriarch, who dreams:

and she lives up to it, showing herself to be straight and true, spontaneous and modest — she gives shelter to Alidoro when he appears as a beggar in the kitchen, and she falls in love with the prince when she thinks he’s the valet. Throughout, Rossini and Ferretti show how interested they are in the meaning of the story in terms of its emotional, human reality. By introducing the switch of roles between the prince and his valet (a familiar folk motif), Ferretti brings off a double coup in two different registers: the hilarious discomfiture of Don Magnifico and Cinderella’s horrible sisters, and the sweet recognition of the heroine’s sincere and loving heart. The opera is subtitled La Bontà in Trionfo — the triumph of goodness. It’s interesting that Rossini was the favourite composer of the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, a firm advocate of Enlightenment and sweet reason. As the musicologist David J Buch has written, ’The function of the central moral in fairy tales made them vehicles for Enlightenment allegory as well, where the “improvement” of the audience replaced that of the child.’ 9 Rossini lives up to those ideals, deploying his dazzling musical energy to reproach excesses of power and vanity, avert cruelty, overcome the threat of despair and hold out a fairy tale’s dream of love and justice. La bontà trionferà — and justice will be done. For a time — for three hours or so — La Cenerentola, this dramma giocoso, most joyous and dynamic of operas, catches us, the audience, up into a shared space where dread is kept at bay.

Marina Warner President of The Royal Society of Literature

‘Ma quell’asino son io. Chi vi guarda vede chiaro Che il somaro è il genitor.’ (’But that ass is me / Who looks at him sees clearly / That the donkey is the father.’ )

Without this buffoonery at the start, the later scene when he announces to Alidoro that Cenerentola is dead — within her earshot — and then, when she remonstrates, threatens to beat her, would be unbearable. Indeed, Ferretti’s many changes to his principal source show great sensitivity to the malignant social and psychological undercurrents of the fairy tale. He reduces the supernatural elements — Alidoro is above all a true-hearted friend rather than a magical figure from another world. This Cinderella also has a significant name, Angelina,

1 Julian Barnes, Levels of Life (London: Jonathan Cape, 2013), p. 90. 2 Barnes, ibid., pp. 90–91. 3 See David J Buch, Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008). 4 Kurt W Forster and David Britt, ’Aby Warburg: His Study of Ritual and Art on Two Continents’, October, Vol. 77 (Summer, 1996), pp. 5–24:6–10; https://www.jstor.org/stable/778958 Accessed: 20-03-2020 12:37 UTC; see also Philippe-Alain Michaud, Aby Warburg and the Image in Motion, trans. Sophie Hawkes, (New York: Zone Books, 2007), pp. 171–228. 5 Michaud, op.cit., p. 191. 6 Jeffrey Mehlman, Walter Benjamin for Children: An essay on his radio years (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 4. 7 Catherine Clément, Opera, or the Undoing of Women, trans. Betsy Wing (London: Virago, l989), p. 87. 8 See Marina Warner, ’Wild at heart’, in Signs & Wonders: Essays on Literature and Culture (London: Vintage, 1994), pp. 150–158. 9 Buch, Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests, p.15.

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM BR IT T EN

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM B EN JA M I N B R I T T EN Libretto adapted from William Shakespeare by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears Sung in English

Conductor Orchestral recording Conductor Director & Set Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer

Anthony Kraus Sian Edwards Paul Curran Gabriella Ingram Paul Pyant

B OU R N EMOU T H S Y M PHON Y ORC H E S T R A Leader Amyn Merchant Assistant Conductor Assistant Director Repetiteur Sound Engineer Recording Manager Recording Producer Production Manager Wardrobe Supervisor

Jo Ramadan Rachel Wise Chad Vindin Mike Walker Tom Fetherstonhaugh Adrian Peacock Tom Nickson Gabriella Ingram

CA S T Oberon Tytania Puck Theseus Hippolyta Lysander Demetrius Hermia Helena Boy

Alexander Chance Samantha Clarke Chris Darmanin Roberto Lorenzi Angharad Lyddon Peter Kirk Alex Otterburn Angela Simkin Eleanor Dennis Shayan Srikantha

Bottom Quince Flute Snug Snout Starveling Cobweb Mustardseed Moth Peaseblossom Fairy ensemble

James Platt William Thomas Ben Johnson Sion Goronwy Gwilym Bowen Johnny Herford Francesca Pringle May Abercrombie Isabel Irvine Ceferina Penny Anna Munoz Daisy Mitchell

This production is supported by

Andrew and Caroline Joy | Michael and Sue Pragnell | The Parker Family The Licensors hereby grant to the Licensees the right for performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, music by Benjamin Britten, libretto adapted from Shakespeare by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, for the following performances, by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited

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SYNOPSIS AC T I

AC T I I I

Oberon and Tytania have quarrelled over a boy whom Tytania refuses to relinquish to her husband. Oberon decides to punish her and sends Puck in search of a magic flower. Four young people appear: Hermia and Lysander wish to marry but have run away to escape her father’s order that she must marry Demetrius. The latter is being pursued by Helena, whom he does not love. Oberon decides that, with the aid of the magic flower, he will be able to make Demetrius reciprocate Helena’s love. Six rustics, led by Quince and Bottom, meet to prepare a play which they hope to perform in front of Theseus and Hippolyta, to celebrate their wedding. Oberon squeezes the juice of the magic flower into the sleeping Tytania’s eyes: when she awakes she will fall in love with the first creature that she sees.

Oberon, now in possession of the disputed boy, is prepared to make peace with Tytania. He frees her from her infatuation and husband and wife are reconciled. The four young people wake up: love is renewed between Hermia and Lysander, and new-born between Helena and Demetrius. They decide to ask Theseus’s permission to marry. The rustics lament the loss of their friend Bottom, and the inevitable cancellation of their play. Bottom, now restored to normal, joins his friends and they leave joyfully. Theseus pardons the young lovers, and gives them permission to marry. He then invites the rustics to perform their entertainment at his and Hippolyta’s wedding reception. When midnight strikes, Theseus declares that it is time for bed. Oberon, Tytania, the fairies and Puck appear and give their blessing.

AC T I I Bottom and his companions rehearse their play. Puck transforms Bottom into an ass. Tytania awakes, sees Bottom, and is enraptured. She summons four of her attendants to wait on her new lover, then she and Bottom fall asleep. Oberon observes this with satisfaction, but is angry when he discovers that Puck has confused Demetrius with Lysander. Oberon’s attempt to correct this mistake makes things even worse: the two men who were in love with Hermia now both love Helena. When the four lovers quarrel violently, Oberon orders Puck to separate them and restore order.

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Britten’s Dream

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The splendid Snape Maltings Concert Hall on the River Alde in Suffolk, opened in 1967, has become so emblematic of the internationally renowned Aldeburgh Festival that it seems scarcely credible that for the first two decades of its existence the Festival lacked a major venue in which opera, theatre and large-scale concerts could be staged. Founded in 1948 by (amongst others) Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, the Festival was initially compelled to mount its larger-scale concert performances in local churches, with the town centre’s tiny Victorian-era Jubilee Hall pressed into service for productions of small-scale chamber operas but incapable of housing anything more substantial. Throughout the 1950s, various fundraising initiatives were explored in the hope that a new Festival Theatre might become a realistic proposition, but by the end of the decade these had all come to naught. It was instead decided to refurbish the Jubilee Hall by building a new orchestral pit, extending the backstage area, and installing a new lighting rig. If Britten’s dream of acquiring a major theatrical venue was still on hold, at least this new lease of life for the venerable 200-seat Jubilee Hall — which was due to be reopened at the 1960 Festival — could be celebrated in style with the premiere of a (modestly proportioned) Britten opera. In the summer of 1959, Britten was planning his first ’church parable’, Curlew River, based on an austere Japanese Noh play; this project was (as he put it) ’scarcely festive’, and therefore deemed to be inappropriate for a summer gala event. So, at remarkably short notice, Britten and Pears decided to turn Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a three-act opera. Astonishingly, the libretto and music for the new piece were written in just nine months, from August 1959 to Easter 1960. Pears did most of the work on the text,

Britten granting him (as he did with all his librettists) 50% of the royalties on performances of what would prove to be one of his most popular stage works. Interviewed by the press at the time of the opera’s premiere, Britten was careful to note that he and Pears had prepared their libretto from the earliest printed sources of Shakespeare’s play, the First Quarto (1600) and First Folio (1623). Facsimiles of both were indeed owned by Britten, but the more mundane truth was that they worked exclusively from two battered copies of the cheap Penguin paperback edition of the play, one annotated by Pears and the other by Britten, before having each act of the libretto typed up and then subjected to further editing. Around half the text had to be jettisoned (Britten liked to joke that if he’d set the entire play, his opera would have been as long as Wagner’s Ring cycle), and one line was invented in order to explain why Lysander and Hermia have had to run away together. This was necessary on account of the work’s most drastic departure from Shakespeare’s original: the wholesale cutting of the rather static opening scene at Duke Theseus’s court, Britten preferring instead to plunge his operatic audience straight into the enchanted forest. The libretto otherwise preserves all the principal ingredients of the drama. The surviving source materials suggest that the text of Act III ended up as rather a rushed job, however, owing to mounting pressures of time. Here the text had to rework material from the abandoned opening scene as well as tie up the plot’s loose ends, and the sequence of events became a little muddled in the process; remarkably, and presumably because Shakespeare’s story is so well known, it was many years before anyone noticed that the various mortal couples remain unmarried as they head off to their (pre-nuptial) beds at the opera’s close. Mendelssohn would not have been required to write a Wedding March for this version of the story!

“Britten preferring instead to plunge his operatic audience straight into the enchanted forest” A Midsummer Night’s Dream Illustration by Arthur Rackham © Lebrecht Authors / Bridgeman Images

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The libretto was skilfully designed to provide a solid basis for essentially simple musical structures, a strategy aided by the play’s episodic nature, and the fact that some of Shakespeare’s scenes may in fact be taking place simultaneously and could therefore be re-ordered to suit the opera’s musical needs. Britten’s first act, for example, reorganises Shakespeare’s sequence of events in order to create an arch-like symmetrical structure entirely lacking in the play. One of the most obvious means by which Britten ensured musical cohesion in tackling a story unusually diverse in incident was the use of recurrent music to represent the passage of time or a change of location in the wood. The disparate events in both Acts I and II are unified by ritornello passages, those in Act I featuring evocative string glissandi portraying the swaying of the trees, while those in Act II comprise a sequence of four slow chords representing the magical sleep that affects almost all the characters during the course of the act. Both these rondo-like ideas pay overt tribute to earlier composers, the slithering strings in Act I suggesting Britten had in mind the garden music from Ravel’s opera L’enfant et les sortilèges (1925) while the Act II chords lightly parody the opening of Mendelssohn’s celebrated overture to Shakespeare’s play. In Act III, the gradual approach of Theseus’s hunting horns is handled as another ritornello scheme, but this structural device is abandoned after the transformation interlude to the ducal palace when the opera of necessity shifts — rather too abruptly, in the opinion of some of its critics — to a more mundane setting. This minor anticlimax is amply compensated for by the hilarious musical parodies in the concluding presentation of ’Pyramus and Thisbe’, Shakespeare’s play-within-aplay now transformed into an opera-within-an-opera. ’Pyramus’ satirizes Britten’s own technical processes just as much as the clichés of Italian opera he so wickedly and elegantly exposes, and this mini comic opera is a reminder that the dexterous musical wit of Britten’s chamber opera Albert Herring (1947) — which was performed in the Jubilee Hall during the very first Aldeburgh Festival — could still surface with infectious vigour and magnificent effect later in his career. Elsewhere in the score, Britten makes idiosyncratic use of twelve-note techniques: for example, both the Act I and Act II ritornelli were consciously designed to encompass all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. In Act I, the string glissandi map out all twelve possible major triads, the sequence adapted each time it reappears so that the music can establish the key of the following scene. In Act

II, the four ’sleep’ chords between them include all twelve pitches. The final appearance of this chord sequence — which functions as a kind of ground-bass pattern whenever it occurs — allows Britten to make a characteristic musical pun: as the four mortal lovers lie down to each of the chords in turn, the fairies express the hope that they will ’On the ground, sleep sound’. Twelve-note thinking also affects much of the opera’s music outside the atmospheric soundscapes of the ritornelli, and generally reflects the contrast between true love and mindless doting that is such a central theme in the play. Moments governed by twelve-note organisation include the initial tiff between Tytania and Oberon (reworked in Act III when their dispute is resolved), the duet ’I swear to thee’ sung by Lysander and Hermia in Act I (later wildly distorted when Lysander pursues Helena under the influence of the magic herb), and the beautiful quartet in Act III when the lovers awake and are reconciled in the bright light of a new day. Britten uses triadic harmony that exhausts all twelve possible roots to represent the power and universality of true love, but total chromatic saturation of the melody to depict supernatural or undesirable forces, for example in Oberon’s spell music, which directly recalls the even darker twelve-note conceits in Britten’s operatic ghost story The Turn of the Screw (1954).

Snape Maltings Concert Hall interior © Matt Jolly, Creative Commons

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“Shakespeare is so great and so universal that he has many different sides and we can all find new aspects of it” The opera’s distinctive soundworld is poised between the sonorous richness and technical brilliance of Britten’s earlier stage works and the greater economy and austerity of the music he composed after (and partly in reaction to) the watershed of the War Requiem in 1962. The score continues to reflect its composer’s admiration for the Balinese gamelan, which he had experienced at first hand during a trip to Indonesia in 1956, with the gamelan-influenced writing for tuned percussion blending effectively with the prominent harps and harpsichord. The inclusion of the latter in Britten’s compact orchestra is an act of homage to the music of Purcell, which is further celebrated in the sometimes florid melodic lines conceived for the creator of the role of Oberon, the countertenor and early-music specialist Alfred Deller. Purcell, of course, had composed his own stage work based on Shakespeare’s play: the masque The Fairy Queen (1692), of which Britten helped prepare a new performing edition in 1967. ’Shakespeare is wonderful to set, and there is in him an absolutely unparalleled series of librettos’, Britten once commented. He later contemplated writing a second Shakespeare opera, to have been based on King Lear with Dietrich FischerDieskau in the title role. But this failed to materialise, in part because Britten felt he needed to be ’older and wiser’ in order to tackle it — though Pears had duly begun to annotate his Penguin edition of King Lear in anticipation. At several stages in his career Britten was also tempted to compose music for a film of The Tempest, which John Gielgud hoped to direct, and which was to have been filmed on location in Britten’s beloved Bali. As Britten told a radio interviewer in 1960, when asked to compare his Dream opera to Mendelssohn’s incidental music for the play, ’Shakespeare is so great and so universal that he has many different sides and we can all find new aspects of it’. Given the universal and international appeal of Shakespeare’s dramas, it is therefore remarkable that Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream still remains the only opera based directly on a Shakespeare play in the original English which enjoys a stable foothold in the international repertory. The remarkable achievement it represents

Benjamin Britten, 1968 Benjamin Britten, London Records 1968 © public domain

was aptly summarised by the Shakespeare scholar W Moelwyn Merchant in the year following the opera’s premiere: “it is one of the ironies of theatre history that this opera version is the richest and most faithful interpretation of Shakespeare’s intentions that the stage has seen in our generation.”

Mervyn Cooke University of Nottingham (School of Humanities, Department of Music). Writes extensively on the music of Benjamin Britten, Jazz, Film Music, 20th century music

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Twenty Five Years of Differing Oberons

A M I D S U M M E R N I G H T ’ S DR E A M

I sang Oberon for the first time in 1967, having auditioned before Britten himself for what was to be a new production, specially mounted for the opening of the Maltings at Snape, and this was the beginning of my long association, lasting some twenty five years, with this extraordinary, haunting work. I had seen the piece at the Royal Opera House previous to my audition in July 1966, and had been somewhat unimpressed by it. The opening scene was played behind a gauze curtain and the combination of squeaky boy trebles, a shrieking soprano and an inaudible Oberon left me rather underwhelmed. The piece had generated huge publicity when it first appeared, and my expectations were high, but I remember thinking that I was glad not to be singing in it. Oberon was originally written for the legendary Alfred Deller, and it was he who gave the premiere at Aldeburgh in 1960, in the tiny Jubilee Hall. This was long before the Maltings came into being. Britten loved Deller’s voice and was keen to write a stage role for him, although he was well aware that he was taking a gamble, as the counter tenor was by no means as common then as it is now, and it was definitely not regarded as a ‘Stage Voice’. By all accounts Deller sang the role beautifully, and Britten was more than satisfied, although he did acknowledge that Alfred was not a natural stage creature. The producer, John Cranko, felt inhibited by this and tended to place Alfred to one side of the action, making him more of a commentator than a protagonist. The Times critic said that he made an intriguing presence, ‘Half Prospero and Half Mandarin’. Sadly, Deller was not invited to reprise the role when The Dream was transferred to the Royal Opera House. This had nothing to do with his beautiful singing, but was more a question of volume. Georg Solti, who was scheduled to conduct the Royal Opera production, came to Aldeburgh and declared that Deller’s lovely voice would simply not be heard in the larger space of the Opera House.

Alfred graciously accepted Solti’s decision and withdrew, albeit with a slight sense of relief on his part. He admitted that Covent Garden would have been somewhat terrifying after the cosy Jubilee Hall. The role is quite tricky to sing, not because it is particularly taxing, but because it lies in an awkward part of the counter tenor voice. This is entirely due to Deller himself and Britten’s uncanny skill at writing for specific singers. Deller made it clear that he preferred to concentrate on his lower register; the rapture of the heights was not for him. He was, after all, a product of the English cathedral system, which never ventured towards the top of the stave.

Alfred Deller making a broadcast at a BBC radio studio, English counter-tenor. 31 May 1912–16 July 1979, BBC Courtesy of Deller Family Archive © Lebrecht Music Arts / Bridgeman Images

Oberon (Tim Mead) and Puck (David Evans) discover the sleeping Bottom and Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne Photo © Robert Workman

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Michael Chance as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Monnaie, Brussels (2004) © Johan Jacobs

A M I D S U M M E R N I G H T ’ S DR E A M

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

“He was, after all, a product of the English cathedral system, which never ventured towards the top of the stave”

Therefore, the range of the role is basically E flat to B flat; there is some low lying recitative around Middle C in Act 1 and an optional high D at the start of Act 3, but that is all. Britten achieves a miracle within a very restricted compass. I might perhaps insert one small personal memory here which occurs at the moment of Puck’s torture, in Act 2. Oberon ascends to a C sharp at the climax of his rage, only to descend the octave almost immediately, thereby reducing the impact of his fury. I had the temerity to ask Britten if I might remain on the high C sharp, to reinforce the tension. This he willingly accepted, much to my relief. My first appearance as Oberon was not, as might be expected, at the Aldeburgh Festival, but was instead in Paris, at the Theatre de L’Odeon. Jean Louis Barrault, the celebrated French stage director was mounting a festival grandly entitled ‘Le Theatre des Nations’ and we were invited as the English contingent, offering both Shakespeare and Britten. This engagement was also a very useful

Théâtre de l’Odéon in the 6th arrondissements of Paris Creative Commons © Daniel Vorndran / DXR

tryout for our appearances at Aldeburgh later in the same month. However, our visit was not without its problems. The Theatre de L’Odeon is not an opera house and therefore has no proper orchestra pit; also, the stage is very sharply raked, presumably as an aid to Racinian declamation. Our set consisted of trees on wheels, designed to be moved on a flat surface, so our stage management had to contend with items sliding off the rake and into the improvised orchestra pit. The French theatre crew objected to all this, and in typical French fashion, called a lightning strike ‘in protest’ As we were contracted to give three performances, we had to give two shows on one day to cover the day lost by the strike. It was a relief to return to the sanity of Aldeburgh, and the new Maltings. This English Opera Group production proved a great success and it toured extensively for the next four years. It was the first of the ten productions that occupied a great deal of my time for the next twenty five years.

A M I D S U M M E R N I G H T ’ S DR E A M

Mark Rylance (Puck), James Bowman (Oberon) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten after Shakespeare at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London 17/06/1986 © Donald Cooper / Alamy Stock Photo

“It’s difficult to be Fairy-like with a mouthful of ‘J-cloth’” After this, I was invited to sing Dream with Scottish Opera in 1972, with The Royal Opera at Covent Garden in 1974, the Opera du Rhin at Strasbourg in 1975, the Welsh National Opera in 1978, the Australian Opera in 1980, Glyndebourne in 1981, a second production for the Royal Opera 1984, a short-lived company called Opera London in 1990, and finally, the Festival of Aix-en-Provence in 1991. I cannot, in any honesty, claim that all these productions were masterpieces; one or two were decidedly strange. For instance, the Opera du Rhin was saddled with a concept thought up by Jean Pierre Ponnelle in a hurry. He obviously didn’t much care for the piece and the result showed. I really had no idea what was going on; I would dutifully appear and sing my scenes in a cumbersome French translation, surrounded by small girl fairies who giggled a lot. I was required to beat them at intervals with a riding crop (sic) and they would taunt me with cries of “Le Sadisme”. I don’t think Britten would have been at all amused. Another production had a strange set that confined all the action to a space in front of a ruined wall with a door set in it. It looked for all the world like an outside lavatory, used at various points in the opera by Oberon and Titania. Designers don’t

appreciate your questioning their strange ideas; one just has to accept them and get on with it. Needless to say, this was christened ‘The Outside Loo’ production. I still think the original production at Covent Garden, with the beautiful John Piper designs, was, for me, the most memorable. By the time I came along, things were starting to look a bit frayed. In fact, on closer inspection the set was made up of mundane articles like pan scrubbers and ‘J-cloths, painted to look like foliage, but when they were lit, the effect was magical. The gauze that I found so intrusive when I saw it in 1965 had vanished by the time I appeared. Instead, aided by a wind machine in the wings, I made a dramatic entrance with my copious cloak flying up behind me. Sir Frederick Ashton came to a performance and complimented me afterwards, saying that ‘for a singer, I moved quite well!’ He was, however, not a fan of Britten’s music. But Pride comes before a Fall: at one performance I tripped over one of the said pan scrubbers and sprawled in a heap. It’s difficult to be Fairy-like with a mouthful of ‘J-cloth’.

James Bowman The pre-eminent Oberon of his generation

LA CENERENTOLA RO S SIN I

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LA CENERENTOLA GIOACH I NO RO S S I N I Libretto by Jacopo Ferretti Sung in Italian with surtitles by David Parry

Conductor Director Designer Lighting Designer Choreographer Fight Director

David Parry Stephen Barlow Andrew D Edwards Paul Pyant Heather Douglas Bret Yount

B OU R N EMOU T H S Y M PHON Y ORC H E S T R A Leader Amyn Merchant

T H E GR A NGE F E S T I VA L C HORU S Chorus Master Matthew Morley Assistant Conductor Assistant Director Repetiteur Sound Engineer Recording Manager Recording Producer Production Manager Costume Supervisor

Alistair Digges Crispin Lord Mark Austin Mike Walker Tom Primrose Adrian Peacock Tom Nickson Zoë Thomas Webb

CA S T Angelina Don Ramiro Dandini Don Magnifico Alidoro Clorinda Tisbe

Heather Lowe (25, 28, 30 June) Victoria Simmonds (3, 7 July) Nico Darmanin Christian Senn Simone Alberghini Roberto Lorenzi Carolina Lippo Maria Ostroukhova

This production is supported by

Lord and Lady Laidlaw | Graham and Amanda Hutton These performances are sponsored by

30 June Sarasin and Partners | 7 July Clifford Chance LLP Gioachino Rossini : “La Cenerentola”, ossia “La bonta in trionfo” Melodramma giocoso in II atti Critical edition by Alberto Zedda © Casa Ricordi, Milano (Universal Music Publishing Group) By arrangement with G. Ricordi & Co (London) Ltd

LA CEN ERENTOLA

SYNOPSIS AC T I

AC T I I

In a hall in Don Magnifico’s castle, his daughters Clorinda and Tisbe are titivating themselves, while their stepsister Cenerentola (Cinderella), whose real name is Angelina, sings a song about a king who chose a good-natured girl as his bride. She gives breakfast to a beggar (Alidoro, Prince Ramiro’s tutor in disguise) to her sisters’ annoyance. The prince’s knightly retinue announce that the prince is about to give a grand ball at which he will choose the most beautiful woman as his wife. The beggar prophesies that tomorrow Cenerentola will be happy. Don Magnifico wakes up and describes a dream he has had, predicting that he will gain a great fortune. When he hears of the prince’s visit, he is convinced that one of his daughters will win his hand. Ramiro swaps clothes with his attendant, Dandini, and makes a visit in disguise. He and Cenerentola fall in love at first sight. Clorinda and Tisbe are introduced to Dandini, playing the prince. Cenerentola asks to go to the ball, but Don Magnifico tells her to stay at home. When Alidoro brings a list of unmarried women and asks where Magnifico’s third daughter is, Magnifico tells him she has died. Alidoro secretly tells Cenerentola who he is and invites her to the ball. At the palace, Dandini (still in disguise) makes Magnifico his wine steward. Clorinda and Tisbe are rude to Ramiro, thinking him to be nothing but an attendant. A beautiful, mysterious lady appears and the step-sisters are astonished by how much she resembles Cenerentola.

The courtiers laugh at the sisters. Magnifico thinks how much money he will make as the prince’s father-in-law. Ramiro overhears Cenerentola refusing Dandini’s courtship because she is in love with his attendant. She gives Ramiro a bracelet and tells him he will recognise her because she will be wearing its twin. If he still loves her, he can marry her. Ramiro changes out of his disguise and decides to track down the mysterious woman. Dandini lets Magnifico daydream then reveals who he really is. On their return to Magnifico’s castle the sisters find Cenerentola by the fire. They scold her for daring to look like the lady at the ball. Alidoro makes sure the prince’s carriage overturns outside the castle. Cenerentola and Alidoro recognise each other, and everyone is astonished at the intricate tangle of events. Ramiro spirits Cenerentola away to his palace and Alidoro warns the sisters to beg for forgiveness. At the wedding, Cenerentola pleads with the prince to have mercy on her father and her stepsisters and reflects on how her own fortunes have changed.

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The Clemency of Cenerentola

LA CEN ERENTOLA

On the night of 25 January 1817, La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant) had its premiere at Rome’s Teatro Valle. The composer who brought it into the world had already gained Europe-wide stardom thanks to works such as Tancredi (1813), a masterpiece of opera seria — heroic opera in the Italian tradition. By the time of Tancredi, Rossini had already established his basic formal templates for the overture and, most importantly, for standard vocal numbers such as the aria, the grand duet, and the act finale. These patterns were destined to influence composers of Italian opera for decades to come, as far as the mature Verdi of Aida (1871); in this sense, Rossini can be said to have played in relation to opera a role not unlike that of Beethoven and the symphony, both having developed formal models that composers would have to contend with for generations. In 1815 Rossini had signed a contract with the Royal Theatres of Naples, of which he would soon become the music director; these theatres included the San Carlo, one of Europe’s grandest. At the same time, he had already established himself as an absolute master of opera buffa — comic opera in Italian — through works such as L’italiana in Algeri (1813) and Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816). In fact, by the time of La Cenerentola’s premiere, Rossini’s career as a composer of Italian comic opera had more or less run its course. Though he could not know it, La Cenerentola — the twentieth operatic composition in his catalogue — would constitute his last fullfledged opera buffa: of his later comic works in Italian, Adina (composed in 1818 but not performed until 1826) is a one-act piece, whereas Il viaggio a Reims is an atypical work — a one-off, occasional composition that falls somewhere between an opera and a staged cantata. Thus, the man who on that night of 25 January 1817 presented La Cenerentola to the Romans had not only laid the foundations of musico-dramatic composition for Italian opera of the following decades; he had already brought to completion his seminal contribution to the history of opera buffa. That man was twenty-five years old.

Rossini’s work had been known to Roman audiences since 1812, as some of his operas that had premiered elsewhere had been revived in the capital of the Papal State; since these were not first productions, however, the presence of the composer was not required. But his presence became necessary in the case of new works composed expressly for Roman theatres, the semi-serious Torvaldo e Dorliska (Teatro Valle, 26 December 1815) and the comic Il barbiere di Siviglia (Teatro Argentina, 20 February 1816). On 29 February 1816, Rossini’s twenty-fourth birthday, while performances of Il barbiere were continuing at the Teatro Argentina, the composer signed a contract with the Teatro Valle for a new opera. He rejected the first libretto offered to him, which had been prepared by the well-known librettist Gaetano Rossi. Librettist Jacopo Ferretti then suggested to him the subject of Cinderella, at that time known mostly through Charles Perrault’s tale Cendrillon (1697). Ferretti would later recall that moment, and Rossini’s immediate reaction, in his memoirs:

Gioachino Rossini’s meeting with George IV of the United Kingdom at Brighton in 1823, as depicted in a lithograph by Charles Motte By Charles Etienne Pierre Motte © public domain

Actress Liza Arzamasova as Cinderella © kudavik / Adobe Stock Photo

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‘‘Would you have the courage to write a Cendrillon for me?,’ he said, and I replied, ‘And you to set it to music?’ And he, ‘When will I have the scenario?’, and I, ‘...In spite of my sleepiness, tomorrow morning’, and he, ‘Good night!’ While the account may be literary, it is basically truthful, as is Ferretti’s claim that he ‘wrote the poetry in twenty-two days, and Rossini the music in twenty-four’. We know that Ferretti and Rossini agreed on the subject on 23 December 1816, and that libretto and score were created in three and a half weeks; in fact, within just over a month the opera was written, rehearsed, and premiered. That Ferretti’s ‘twenty-two’ plus ‘twenty-four’ days do not seem to tally with our reckoning of a total of three and a half weeks is explained by the fact that, because time was so short, composers and librettists had to undertake their respective work on an opera simultaneously. (The composer would receive the libretto piecemeal, and would work right away on whatever words he had, before seeing the rest of the poetry.) The breakneck pace of the production system of Italian opera accounts for other shortcuts usually taken by librettists and composers. We know, for example, that Ferretti not only resorted to literary sources other than Perrault’s tale, but also made some use of earlier librettos by other poets. As for the substitution of Cinderella’s traditional lost shoe with a bracelet, Ferretti explained that he had acted out of delicacy, as the Roman audience ‘would not tolerate on stage what amused them in a little tale at the fireside’; in fact, it was the sight

of a prima donna’s bare foot on stage that would not have been tolerated by the notorious Roman censors (who were, after all, employed by the pope). Rossini, too, resorted to a couple of customary compositional expedients. First, he enlisted the help of an assistant composer for minor parts of the opera: the ‘secco’ recitatives (those accompanied by the keyboard) and three secondary musical numbers that nowadays are usually cut in performance. Secondly, he practised some ‘self-borrowing’, reusing music from his own earlier compositions. He borrowed the Sinfonia (the overture) from his comic opera La gazzetta, though — as always — he made sure to connect the older musical material to the new context: the crescendo heard twice in the borrowed overture is then brought back in the first-act finale of La Cenerentola. The most prominent instance of self-borrowing is that of ‘Non più mesta accanto al fuoco’ (‘No longer desolate by the fireplace’), Cenerentola’s dazzling vocal solo that concludes the opera, the music of which was originally composed for Count Almaviva’s final aria in Il barbiere di Siviglia (an aria often cut in modern performances). That Rossini was able to ‘recycle’ such a prominent section of music for the very same Roman opera-goers who had heard it less than a year earlier has led some scholars to hypothesise that this material had not been sung in the first Roman production of the opera. Be that as it may, in introducing the music from Il barbiere, Rossini composed afresh for Cenerentola the section that precedes it, ‘Nacqui all’affanno e al pianto’ (‘I was born to suffer and weep’).

“There can be no doubt about the many features that make La Cenerentola an opera buffa, beginning from the plot (which includes the age-old comic device of characters in disguise) and the presence of genuinely comic characters: Cenerentola’s puppetlike stepsisters, for instance, almost blend into a single character, a two-headed monster of selfish arrogance and stupidity”

LA CEN ERENTOLA

Preview of Rossini’s opera La Cenerentola at Edinburgh International Festival, 23rd August 2018 © Andrew Eaton/Alamy Live News

As was the practice for a new production, Rossini was obliged by his contract with the theatre not only to run the rehearsals of La Cenerentola, but also to conduct it from the keyboard for the first three nights. In spite of an initially mixed reception, the composer remained confident, and indeed the first production of La Cenerentola followed a pattern not unlike that of Il barbiere the year before, moving rapidly from an uncertain beginning to a clear success: within five days of the first night the press was extolling Rossini’s music unreservedly, and by the end of the season the Romans were delighted by it. The opera was quickly disseminated through myriad productions in Italy and abroad, becoming one of Rossini’s most successful works, even vying with Il barbiere di Siviglia for most of the nineteenth century. La Cenerentola has remained in the repertoire almost constantly: after a dip in popularity in the early twentieth century, it has gradually regained its position as one of Rossini’s most-performed works. There can be no doubt about the many features that make La Cenerentola an opera buffa, beginning from the plot (which includes the age-old comic device of characters in disguise) and the presence of genuinely comic characters: Cenerentola’s puppet-like stepsisters, for instance, almost blend into a single character, a two-headed monster of selfish arrogance and stupidity. Some of the other

characters conform to fairly standard types, such as the elderly man who is ridiculed for his pretensions (Don Magnifico, Cenerentola’s stepfather) and the young male lover (Don Ramiro, the prince). Ferretti’s libretto is a masterpiece of wit, verve and linguistic inventiveness. Though translating examples of this inventiveness may be as ineffective as explaining jokes, I will attempt a couple, selected from Don Magnifico’s verbal arsenal. In the dialogue that follows his entrance aria, the impoverished nobleman advises his daughters to take the utmost care in choosing their attire and their words, as the impression they make on the prince could eventually turn them into princesses: ‘Si tratta niente men che imprinciparvi’ (‘It’s a matter of nothing less than imprincing yourselves’). Later in the first act, when confronted with the official claim that there should be a third daughter in his household (namely Cenerentola, whom he is hiding), he replies, ‘Che terza figlia / mi va figliando?’ (‘What third daughter are you daughtering me with?’). Of course Don Magnifico is a typical opera buffa character in his musical expression, too. In fact, he belongs to the vocal-dramatic type that was then referred to simply as a ‘buffo’ — a bass-baritone who was especially good at acting, and, where necessary, capable of delivering syllables at quick-fire speed (the type of declamation often called ‘patter’).

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A signature characteristic of Rossini’s comic manner is passages that refer to the loss of reason, ensembles of confusion in which all on stage lose their head and remain trapped in the inexorable mechanism of the music. It is for these passages that the French writer Stendhal coined the oft-quoted phrase ‘folie organisée’ (organised madness), a phrase that captures their unique combination of insanity (the senseless repetition of words) and perfect musical clockwork. An example is La Cenerentola’s second-act sextet ‘Questo è un nodo avviluppato’ (‘This is a tangled knot’), in which Cenerentola and the prince recognise each other, and all six of the main characters pass about four minutes stating simply that the puzzling situation is driving them insane. But the comic pole of this opera is counterbalanced by its opposite, the sentimental, embodied in Cenerentola’s naivety and gentle pathos. She is very different from the standard buffa character-type of the soubrette, the young female who is sharp-witted, cheeky and often coquettish (think Rosina of Il barbiere di Siviglia). Moreover, Cenerentola’s transformation from humble servant to princess is aptly matched by the progress in her vocal style, from the folk-like tune she sings more than once (‘Una volta c’era un re’—‘There was once a king’) to the florid virtuosity of the ‘rondò’ with which she concludes the opera (‘Non più mesta accanto al fuoco’—‘No longer desolate by the fireplace’), a showcase for the prima donna’s technical prowess. (There are foreshadowings of that style earlier in the opera, most notably when Cenerentola makes her splendid appearance at the prince’s palace in

the first-act finale.) Scholars point to the literary device whereby a passage in a work encapsulates its overall narrative, and this is precisely the function of ‘Una volta c’era un re’ (compare the story recounted in this ditty with the opera’s plot). Musically, in its concealed sophistication the song is not just folk-like but, by the standards of opera buffa style, slightly archaic — which makes the contrast with Cenerentola’s grand style all the more remarkable. (A similarly significant vocal trajectory, though in the reverse direction, is evident in Verdi’s Traviata: Violetta’s vocal manner progresses — or, perhaps more precisely, regresses — from the pyrotechnics of her florid vocal style in the first act to the tragic, at times quasi-spoken quality of her final hours.) But there is one respect in which La Cenerentola can also remind us of opera seria. A typical situation in heroic opera was that by which a character, often an enlightened king, granted his final pardon to all who had been conspiring against him — the theme of clemency prominent in the title of Mozart’s last opera seria, La clemenza di Tito (1791). When called to ascend the throne, Cenerentola behaves according to the classical principle of decorum, which requires a princess to act and express herself in a regal fashion: she absolves her abusive stepfamily, and sings in the most magnificent manner.

Professor Stefano Castelvecchi University of Cambridge (Faculty of Music and St John’s College), Author, Sentimental Opera (Cambridge University Press 2013)

La Cenerentola, Rossini’s adaptation of Charles Perrault’s Cinderella fairy tale at the Boboli Gardens in Florence, which is being offered to audiences for free © Guy Bell / Alamy Stock Photo

LA CEN ERENTOLA

Action photos of an orchestral session for La Cenerentola © Michael Chance

M A N O N L E S CAU T PUC C IN I

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L

MANON LESCAUT GI AC OMO PUC C I N I Libretto by M Praga, D Oliva, G Ricordi, L Illica Sung in Italian with surtitles by Kenneth Chalmers

Conductor Director Designer Lighting Designer Movement Director Projection Designer

Francesco Cilluffo Stephen Lawless Adrian Linford Paul Pyant Lynne Hockney Jon Driscoll

B OU R N EMOU T H S Y M PHON Y ORC H E S T R A Leader Amyn Merchant

T H E GR A NGE F E S T I VA L C HORU S Chorus Master Matthew Morley Assistant Conductor Assistant Director Repetiteur and Language Coach Production Manager Sound Engineer Recording Manager Recording Producer Wardrobe Supervisor

Hannah Schneider Rory Fazan Valeria Racco Tom Nickson Mike Walker Tom Fetherstonhaugh Adrian Peacock Chrissy Maddison

CA S T Manon Lescaut Lescaut Des Grieux Geronte Edmondo/Dancing Master/ Lamplighter Musician Landlord/Sergeant/Captain

Elin Pritchard Nicholas Lester Peter Auty Stephen Richardson Kamil Bien Angharad Lyddon Stuart Orme

These performances are sponsored by

22 July Barclays

M A N ON L E S CAU T

SYNOPSIS AC T I

AC T I I I

Spring 1939, Amiens Edmondo and his student companions flirt with the local girls. His friend, des Grieux, also a student, stays apart from them. People arrive, bringing Geronte, a collector, and Lescaut, a soldier, who is accompanying his younger sister, Manon. Des Grieux falls in love with her at first sight, finds out that her father is sending her to a convent, and makes plans to prevent this from happening. But Geronte, with Lescaut’s connivance, intends to abduct Manon. Edmondo overhears his plans and warns des Grieux, who escapes with Manon to Paris. Lescaut consoles Geronte by telling him that Manon will not stay long with a student and that he will bring her back to him.

Autumn 1943, Le Havre Des Grieux waits outside the prison where Manon is held. Lescaut bribes a sentry to allow his sister to spend time with des Grieux, while he organises a group to enable her escape. The effort fails. Manon is processed along with the other female collaborators, prior to being deported. In desperation des Grieux threatens the officer, who faces him down. Des Grieux pleads with the captain to be allowed to go with them.

AC T I I Summer 1941, Paris Manon has left des Grieux and is living a life of luxury with Geronte. She’s bored and her brother promises to arrange for des Grieux to visit her. Some singers serenade Manon with a madrigal written by Geronte. Then she dances and sings for him and his friends. When they leave she tells Geronte that she will follow shortly, but des Grieux appears and Manon starts to seduce him. Geronte interrupts them, chillingly threatens the two of them, and leaves, telling them he will return soon. Lescaut runs in, warning the lovers that Geronte is going to get Manon arrested and that she must escape. She delays, trying to collect her jewellery, but is arrested before she can escape.

AC T I V Winter Des Grieux and Manon are on the run. They are at the end of their strength with exhaustion. Des Grieux leaves Manon, searching for help. When he returns, he finds her dying. In her last breath she says she loves him.

Interval

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Manon Lescaut The recipe for success — uncombed hair and a special city

M A N ON L E S CAU T

Turin. Evening of 1st of February 1893. In the city where milk chocolate, breadsticks and Vermouth were created, a stone’s throw from where Nietzsche went mad, and where Maria Callas would make both her recording and opera directing debut, the young Music Director of the Teatro Regio, Arturo Toscanini, is putting on his tails to conduct the world premiere of Manon Lescaut, an opera by the young Giacomo Puccini. Puccini was still just a promising and handsome young man from Lucca who had dared to write an opera on the same subject of Jules Massenet’s blockbuster opera Manon, inspired by Prévost’s literary sensation Histoire du chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. He argued that while Massenet wrote an opera which was all “minuets and powder” he, as an Italian, would write one full of “desperate passion”, cheekily adding “surely a woman like Manon could have more than one lover.” And yet, the triumph of the world première of his new opera turned Puccini into the next hot property in the operatic world, just as Cavalleria Rusticana did to his former roommate and fellow student Pietro Mascagni, three years before, in Rome. Only a little more than a week later, Verdi’s Falstaff would be premiered at La Scala, in Milan. So in 1893 the music world was given a double treat: within days, a new opera about growing old from the ageing great Maestro, and another new opera about young love and selfdestructive passion from Verdi’s “true heir”, as Puccini was hailed by George Bernard Shaw. But what makes Manon Lescaut not just a great opera, but a perfect reflection of the society from which it sprang? As hard as it is for us to imagine today, no other Puccini opera would ever get the same unanimously enthusiastic response from both public and critics.

To understand the various elements that made Manon Lescaut the tremendous success it was, we have to go back to the cultural “soil” in which it originated, the age of Italian Scapigliatura. The Scapigliatura was a movement which was fomented by the volatile middle class generations that in the decades of the aftermath of Italian unification (1861) saw the collapse of all the hopes for moral and social revolution that the Risorgimento had aroused. Like most cultural movements in Italy, it had its inspiration in France, and particularly in the Positivist philosophy of Comte and the naturalistic literature of Zola. Unlike most movements and schools, Scapigliati (literally meaning “people with unkept, uncombed hair”) were a mix of mostly middle class artists, poets and musicians who had no real shared manifesto; in fact, many contradictions and extremes somehow coexisted in their creed, in an original and organic way. The average Scapigliato home library included translations of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Victor Hugo, Lord Byron, Alphonse Musset, Charles Baudelaire and Emile Zola with the fashionable Italian works by Ugo Tarchetti, Giuseppe Rovani, Antonio Fogazzaro and Camillo and Arrigo Boito. Musically, Scapigliatura strangely combined a deep admiration for Richard Wagner (seen as the bringer of revolutionary music drama) with naturalism and realism, which was fed by the awareness and interest in the poorest classes of Italian society, left out by industrial progress in the ever fast growing metropolitan cities like Milan. Last but not least, there was the great desire to overcome once and for all the rural, Catholic attitudes, which underpinned most of Verdi’s operas, by portraying passionate, irreverent love affairs, with larger-than-life heroines in the likes of the protagonist of Georges Bizet’s Carmen (premiered in 1875 in France and in 1879 in Italy).

“What makes Manon Lescaut not just a great opera, but a perfect reflection of the society from which it sprang?” Aurora (The painter and his girlfriend), 1884, by Gaetano Previati (1852–1920) Oil on canvas © Mondadori Portfolio/Electa/Fototecnica/Bridgeman Images

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Despite the Italian colour given by Puccini, the story of Manon Lescaut is very much imbued with the recreation of the Eighteen Century France, and that is another key to its immense success — not only in Turin, which was and still is the closest Italian metropolis to France, both geographically and culturally. Even before the Romantic era, culture, literature, music and philosophy came to Italy directly from France: let us remember that Verdi knew Shakespeare only in French translation, and that he himself became a universally acclaimed star only after being consecrated at the Opéra in Paris. In a way, Puccini continued that trend, the Ville Lumière being the most recurrent setting for his works: Manon Lescaut, Bohème, Tabarro and La Rondine. And the trend went on with Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, Fedora and Madame Sans-Gêne, Mascagni’s Il Piccolo Marat, Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur, Respighi’s Marie Victoire. Even Russian literature came to Italy through French lenses, as is clear from Alfano’s and Respighi’s biographies. So the recipe for the perfect entertainment was a prêt-à-porter mix of German tinta to be provided mostly from the orchestra pit (itself a Wagnerian invention), a story preferably with a French setting and the depiction of Mediterranean, Dionysian

Portrait of a bohemian nude in an Italian scenery set © Mediacolors / Alamy Stock Photo

(Nietzsche’s category) passion stripped of any moral or Christian morality. In Manon Lescaut the audience found a piece which ticked all the boxes. But Puccini’s musical merits extend far further than the mere craft of putting together an opera with all the right ingredients. It is little known that Giulio Ricordi, the king of music publishing in Italy in those times, had sent Puccini to Bayreuth to see Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in order to suggest some major cuts to make the lengthy opera marketable for its Italian première at La Scala in 1889. The score of Manon Lescaut, while clearly owing much to Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal, owes also a lot to the atmospheres of Meistersinger, the introduction to Act III in particular. Furthermore, the original version of the Finale primo of Manon Lescaut, which differs substantially from the one usually performed today, is clearly a bold if somewhat failed homage to the famous quarrel scene which ends Act II of Wagner’s only romantic comedy. Tristan is also very much present in the famous Intermezzo and in the sombre opening of Act III at Le Havre. But the specific musical success of Puccini here is mostly to have smartly bridged the lesson of Wagner with the musical language of Verdi, Ponchielli and Boito.

M A N ON L E S CAU T

If those last two names are still familiar to us today, it is because Ponchielli was Puccini’s and Mascagni’s composition teacher at the Milan Conservatoire and also the author of La Gioconda, a case example of a Scapigliatura opera still in repertoire today. If you ever wanted to see what happens by putting Aida, Tosti’s Songs, late Donizetti, Gothic novels and grand-Guignol into a cocktail shaker, just grab a recording of Gioconda. On the other hand, Arrigo Boito, the genius librettist of late Verdi, wrote another opera of the post-Verdipre-Puccini era still in repertoire, Mefistofele, the Faust myth being very dear to Scapigliatura. So it is from those two musical godfathers, together with the visual inspiration of painters like Tranquillo Cremona and sculptors like Giuseppe Grandi and Medardo Rosso, that we can better understand the complex musical and cultural world that Puccini exemplified so well in his first true operatic success. But the central female character of the opera is herself a very modern creation. Manon is not just the first three-dimensional of the many ill-fated Puccini heroines; there is something about her which is foreign to all the others: the complete surrender to passions and lust for no greater reason than her freedom. Very much like Carmen, she is an amoral creature who fully embraces her destiny, come what may. No illness (Mimi), no savior complex (Tosca and Minnie in Fanciulla), no self-delusion (Anna in Le Villi or Cio-Cio-San), no mid-life crisis (Magda in La Rondine), no Stockholm Syndrome (Giorgetta), no guilt complex (Suor Angelica), no self-immolation (Liù) are issues for her: Manon loves freedom, money, occasional sex, torrid love affairs, luxury fashion and pleasures. She is fully aware of where all this can lead to for her and Des Grieux. Even after the long journey to America from France, as a prostitute, she does not seem to find peace: “Ah, mia beltà funesta, ire novelle accende” (“Alas, my fatal beauty kindles new strife...”). Only death can free her from the self-consuming life she has brought upon herself. It is not hard to see a path which would lead to Berg’s Lulu and Turnage’s Anna Nicole. But now, let’s go back again to that wonderful first week of February 1893.

Giacomo Puccini. Postcard, early 20th century © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images

Wagner, hero and villain for many, was dead but very much present and alive in the melancholic portrayal of Sir John Falstaff by Verdi and in the passionate and modern new work by the moustached man from Lucca Puccini. Fenton and Nannetta, the young lovers in Falstaff, are already speaking a sentimental, tender language which Puccini would later develop in Bohème and Madama Butterfly. Lovers like Mimì and Rodolfo will fill the streets of metropolitan cities like Milan, Paris, London and soon New York. For Puccini’s generation, the era of Scapigliatura and of the bohemian rebellion would soon pass: very much as the Rodolphe of the original novel Scènes de la vie de bohème by Murger is seen at the end of the novel as a successful middle class man, the composer of Manon Lescaut would go on to explore the world by developing a language consisting in a sapient mix of verismo, symbolism and expressionism. Just a few months after the triumphant opening nights of Manon Lescaut and Falstaff in 1893, Alfredo Catalani, another young and promising composer from Lucca whose operas Toscanini championed and conducted many times, would untimely pass away. Contrary to what Verdi himself — an admirer of Cavalleria Rusticana — predicted, it was Puccini, not Mascagni, who would dominate the early Twentieth Century scene. The moustache would stay, but, from now on, his hair would be very well combed indeed.

Francesco Cilluffo Conductor, Manon Lescaut

“The specific musical success of Puccini here is mostly to have smartly bridged the lesson of Wagner with the musical language of Verdi, Ponchielli and Boito” 97

M Y FA I R L A DY LER N ER & L OE W E

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Lerner & Loewe’s

M Y FA I R L A D Y Books and Lyrics by

Music by

Alan Jay Lerner

Frederick Loewe

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Play and Gabriel Pascal’s Motion Picture Pygmalion Original Production Directed and Staged by Moss Hart This concert performance is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International Europe

Conductor Director Repetiteur Dialect Coach

Alfonso Casado Trigo Guy Unsworth Jo Ramadan Anne-Marie Speed

B OU R N EMOU T H S Y M PHON Y ORC H E S T R A Leader Amyn Merchant

T H E GR A NGE F E S T I VA L C HORU S Chorus Master Matthew Morley

CA S T Eliza Doolittle Henry Higgins Alfred P Doolittle Mrs Higgins / Mrs Pearce / Cockney Woman Colonel Pickering Freddy Eynsford-Hill

Ellie Laugharne Steven Pacey Peter Polycarpou Susie Blake Richard Suart Nadim Naaman

This production is supported by

Our Nightingales, Skylarks and Goldcrests This concert performance is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International Europe.

M Y FA I R L A DY

SYNOPSIS When Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady opened on Broadway, it collected six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, while the film version took home eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady is that rare musical by which all others are measured. The tale of a cockney flower girl transformed into an elegant lady features one of musical theatre’s greatest scores, including: Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?, With a Little Bit of Luck, The Rain in Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me to the Church on Time and I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Eliza Doolittle is a young flower seller with an unmistakable Cockney accent which keeps her in the lower rungs of Edwardian society. When Professor Henry Higgins tries to teach her how to speak like a proper lady, an unlikely friendship begins to flourish.

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Lerner & Loewe

M Y FA I R L A DY

An American In Paris, the beloved MGM musical with the all-Gershwin score, won six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Reviewing the 4 October 1951 premiere, the New York Times had hailed “the big lavish musical film that Metro obligingly delivered to the Music Hall”, raved about its star Gene Kelly and, most especially, his new find Leslie Caron, but had little time for the “glib but very thin script” by Alan Jay Lerner. Right next to that review was a showbiz gossip column by Sam Zolotow suggesting that the chances of rights to a musical version of the late George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion being made available were “fairly good”. Yet at this stage, the team of Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe were nowhere to be seen. At this stage, they had written just one solid success, the unlikely but long-running Scottish fairytale musical Brigadoon. The Pygmalion project was in far more illustrious hands, the team that had reinvented the American musical in 1943 creating the blueprint of the integrated musical play with the runaway hit Oklahoma! And they were currently riding high with their latest show The King and I. Their names, of course, were Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Proposals for a musical of Shaw’s 1913 play dated back as far as 1921 when Franz Lehár, the composer of The Merry Widow, proposed it. But Shaw was fiercely opposed, having less than cordially loathed Der Tapfere Soldat (The Chocolate Soldier), Oscar Straus’ hit operetta based on Shaw’s Arms and the Man. But despite Shaw’s antipathy, others were keen. Having starred in a 1945 revival of the play, Gertrude Lawrence suggested Noël Coward should write a version, another notion that similarly came to nothing. Shaw’s death in 1950 removed the major obstacle but as Hammerstein’s most celebrated protégé Stephen Sondheim told playwright John Guare, Hammerstein “didn’t see how it sang. It all takes place in this one set. They’re just in the professor’s studio. And he said, “I just don’t understand.’” As a result, he and Rodgers abandoned the idea. With their departure, producing company The Theatre Guild and producer Gabriel Pascal tried

Frank “Guys and Dolls” Loesser who was either too uninterested or too busy (or both), then Cole Porter said no. Even Irving Berlin turned it down before, in early 1952, the producers approached Lerner and Loewe. Born in 1919 into a very comfortable family that ran the famous chain of dress shops, Lerner Stores, Alan Jay Lerner was expensively educated — he even spent a term in England at Bedales — and began playing the piano at five. By the time he reached Harvard (as a sociology student) he was a musical theatre obsessive and was spending summers at Juilliard studying music and theory. Determined to pursue a theatre career, upon leaving Harvard he took up residence at the celebrated theatrical club The Lambs next to New York’s theatre district and then took a suite at the equally showbiz-laden The Royalton where he lived with the first of his wives. But while still networking at The Lambs in August 1942 he met Frederick “Fritz” Loewe and, regardless of which version of their story you believe — the two of them later disagreed about their meeting and much else besides — a collision on the way to the men’s room led to 24-year-old Lerner accepting 41-year-old Loewe’s invitation that he join him on a musical version of the farce The Patsy. It was the beginning of an artistically (and financially) successful collaboration that ran for 18 years, encompassing eight stage and six film musicals. They had plenty in common besides a love of musical theatre, the most surprising being that both had been boxers, Loewe professionally and Lerner at Harvard until he was hit with a left hook so strong that one eye was permanently damaged. Both of them knew how to spend eye-watering amounts of money (Loewe in particular loved gambling his fortune in casinos) and both were what used to be called “womanisers”. Lerner, seemingly as addicted to marriage as he was to women. Like Elizabeth Taylor, he married eight times, with all the consequent alimony payments. Although Loewe married — and divorced — just once, he entertained a legendary procession of women very much younger than him.

Alan Jay Lerner (1918–1986) American composer and dramatist, right, and Frederick Loewe (1901–1989), American (Austrian-born) composer © Granger / Bridgeman Images

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Both men were Jewish, although Lerner notably downplayed that element of his cultural background. Loewe, born in 1901 in Berlin to Viennese parents, came from a more musical background, his father being an operetta star. Loewe was a piano prodigy and claimed not only to have been composing songs at seven but that at thirteen he had been the youngest piano soloist ever to appear with the Berlin Philharmonic. Arriving in New York in 1924, he too was determined to write for Broadway. Kitty Carlisle Hart, whose career encompassed everything from starring in the Marx Brothers A Night At the Opera to playing the title role in the American premiere of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, loved telling the story of working with Loewe in 1933 when he was the pit pianist on Champagne Sec, a musical theatre version of Die Fledermaus.

Eastwood, Jean Seberg and Lee Marvin who had one of history’s most improbable No. 1 hits growling his way through the new number “Wanderin’ Star”. The original show ran on Broadway for seven months, during which the two men worked on the Pygmalion project until, after a chance meeting with Oscar Hammerstein who spoke of the impossibility of adapting the material, they too threw in the towel. On the hunt for another writing team, producer Gabriel Pascal met Leonard Bernstein more than once and for a moment it looked as if the show might be created by him and his old chums Betty Comden and Adolph Green with whom he had written On the Town. But when, months later, Lerner read of Pascal’s death, he invited Loewe to lunch and they wisely decided that any difficulties should be, and probably could be, overcome. Ultimately, Lerner’s book for the show derived

“Loewe was a piano prodigy and claimed not only to have been composing songs at seven but that at thirteen he had been the youngest piano soloist ever to appear with the Berlin Philharmonic” “He’d stand behind me in the dressing-room and say, ’Some day I’m going to wrrrrite ze best musical on Brrrroadvay’. And I’d think, you and who else?” Yet that’s precisely what he did. Not, however, immediately. The Patsy, featuring a book (the Broadway term for libretto) co-written by Lerner but not the lyrics, became Life of the Party which ran two months in Detroit but never made it to Manhattan. Their first Broadway credit, What’s Up?, opened on 11 November 1963 and lasted just 63 performances and failed to yield a hit song, although hats off for the idea of the Bach meets boogie-woogie cross that was “The Ill-Tempered Clavichord”? Lerner later described their next show, The Day After Spring, as “a succès d’estime, meaning a success that runs out of steam.” But their next, the fanciful Brigadoon (1947) not only contained some of Loewe’s finest music — the flowing ballads in particular are as beautiful as they are ardent — it also ran 581 performances and made their names. Their working relationship, however, was so turbulent that they didn’t work together again until 1951 with their California gold rush musical Paint Your Wagon, famously filmed almost two decades later after Loewe’s death with additional songs by André Previn, with the unlikely cast of Clint

less from Shaw’s play than from the Oscar-winning screenplay of the 1938 film version. And, taking a chance, the role of Eliza Doolittle was given to a nineteen-year-old English girl from Walton-on-Thames who was playing the lead role of Polly Browne in the Broadway transfer of Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend. The risk of casting relatively unknown Julie Andrews was offset by the star casting of Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins after Noël Coward turned it down. After a last-minute choice of title, chosen because a name was urgently needed for the publicity, My Fair Lady began life in New Haven and then Philadelphia before opening at Broadway’s Mark Hellinger theatre on 15 March 1956 to rhapsodic reviews and proceeded to run a record-breaking six-and-a-half years, the longest of any Broadway show to that moment. Its success was huge not just culturally but financially. CBS had backed the show for around $400,000 in return for the rights to the cast album in perpetuity, an act of faith in the era when rock’n’roll was taking over the charts. It was just about the smartest decision in the company’s history since it helped bankroll its future as the album stayed in the charts for an astounding 480 weeks — ie over nine and a half years.

M Y FA I R L A DY

Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, 1964, Directed By George Cukor Film still © Diltz / Bridgeman Images

Similarly, the legendarily tight-fisted Jack Warner at Warner Brothers so wanted the film rights that he handed over an astonishing $5 million — the equivalent of $42 million today. With a $17 million budget, it was the costliest film in history but it took over four times that at the boxoffice and won eight Oscars. Playing Eliza, Audrey Hepburn lost Best Actress to Julie Andrews, who won for Mary Poppins produced by Walt Disney. At the end of Andrews’ acceptance speech, she surprised everyone by thanking Jack Warner... who’d famously turned her down for his film of My Fair Lady — ’for making all this possible’. The artistic triumph of the vividly conceived, beautifully written, ideally executed My Fair Lady was by no means the end of Lerner and Loewe’s collaboration, but it was certainly the highwater mark. They collaborated on MGM’s lavish film Gigi — which netted a record-breaking ten Oscars but whose score bore striking similarities

to My Fair Lady — and, lastly, on Stanley Donen’s flawed but fascinating The Little Prince (1974). Their last Broadway venture was Camelot, a show which again featured outstandingly beautiful ballad-writing from Loewe with witty Lerner lyrics. It was, however, saddled by Lerner’s cumbersome book, which is why it is so rarely revived. Unlike, of course, My Fair Lady. Not only is this score beloved for its warmth and wit, the songs don’t merely illustrate, they dramatise. That’s one of the many reasons why it is regarded not just as Lerner and Loewe’s masterpiece, but one of the very finest musicals in Broadway history.

David Benedict David Benedict is a broadcaster and critic. He is the London critic for Variety and a weekly columnist for The Stage. He is currently writing the authorised biography of Stephen Sondheim for Random House (US) and Picador (UK).

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KING LEAR W I LL I A M S H A K E S PE A R E

Director Designer Lighting Designer Dramaturg Fight Director Producer Composer

Keith Warner Ashley Martin-Davies John Bishop John Lloyd Davies Bret Yount Michael Hunt Nigel Osborne

Assistant Director Rebecca Marine Production Manager Tom Nickson Costume Supervisor Kat Day-Smith

CA S T Lear Goneril Regan Cordelia Fool Gloucester Kent Edgar Edmund Albany Cornwall Oswald King of France Burgundy Old Gentleman Cornwall’s Servant/Officer Ensemble

John Tomlinson Susan Bullock Emma Bell Louise Alder Kim Begley Thomas Allen Donnie Ray Albert Anthony Flaum Oskar McCarthy Richard Berkeley-Steele Darren Clarke Christopher Gillett Alex Bevan Henry Waddington John Graham-Hall Mark Saberton Elizabeth Lynch

This production is supported by

The Trustees of The Grange Festival

KING LEAR

SYNOPSIS PA RT ON E

PA RT T WO

Lear, King of Britain, is of great age and decides to abdicate and divide his kingdom. His three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia are requested to proclaim their love for him so that he may apportion lands to them. Cordelia is unmarried and this occasion will also determine her husband. When it comes to her turn, she tells Lear that she has ‘nothing’ to say, and questions the gushing tributes of her sisters. In high rage, Lear disowns her and when Kent warns him of his folly, the king turns on him also and banishes him. One of her suitors, Burgundy, will not take Cordelia without her promised lands, power, and dowery. Declaring his love, The King of France accepts her and she leaves with him. Lear’s councillor, Gloucester, has two sons: his legitimate heir, Edgar, and a bastard son, Edmund, whom he is introducing into the court, having been brought up elsewhere. Edmund makes clear his wish to redress the balance and has no respect for the status quo, which has so badly disadvantaged him. He dupes Gloucester into believing that Edgar is plotting to kill his father, while at the same time, convinces his brother to flee avoiding his father’s wrath, having discovered this false plot. Gloucester vows to catch and kill Edgar, putting his full trust in Edmund. Lear has gone to stay with Goneril, still expecting to enjoy the full sway of kingship. He encounters a new serving man, Caius (who is really Kent in disguise, returned to protect his old master). Goneril informs her right-hand-man, Oswald, to show her father no respect and provoke him. Lear’s erratic behaviour, the outspoken provocations of his Fool, and the licentiousness of his band of knights, have become impossible for Goneril to tolerate. Her husband, Albany, tries to moderate between them. When all this comes to a head, she tries to curb her father by limiting the number and scope of his entourage. Lear is outraged, fiercely insults her, and departs her realm, choosing to stay with Regan instead. At Gloucester’s castle, Caius, preparing the way for Lear, picks a fight with Oswald, who has been sent by Goneril to deliver letters to Regan, encouraging her sister to deal with their father in a similar harsh fashion. Regan, and her husband, Cornwall arrive and order Caius to be put into the stocks for his trouble-making. Lear and the Fool arrive and the ex-King is made even more furious to see his servant so disrespected. He quarrels with Regan, who treats him even more disrespectfully than Goneril, who also then arrives. The two sisters proceed to strip away all of his rights and authority. Lear, fearing he may go mad, rails against his treatment and rushes out headlong into a wild storm growing outside. Caius and the Fool follow him. Cornwall locks the gates of the castle. Gloucester having imparted his woes about his own ungrateful son, is nonetheless horrified by this treatment of the once great monarch. The Fool comments on the perverse nature of the world.

Lear battles the storm. The fool is terrified, and with Caius (Kent) insists that the old man finds shelter. Edgar too is out on the heath; half-naked, he adopts several personas and mutilates his body to complete his principal disguise as Poor Tom: a Bedlam madhouse beggar. The erstwhile King encounters the destitute underbelly of his former kingdom for the first time. Gloucester confides in Edmund that he has seen top secret letters (implying an imminent invasion by the French and Cordelia in support of the King). He also tells of growing division in the kingdom between Albany and Cornwall. Civil war hangs in the air. He also tells how he will help with Lear’s physical well-being. Edmund is slowly trying to inveigle himself into the trust of both the Albany and Cornwall regimes and immediately reports to them his father’s treason. Lear and Poor Tom meet on the heath; the King enjoys his deranged philosophy. He too is slipping further away from reason. Gloucester tracks them down and promises to aid them with food and shelter. They end up in a hovel. In this strange confederacy of madmen, Lear enacts a mock trial of his daughters. Gloucester returns, warning of a group trying to hunt the King down. They must move on. Gloucester returns to his castle, where, betrayed by Edmund, he is met with accusations of treason. He is punished by having his eyes blinded. During this torture, Cornwall is killed by one of his own men, who has objected to the barbarity. Poor Tom finds Gloucester wandering the countryside in the company of a retainer. Maintaining his disguise, Edgar takes over Gloucester’s protection; he is implored by the blind old man to lead him to a cliff near Dover. When they reach there, Gloucester wishes to hurl himself from the cliff top. Edgar dupes him into believing that he has done so, and has reawakened on the beach below. They wander on and meet Lear, who is now wholly removed from reality, yet somehow full of insights. They also encounter Oswald on a mission to deliver a letter from Goneril to Edmund. Edgar fights with him and kills him. Cordelia has invaded the country backed by France’s troops. She searches for information concerning the whereabouts of her father. Edmund now plays the two sisters off against one another, hoping to become consort to which ever one survives the impending wars, whether civil or foreign. Albany objects to his wife’s behaviour and attempts to block Edmund’s influence. Goneril and Regan have become dangerous rivals, as rulers and in their desire for Edmund, each contemplating the murder of the other. Cordelia finds Lear. A doctor tends his disturbed mind and broken body. The French troops are defeated, Lear and Cordelia arrested; they are placed under arrest in Edmund’s jurisdiction. Edgar, further disguised, sets up a duel with Edmund, accusing him of being a traitor. Albany allows this contest to happen. Edgar fells his half-brother. As Edmund dies, he repents a little and warns them all of an order that was discharged to execute Lear and Cordelia. Goneril poisons her sister and is herself killed. Lear enters bearing the dead body of Cordelia. He dies of grief. The future of the kingdom is uncertain.

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The Music Inherent in All Great Drama

KING LEAR

There is an old theatrical joke about a Russian director asking a British counterpart how long he normally had to rehearse a Shakespeare play. “We get about five,” said the Brit. “Years?” inquired the Russian. “No, weeks” said the Brit to the stupefaction of the Russian. Talking to Keith Warner about his new production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, I discover that it has had a gestation period that the Russians themselves might envy. The final rehearsal schedule was a generous seven weeks but the whole project has been discussed, explored and extensively worked on for infinitely longer. “Over a decade ago,” says Warner, “I talked to Michael Boyd at the RSC about the idea of doing King Lear with John Tomlinson but no theatre could plan four years ahead in the way an opera singer does. Then I met Kim Begley — himself a former member of the RSC — who was absolutely steaming about a film director who had claimed that opera singers couldn’t act. About five years ago John, Kim and I got together for a boozy evening and planned a two-person version called Lear’s Shadow which we thought we’d do as a reading for charity. But gradually people in the opera world, like Tom Allen and Susan Bullock, got to hear about it and we ended up with 15 of us doing a reading of the play here in my house in Camberwell. Michael Chance was there and instantly said he wanted to do a full-scale production at The Grange Festival. That was two-and-a-half years ago but ever since we’ve been working on the play — on the text, on the iambics, on the social and political background — whenever our schedules allowed.” Warner, who studied English and Drama at Bristol University and who is passionate about the theatre, (he tells me he

saw Laurence Olivier in Long Day’s Journey Into Night an incredible seventeen times) is adamant about one thing. This Lear may have been sparked by irritation at the slur on the acting capacity of opera singers. But the production is absolutely not designed as an exercise in point-scoring. It is intended to be as full a realisation of the play as is humanly possible. “You only have to listen to John Tomlinson in the heath scene,” says Warner, “to know that you want to hear the whole play. And, if any one thing has guided us, it is a belief that the element lacking in modern Shakespeare is an awareness of his musicality. That doesn’t mean we are doing the play operatically. For a start we are staging it in modern dress because the sight of opera singers in period robes would arouse false expectations. But we began with a detailed examination of the text and, when you look at how the iambic pentameter works, how the rhyme works, you realise there is a music there. But, having found the music, you then make it subservient to the psychology of the character. It’s not that different from staging Wagner where the music becomes a way of exploring the essence of each individual.” The word ‘music’ crops up a lot in conversation in Warner. But so too does the urge to make the text clear and comprehensible. And that raises a fundamental issue. Back in 1984 John Barton presented a magnificent series on Channel 4, Playing Shakespeare, which right from the outset addressed an inevitable tension in the approach to verse-speaking. “The main problem,” said Barton, “in playing Shakespeare is how to marry the Elizabethan text with our modern acting tradition... a natural balance has to be found between the naturalistic and heightened elements in the text.”

“You only have to listen to John Tomlinson in the heath scene to know that you want to hear the whole play”

Ulysses and the Sirens, illustration from an antique Greek vase Bibliotheque des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France © Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Images

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As a critic who has sat through scores of Shakespeare productions in the last 50 years, I would say the current tendency is to emphasise the naturalistic elements at the expense of the verse. But Warner and his cast have striven to preserve the muscularity and majesty of Shakespeare’s language while highlighting the play’s relevance to today. “I have a cast,” says Warner, “which instinctively understands, through years of practice, the importance of the length of breath on a line or the need to colour a word. But they’ve also worked

Begley as The Fool, Susan Bullock, Emma Bell and Louise Alder as Lear’s daughters — there is little doubt that Shakespeare’s musicality will emerge. But does that make any form of extra-textual music redundant? ““Right from the start,” explains Warner, “I involved the composer Nigel Osborne and he said “What if I don’t use any instruments at all? You’ve got trained singers who’ve done Birtwistle and Stockhausen so what if we make all of the music vocal sounds done by the rest of the cast?” So the storm, for instance, will be a soundscape created by the actors. I should

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods They kill us for their sport” a lot with modern composers, watch Netflix and The Sopranos and are desperately keen to go on a voyage of discovery. Covid has also, at the very least, given us all a kick up the backside and made us ask what it is like to live in a time of plague. We know that Lear was written at just such a time in Jacobean London and it also raises questions about the nature of authority, the exposure to poverty, the spectacle of a land filled with itinerant beggars. This particular Lear suddenly feels very contemporary.” Given a hand-picked cast — with Tomlinson’s Lear complemented by Thomas Allen as Gloucester, Kim

add that when I mentioned this to other opera houses they were fascinated and, all being well, we shall take the production to Vienna next spring.” Everything about this King Lear has been carefully thought through. But one still comes up against the problems posed by the play. An Edwardian scholar like A C Bradley thought it teemed with improbabilities: was there any good reason, he asked, why the disguised Edgar should not reveal himself to his father, Gloucester. More recently, critics have highlighted the play’s contradictions. Eric Bentley in The Life Of The Drama

Ran (1985), An adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, set in 16th-century Japan, directed by Akira Kurosawa Greenwich Film Productions © Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

KING LEAR

Michael Gambon as Hirst, David Bradley as Spooner in No Man’s Land by Harold Pinter, directed by Rupert Goold © Geraint Lewis / Alamy Stock Photo

picked out two antithetical propositions: “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods / They kill us for their sport” and “The gods are just and of our pleasant vices / Make instruments to plague us.” Bentley concluded: “Shakespeare’s play does not make sense: it is an image of the nonsensical life we live, the nonsensical death we die.”

No production of King Lear, of course, exists in isolation and I wondered how much Warner was aware of the play’s theatrical history. “I must have seen twenty or so productions and I’ve learned from them all. I only saw Peter Brook’s version, with Paul Scofield, on film but what I took from that was the bleak, Beckettian cruelty of Lear’s world. I saw Donald Sinden’s Lear in the 1976 Stratford season and there was an undisputed grandeur about him: you never doubted he was king. More recently I saw McKellen’s Lear at Chichester and I was struck by his playfulness: he not only seemed free with the verse but there a sauciness and cheekiness about him.” I also reminded Warner of a 1990 Stratford production when John Wood’s Lear, having intemperately cursed Goneril with sterility, immediately rushed up and embraced her: a classic index of the play’s contradictions. But Warner and his astonishing cast bring their own unique experience to the play. “The hardest thing for them, I suspect,” says Warner, “has nothing to do with acting styles but with the fact that they are used to timings being given them by a composer and conductor. Timings can, of course, be varied but they operate within a given framework whereas now there is no framework.

“The gods are just and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us” When I put this to Warner, he is fully alive to the play’s contradictions. “It seems to me,” he says, “there is a madness everywhere in the play. John Tomlinson is exploring the idea that the king’s mental problems have set in from the very beginning, that he’s finding it hard to hold on to the idea of kingship. Edgar adopts a different persona for different characters but is he losing control of his identity. One of the earliest influences on me was a Romanian director, Lucian Pintilie, who I remember explored a potentially incestuous feeling in the duet between Gilda and Rigoletto which was never touched on elsewhere. Actors want to make sense of a character from one scene to the next but, the more I’ve worked as a director, the more I’ve come to believe that this is a trap. In this Covid year, haven’t we become more aware of how fragile everything is and the feeling that nothing makes sense any more?”

But one thing I’ve learned from directing opera is that music frees the performer’s imagination and what we’ve found, working on Lear, is that Shakespeare’s poetry has exactly the same liberating effect.” I suspect this production could be liberating in more ways than one. Susan Bullock has expressed interest in playing Sophocles’ Electra and John Tomlinson and Kim Begley are talking about the possibility of playing Hirst and Spooner in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land. Rather than being a singular demonstration of the fact that first-rate singers are also brilliant actors, this production could well open doors to further exploration of the music inherent in all great drama.

Michael Billington Chief Drama Critic, The Guardian, 1971–2019. Author State of the Nation: British Theatre since 1945

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Learning@TheGrange

2020 Projects

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A World of Your Own As a response to Mental Health Awareness Week, we created a series of online theatre design workshops to help teenagers to escape their upsidedown world, and process the challenges they face through creative activity. Led by theatre designer Rhiannon Newman Brown, participants were guided to make a ‘model box’ in which to explore storytelling, characters and relationships. The project was produced in consultation with a systemic psychotherapist to encourage teenagers (both those with an artistic interest and those without) to take part and develop self-expression and communication through art and design.

Silver Linings To celebrate the disrupted end of school year, we partnered with our local primary schools to give their Year 6 pupils a fun and different way to celebrate. Led by composer Richard Taylor and director/ librettist Hazel Gould, they got together on zoom to create their own original songs exploring the positives of lockdown.

L E A R N I N G @ T H E G R A N G E 2 0 2 0 P ROJ E C T S

Out of Darkness into Light

Stephen Fry recording his voice-over © Susan Hamilton

Faced with ongoing uncertainty, we will continue to be nimble and work with our partner schools and the community to develop inspirational projects to meet their needs as these become evident. Learning@TheGrange’s activities remain central to The Grange Festival, and we continue to take seriously our responsibility to education and community. Disappointed by the postponement of our first large scale community opera, our Grange Festival Community chorus found another platform on which to perform during lockdown. Singers of all ages came together not only from Hampshire, but also from Longborough Festival Opera and Dutch National Opera to follow online workshops devised by Suzi Zumpe and Thomas Guthrie and learn and [bravely] record a section of Jonathan Dove’s The Monster in the Maze in their homes. Stephen Fry’s distinguished Voice of Minos was joined by Yvonne Howard (mezzo-soprano), Xavier Hetherington (tenor), James Longford (piano) and the whole international chorus. Film maker Jon Ashby (wearenoun.com) edited the self-recorded clips into a short film, bringing their performance alive.

Susan Hamilton Director, Learning@TheGrange

watch the film thegrangefestival.co.uk/ learning-at-the-grange/darkness-light/

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PRECIPICE S I N É A D O’N E I LL

Director & Writer Designer Music Director Sound Design Choreographers Assistant Designers

Sinéad O’Neill Joanna Parker John Andrews John Leonard Shobana Jeyasingh Mthuthuzeli November Natalia Orendain del Castillo Lulu Tam

S HOBA NA J E YA S I NGH DA NC E Catarina Carvalho Rachel Maybank Emily Pottage Ruth Voon

Sir John Tomlinson James Rutherford Kiandra Howarth Claire Barnett-Jones Tonderai Munyevu Héloïse Werner Oliver Gower

M 22 Isabela Coracy Emma Farnell-Watson Sayaka Ichikawa Vanessa Pang Ebony Thomas

T H E GR A NGE F E S T I VA L C HORU S

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A Leap of Faith It was a breezy day last July when Michael Chance, Michael Moody and I walked around The Grange talking, dreaming, imagining and hoping. We climbed on to the roof and gazed at an expanded horizon. We watched the birds. Geese in V-formation gliding in to land on the lake, rooks gathering, ducks quacking, hawks circling. As I drove home that evening, images from the day whirled through my mind — rooflines, cedar trees, wingbeats — and everywhere, widening the eye and tantalising the heart, the ever-moving sky. In some strange trick of light and colour, our figures in the photos from that day appear to be levitating. As I fell asleep that night, the word ‘precipice’ was echoing through my mind, and with it images of birds. Birds glide through our dreams and our mythologies. Warning of death, bringing messages from the other world, bursting into flames and being born again, they embody an inexorable redemption. They stalk the Earth, they fly through the air, and above all, they sing. In the leap of faith we had all been dreaming of for long months, we took a deep breath, and stepped off the edge.

Sinéad O’Neill Writer & Director

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More 2020 Projects MASTERCLASSES During the late autumn months at The Grange last year, when it was still possible, we held a series of public recitals, masterclasses and showcases for young performers. A group of singers, some of whom have been members of our chorus, was given the Dame Felicity Palmer treatment. There are few in the business with as keen an ear and as laser-like a focus on both the triumphs and the problems which every young perfomer brings. Hers was a revelatory class. The honesty of a performance is what she helps to bring out in a singer. There is little doubt that each of her pupils will have taken away much from the experience. And then we had the privilege of the experience and generosity of Dame Ann Murray, guiding a roster of young performers, also some from our chorus, who will form the nucleus of a new artists’

Dame Felicity Palmer who lead the masterclass alongside the winner of the 2019 singing competition Kiandra Howarth

agency formed by our former Company Manager, Steve Phillips. We offered them all the facility of our theatre to make promotional films and show their skills to a small but attentive audience. Dame Ann also misses nothing and indeed allows nothing to pass which is not what the composer asks for. This generational exchange of insight underpins the accumulation of knowledge and craft which every performer in classical music needs to communicate powerfully to an audience. Indeed, I would say that every craftsman in every field benefits from the same generous offer and open minded receipt of information. We also had other public concerts: a recital of Henry Purcell songs and duets with Rowan Pierce (Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro in 2019), Matthew Brook, consummate performer of earlier repertoire and the harpsichordist, Christopher Bucknall.

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SLIDE ACTION Slide Action are a brilliant new trombone quartet formed in 2018, whose members met as students at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The group are Huw Evans (alto and tenor), Benny Vernon (alto and tenor), Jamie Tweed (tenor) and Josh Cirtina (bass). They gave an hour long recital to a sociallydistanced audience in the theatre at The Grange in mid-December 2020, to a profoundly emotional and enthusiastic response. Their offer of this performance was in response to an invitation made to them to use the theatre for whatever purpose suited them. Their artistry and virtuosity is dazzling. They remind you of the best vocal close-harmony groups in the precision of their ensemble, the balance of their sound, and the charm and intelligence of their presentation. This is a group of soloists, entirely collaborative in their aspirations whilst preserving their essential individuality. It makes for a heady and ear-grabbing mix.

They naturally want to expand the possibilites of the trombone quartet, and commission a body of new work for this combination. One can imagine a rich palette emerging. Slide Action’s capacity to cover an astonishing repertorial range, from choral to operatic, orchestral to chamber, quite apart from the breadth of historical periods imagined, leads one to suppose that their championing of new work will prompt an important new library of original composition. Their ability to adapt from such a range for their particular combination also suggests a crossing of many stylistic and cultural barriers. They are all considerable musicians who are able to show their chosen instruments in a highly entertaining and stimulating light.

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AC K NOW LED GEM EN T S F OR T H E GR A NGE F E S T I VA L BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chairman The Rt Hon Sir Charles Haddon Cave Nick Allan Lord Ashburton Daniel Benton Sophie Caruth Rosamund Horwood-Smart QC Owen Jonathan Malcolm Le May Richard Morse Tim Parker Louise Verrill

COMPANY Covid-19 Officer Claire Lamond

Production Assistant Becky Reynolds

Company Manager Jonathan Gosling

Chief Operations Officer Michael Moody

Finance Manager Annabel Ross

Director of Learning Susan Hamilton

Production Manager Tom Nickson

Front of House Manager Rachel Hannyngton

Box Office & Dining Assistant Cornelia Norie-Miller

Social Media Manager Leela Bennett

Director of Artistic Administration Scott Cooper

Digital Marketing Officer Alice Blincoe Chief Executive Officer & Artistic Director Michael Chance CBE

Office Administrator Holly JefferyGoodall

Director of Development Rachel Pearson

Box Office Manager Caroline Sheahan Dining Administrator Harriet Taylor Health and Safety Consultant John Young

A M ER ICA N F R I EN D S OF T H E GR A NGE F E S T I VA L BOARD OF TRUSTEES Christopher Browner Erik Chapman Liz Christensen Michele Beiny Harkins Anthony Haller Anthony Verruso

Executive Director and Trustee Sarah Jones Baker Secretary Emily Andrewes

ADVISORY BOARD

THANK YOU

Lia Bassin Leigh Biddlecome Molly Boynton Shirley Baker Griswold Piers Playfair Lev Sviridov

Louise Verrill & Brown Rudnick LLP

BAC K S TAGE WARDROBE

WIGS

STAGE

Head of Wardrobe Josie Thomas/ Rosy Emmerich

Head of Wigs Lottie Davies

Technical Manager Ben Nickson

Dep Head of Wigs Eloise Robinson

Head of Props Robyn Hardy

Dep Head of Wardrobe Ben Ryder

Surtitle Operator Izzy Thorn

Dresser Emma Stevens

Dep Technical Manager Tim Turnbull

Dresser Maddie Skinner

Crew James Boyd Carys Davies Graham Colvan Russel Martin Hannah Morrison Phoebe Smyth Seb Baynes Nick Hughes

Assistant Production Manager Phoebe Bath

LIGHTING

TRANSPORT

Chief Lx Teresa Nagel

Transport by Paul Mathews Boom Couriers KD Productions

Dep Lx Jonathan Blunsdon Paddy Hepplewhite Lighting Programmer Stacy Cross Lx Support Hamish Ellis Sam House Liam Cleary

S TAGE M A NAGEM EN T

C O S T U M E & PROP S

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

MANON LESCAUT

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

LA CENERENTOLA

MANON LESCAUT

SET BUILT AND PAINTED BY

Stage Manager Tanith MacKenzie

Made costumes by Sartoria Teatrale Arrigo Costumi

Costumes hired from Academy Costumes

Costumes hired from Angels

Manon Splinter Scenery

Lights for the fairies and costume props Hamlyn Terry

Costumes made by Ingrid Pryer and Edith Webb

Costumes made by Jane Temple

Alterations Rachel Frost

Alterations by Jane Smallwood

Make-up Support Rois Benthall

Wigs by Richard Muller

Wig Support Wendy Olver

Wigs Supervisor Jessica Dolan

Stage Manager Di Holt Deputy Stage Manager Helen Clarkson Assistant Stage Manager Robert Allan

Deputy Stage Manager Sophia Dalton Assistant Stage Manager Lottie McLarin

LA CENERENTOLA

KING LEAR

Stage Manager Checca Ponsonby

Deputy Stage Manager Rachel Bell

Deputy Stage Manager Lisa Cochrane

Assistant Stage Manager Becca Vince

S C EN ERY

Midsummer Visual Scene Cenerentola Visual Scene THEATRICAL DRAPES Theatrical Drapes by Promptside

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HOU S E & GROU N D S GROUNDS MAINTENANCE Richard Loader John License — Lawn Man Ltd Felicity Urqhart Di Threllfall Jo Seligman Judith Mezger

MARQUEES & PAVILIONS John M Carter Ltd Phil Heather

FESTIVAL SHOP Lucy Baring Sarah Barclay Sally Ashburton

FESTIVAL VOLUNTEERS Judy Bishop Hugh Brown Sue Brown Jan Burgess Nick Cambrook Nicky Cambrook Henrietta Cooke Rosie Ferguson Martin Gillie Jenny Gove Andrea Harris Wendell Harris

SITE STRUCTURES John Waterworth Richard Morgan Michael Odysseos Ben Kiff David McDuff

Lizzie Holmes Lynwen JonesThomas Penelope Kellie Sue Kennedy Gordon King Anne Lain Angela Larard Derek Lintott Susie Lintott Jenny Makins Brigid McManus Belinda Mitchell

T H E BA L C ON Y

Historic Buildings Specialist Martin Smith Project Manager Ed Smith

Carpenters Dan Lambell Tony Smith Phil Smith Plaster Conservator Dave Appleton Brickwork Conservator Joe Oram

Peter Paice Sue Paice Diana Peisley Jane Powlett Clare Read Jo Seligman Katherine Sellon John Theophilus Marie-Caroline Theophilus Di Threlfall Felicity Urquhart Sarah Vey

CLEANING E & E Services

ACCOMMODATION GENEROUSLY DONATED BY Daniel & Alison Benton Richard & Chrissie Morse John & Wendy Trueman Sarah & Peter Vey

M A R K E T I NG & PR

THE JOHN LAMBTON BALCONY BUILD Site Manager John Snazell

FLOOR PAINTING John Waterworth

Labourers Glen Wells William Smith Decorator Pete Bevan Electrician Zack Crame

PR & MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA

DESIGN &PRINTING

Valerie Barber PR Valerie Barber Elena Dante Jacqueline De Ferrars

Leela Bennett Desmond Chewyn

Design and Identity Jon Ashby at wearenoun.com

IT SUPPORT

Programme Printers Generation Press

Seating Installers Kirwin and Simpson

Chelsea Connected Dudley Rees

F O OD & DR I N K BECKA COOPER @THE GRANGE Grace at Harvest Fine Foods Tim & Penny Cooper the Patriarch and the Matriach who once again are moving in with me for the duration of the Festival Everyone at The Grange Festival, particularly Alice Blincoe for her amazing work on making my Feast menus and emails look beautiful during lockdown My wonderful team of cooks and front and back of house staff Amanda Stebbing who has the mammoth task of booking all the waiting staff

ENGLISH SPARKLING Ali Booth my second-in-command without whom I would go completely insane

The Grange English Sparkling Wine

Members of The Grange Festival audience who have supported my Feasts during Covid and ensured the survival of my business during the most challenging of times. I am so grateful for your loyalty and so delighted that many of you have become my friends

Zam Baring

All my local suppliers and producers

THE TEA PAVILION Winchester Hospice Sabrina Marsden

Claire Hunt WINE Stone, Vine & Sun Simon and Alison Taylor

Everyone at Allens Hire, particularly Mark Emmerson Cast and Crew meals supported by Mark and Sophie Ashburton

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AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S

B OU R N EMOU T H S Y M PHON Y ORC H E S T R A B S O F OR A M I D S U M M ER N IGHT ’ S DR E A M 1ST VIOLIN Leader Amyn Merchant Mark Derudder Edward Brenton Kate Turnbull Karen Leach Magdalena Gruca-Broadbent Jennifer Curiel Julie Gillett-Smith

2ND VIOLIN Carol Paige Jack Greed Bethan Allmand Vicky Berry Lara Carter Agnieszka Gesler VIOLA Tom Beer Miguel Rodriguez Liam Buckley Judith Preston

CELLO Jesper Svedberg Thomas Isaac Hannah Arnold Philip Collingham DOUBLE BASS David Daly Nicole Boyesen

OBOE AND COR ANGLAIS Holly Randall

HORN Alexander Wide Ruth Spicer

CLARINET Barry Deacon Andy Harper

TRUMPET Chris Avison

BASSOON Tammy Thorn

FLUTE AND PICCOLO Anna Pyne Owain Bailey

TROMBONE Robb Tooley TIMPANI Geoff Prentice

PERCUSSION Matt King Ben Lewis Alastair Marshallsay HARP Eluned Pierce Kate Ham HARPSICHORD/ CELESTE Samantha Carrasco

B S O F OR L A C EN ER EN T OL A 1ST VIOLIN Leader Amyn Merchant Mark Derudder Edward Brenton Kate Turnbull Karen Leach Jennifer Curiel Tim Fisher Julie Gillett-Smith Kate Hawes Joan Martinez

2ND VIOLIN Carol Paige Emma Lisney Lily Whitehurst Agnieszka Gesler Janice Thorgilson Vicky Berry Rebecca Burns Penny Tweed

VIOLA Tom Beer Miguel Rodriguez Jacoba Gale Liam Buckley Eva Malmbom Judith Preston CELLO Jesper Svedberg Thomas Isaac Auriol Evans Philip Collingham

DOUBLE BASS Nicole Boyesen Nickie Dixon Jane Ferns FLUTE AND PICCOLO Anna Pyne Owain Bailey

OBOE Edward Kay Holly Randall CLARINET Barry Deacon Chris Goodman BASSOON Tammy Thorn Emma Selby

HORN Alexander Wide Ruth Spicer Edward Lockwood TRUMPET Chris Avison Peter Turnbull TROMBONE James Buckle

B S O F OR M A NON LE S CAU T 1ST VIOLIN Leader Amyn Merchant Mark Derudder Edward Brenton Kate Turnbull Karen Leach Magdalena GrucaBroadbent Tim Fisher Joan Martinez Kate Hawes Jennifer Curiel

2ND VIOLIN Carol Paige Ruth Heney Jeff Moore Vicky Berry Rebecca Burns Agnieszka Gesler Penny Tweed Janice Thorgilson VIOLA Tom Beer Miguel Rodriguez Jacoba Gale Liam Buckley Eva Malmbom Judith Preston

CELLO Jesper Svedberg Thomas Isaac Auriol Evans Philip Collingham Susanna Riddell DOUBLE BASS David Daly Nicole Boyesen Nickie Dixon Jane Ferns FLUTE Anna Pyne Robert Manasse Owain Bailey PICCOLO Owain Bailey

OBOE Edward Kay Rebecca Kozam COR ANGLAIS Holly Randall CLARINET Barry Deacon Helen Bennett BASS CLARINET Helen Paskins BASSOON Tammy Thorn Emma Selby

HORN Alexander Wide Ruth Spicer Robert Harris Kevin Pritchard Edward Lockwood TRUMPET Chris Avison Peter Turnbull Rob Johnston TROMBONE Kevin Morgan Robb Tooley BASS TROMBONE Kevin Smith TUBA Andy Cresci

TIMPANI Geoff Prentice PERCUSSION Matt King Ben Lewis Stefan Beckett HARP Eluned Pierce

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B S O F OR M Y FA I R L A DY 1ST VIOLIN Leader Amyn Merchant Mark Derudder Edward Brenton Karen Leach Magdalena GrucaBroadbent Tim Fisher Julie Gillett-Smith Kate Hawes

2ND VIOLIN Carol Paige Emma Lisney Bethan Allmand Vicky Berry Lara Carter Janice Thorgilson VIOLA Tom Beer Miguel Rodriguez Jacoba Gale Eva Malmbom

CELLO Jesper Svedberg Thomas Isaac Auriol Evans Hannah Arnold DOUBLE BASS Nicole Boyesen Nickie Dixon

OBOE/ COR ANGLAIS Holly Randall

HORN Alexander Wide Ruth Spicer

CLARINET Barry Deacon Chris Goodman

TRUMPET Chris Avison Peter Turnbull Toby Coles

BASSOON Tammy Thorn

FLUTE/ PICCOLO Owain Bailey

TROMBONE Kevin Morgan Kevin Smith

TUBA Andy Cresci TIMPANI Geoff Prentice PERCUSSION Matt King HARP Eluned Pierce

B S O M A NAGEM EN T FOR THE BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Chief Executive Dougie Scarfe Head of Concerts & Programming Heather Duncan

Head of BSO Participate Lucy Warren Head of Marketing Anthony Brown

Concerts Manager Alex Segrave Orchestra Manager Liz Williams Deputy Orchestra Manager Adam Glynn

Senior Stage Manager Scott Caines Stage Manager Emily Trevett

BSO Digital Chris Caton Alex Rimmell Richard Berry

ORC H E S T R A L R E C OR DI NG GR A NGE S OU N D T E A M S ORCHESTRAL RECORDING IN THE LIGHTHOUSE , POOLE Sound Designer & Recording Engineer Mike Walker

QLab Programmers James Melling & Maxim Gamble

Assistant Recording Engineer & Editor Maxim Gamble

Assistant Editor Brandon Cox

Assistant Recording Engineer Chris Caton

Production Sound Engineers Chris Simpson & Josh Richardson

SOUND ENGINEERING AT THE GRANGE Sound & Recording Equipment provided by Loh Humm Audio Additional Recording Equipment provided by CPS Group

Additional Sound Equipment provided by Jon Morgan, SRS Productions Live

Designer and Operator for My Fair Lady Gareth Tucker

System Engineer Nathan Long

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F OR T H E PRODUC T ION S A M I D S U M M ER N IGHT ’ S DR E A M PRODUCTION TEAM

CAST

Conductor Anthony Kraus

Assistant Conductor Jo Ramadan

Orchestral Recording Conductor Sian Edwards

Pianist Cover Andrew Smith

Director & Set Designer Paul Curran Costume Designer Gabriella Ingram Lighting design Paul Pyant

Assistant Director Rachel Wise Repetiteur Chad Vindin

Recording Manager Tom Fetherstonhaugh Recording Producer Adrian Peacock Wardrobe Supervisor Gabriella Ingram

Sound Engineer Mike Walker

Oberon Alexander Chance

Hermia Angela Simkin

Starveling Johnny Herford

Tytania Samantha Clarke

Helena Eleanor Dennis

Cobweb Francesca Pringle

Puck Chris Darmanin

Bottom James Platt

Mustardseed May Abercrombie

Theseus Roberto Lorenzi

Quince William Thomas

Moth Isabel Irvine

Hippolyta Angharad Lyddon

Flute Ben Johnson

Peaseblossom Ceferina Penny

Lysander Peter Kirk

Snug Sion Goronwy

Demetrius Alex Otterburn

Snout Gwylim Bowen

Fairy ensemble Anna Munoz Daisy Mitchell Boy Shayan Srikantha

L A C EN ER EN T OL A PRODUCTION TEAM

CAST

Conductor David Parry

Fight Director Bret Yount

Recording Manager Tom Primrose

Director Stephen Barlow

Assistant Conductor Alistair Digges

Recording Producer Adrian Peacock

Designer Andrew D Edwards

Assistant Director Crispin Lord

Costume Supervisor Zoë Thomas Webb

Lighting design Paul Pyant

Repetiteur Mark Austin

Chorus Master Matthew Morley

Choreographer Heather Douglas

Sound Engineer Mike Walker

Angelina (25, 28, 30 June) Heather Lowe (3, 7 July) Victoria Simmonds Don Ramiro Nico Darmanin

Dandini Christian Senn

Clorinda Carolina Lippo

Don Magnifico Simone Alberghini

Tisbe Maria Ostroukhova

Alidoro Roberto Lorenzi

CHORUS Tenor Dominic Bevan Ranald McCusker Matthew Mears

Bass René Bloice-Sanders Tiziano Martini Pedro Ometto

M A NON LE S CAU T PRODUCTION TEAM

CAST

Conductor Francesco Cilluffo

Assistant Director Rory Fazan

Recording Producer Adrian Peacock

Manon Lescaut Elin Pritchard

Director Stephen Lawless

Movement Director Lynne Hockney

Lescaut Nicholas Lester

Designer Adrian Linford

Repetiteur Valeria Racco

Wardrobe Supervisor Chrissy Maddison

Lighting design Paul Pyant

Sound Engineer Mike Walker

Projection Designer Jon Driscoll

Recording Manager Tom Fetherstonhaugh

Assistant Conductor Hannah Schneider

Chorus Master Matthew Morley

CHORUS (ON - STAGE )

Des Grieux Peter Auty Geronte Stephen Richardson

Edmondo/Dancing Master/Lamplighter Kamil Bien Musician Angharad Lyddon Landlord/Sergeant/ Captain Stuart Orme

CHORUS ( RECORDING ONLY )

Soprano Emily Garland Emma Walsh

Tenor Joshua Baxter Samuel Knock

Mezzo-Soprano Rebecca Barry Emma Jüngling

Bass Michael Ronan James Wafer

Soprano Rachel Abbott Mezzo-Soprano Katarzyna Balejko Emily Gray Beth Moxon

Dancers Jean-Pierre Blanchard Luke Murphy Actors Jocasta Almgill Jane Evers Iliana Flade Rhiann Francis Yasmine Holness-Dove Molly Moody

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M Y FA I R L A DY PRODUCTION TEAM Conductor Alfonso Casado-Trigo Director Guy Unsworth

CAST

Repetiteur Jo Ramadan

Eliza Doolittle Ellie Laugharne

Chorus Master Matthew Morley

Henry Higgins Steven Pacey Alfred P Doolittle Peter Polycarpou

CHORUS Mrs Higgins / Mrs Pearce / Cockney Woman Susie Blake Colonel Pickering Richard Suart Freddy Eynsford-Hill Nadim Naaman

Soprano Emily Garland Emma Walsh

Tenor Joshua Baxter Samuel Knock

Mezzo-Soprano Rebecca Barry Emma Jüngling

Bass Michael Ronan James Wafer

K I NG LE A R PRODUCTION TEAM

CAST

Director Keith Warner

Dramaturg John Lloyd Davies

Composer Nigel Osborne

Lear John Tomlinson

Kent Donnie Ray Albert

King of France Alex Bevan

Designer Ashley Martin Davies

Fight Director Bret Yount

Assistant Director Rebecca Marine

Goneril Susan Bullock

Edgar Anthony Flaum

Burgundy Henry Waddington

Producer Michael Hunt

Production Manager Tom Nickson

Regan Emma Bell

Edmund Oskar McCarthy

Old Gentleman John Graham-Hall

Costume Supervisor Kat Day-Smith

Cordelia Louise Alder

Albany Richard BerkeleySteele

Cornwall’s Servant/Officer Mark Saberton

Cornwall Darren Clarke

Ensemble/ Cordelia (cover) Elizabeth Lynch

Lighting Designer John Bishop

Fool Kim Begley Gloucester Thomas Allen

Oswald Christopher Gillett

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T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHIES

Simone Alberghini DON MAGNIFICO

LA CENERENTOLA

Italian bass-baritone Simone Alberghini, the 1994 Operalia Grand Prize winner, has appeared in opera houses at the highest level worldwide since the beginning of his career. A Rossini–Mozart specialist, he regularly collaborates with internationally renowned conductors as Vladimir Jurowsky, Zubin Mehta, Andrew Davis, Gianandrea Noseda, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Osawa, Alberto Zedda, Maurizio Benini, Michele Mariotti, Renato Palumbo, Emmanuel Villaume, Nicola Luisotti, Eduardo Muller and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Donnie Ray Albert KENT

KING LEAR

Donnie Ray Albert is a regular guest of opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera as Germont, Los Angeles Opera as Trinity Moses in Mahagonny, Simone in A Florentine Tragedy, and as the Father in Hansel and Gretel, plus numerous appearances with Opera Pacific, Houston Grand Opera, Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, Dallas Opera, Arizona; Atlanta Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera,Utah Opera, and the opera companies of New Orleans, Baltimore, Columbus, Kansas City, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and, in Canada, with the companies in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Manitoba, and Vancouver. This past season, he returned to Copenhagen as Falstaff and to Austin Lyric Opera as Amonasro. In Europe, he has appeared at the Cologne Opera singing all Four Villains Les Contes d’Hoffman, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Frank in Die Tote Stadt, ROH, Covent Garden as the Four Villains, the Royal Opera Wallonie in Liege for Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy, the National Theater in Prague as Jack Rance, the Deutsche Opera Berlin, Lithuanian National Opera in the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer, plus the opera houses in Bordeaux, Köln, Bregenz, Milan, Mannheim and Hamburg, and in Vienna in the title role in Ernst Bloch’s Macbeth for the Vienna KlangBogen Festival.

He has appeared in Japan with the New National Theater in Tokyo as Wotan and the Wanderer in Der Ring des Nibelungen, and in Brazil as Jochanaan in Salomé in Sao Paolo. Last season, he returned to the Semper Oper Dresden to sing the Four Villains and Germont, and made his debut with the Glyndebourne Festival as the Doctor in Vanessa. As a concert artist, Mr Albert has sung with the orchestras of Washington DC (National), Cologne, Southwest Florida, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Dallas, Minnesota, Seattle, St. Paul, Los Angeles, Austin, Palm Beach, Greensboro, Grant Park Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Madison, Vienna and Linz, in Austria and in Jerusalem, Gibraltar Philharmonic, and Grand Teton Festival. This past season, he appeared with the Säarlandische Rundfunk Orchestra as soloist in the Verdi Requiem, and the Cincinnati Symphony for performances in Carnegie Hall and Cincinnati of Dett’s The Ordering of Moses. He remains a resident artist with the Center for Black Music Research at Chicago’s Columbia College. He has also appeared in Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra as the Kommandant in Friedenstag and the title role in Krenek’s Der Diktator. Recent operatic engagements include: Rigoletto for Vancouver Opera, Amonaso in Riga, Latvia, and Phoenix, Alfio for the Orlando Opera, Iago for the Kentucky Opera, Il Giuramento for the Washington Concert Opera, Das Lied von der Erde with Rhode Island Philharmonic, Elijah with the Southwest Florida Master Chorale, concerts with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Atlanta Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra for their performance of d’Indy’s Fervaal, Nashville Symphony, Kentucky Opera as Germont, Latvian Opera as Giorgio in I Puritani, Prague’s National Theater as the Four Villains in a new production of Les Contes d’Hoffman, and the Semper Opera in Dresden for Keith Warner’s new production of Faust, Paris for Aida, Riga, Latvia for Otello, Madison Opera for La traviata, Washington Concert Opera for Adriana Lecouvreur, and Edmonton Opera as Amonasro. Donnie Ray Albert was born in Louisiana. He earned a Bachelor of Music Degree at Louisiana State University and a Master of Music Degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Mr Albert may be heard on RCA’s Grammy Award and Grand Prix du Disque winning recording of Porgy and

Bess, NOW’s recording of The Horse I Ride Has Wings with David Garvey on piano, EMI’s Frühlingsbegräbnis and Eine Florentinesche Tragodie by Zemlinsky conducted by James Conlon, and Simon Sargon’s A Clear Midnight on the Gasparo label.

Louise Alder CORDELIA

KING LEAR

Supported by Sir Charles and Lady Haddon-Cave

Louise Alder studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School where she was the inaugural Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar. In the 2020/21 season Louise makes her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, singing also Sophie Der Rosenkavalier and the title role in Massenet’s Manon. She also returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Susanna and to Madrid’s Teatro Real as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Recent highlights on the concert platform have included Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/ Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Messiah with the New York Philharmonic/ Harry Bicket, the title role in Semele on tour with the the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/ Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Tokyo Philharmonic/Jonathan Nott, Mozart Arias at the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra/ Daniel Harding and the title role in Theodora at the BBC Proms and in the Wiener Konzerthaus with Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen. Recital appearances include the BBC Proms, Graz Musikverein and the Oper Frankfurt with Gary Matthewman, Wigmore Hall with both Joseph Middleton and James Baillieu and the Oxford Lieder Festival and Fundación Privada Victoria de los Ángeles in Barcelona with Sholto Kynoch.

Thomas Allen GLOUCESTER

KING LEAR

Sir Thomas Allen is an established star of the great opera houses of the world. It is 50 years since he made his debut at the ROH, Covent Garden, where he has sung over 50 roles. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of

his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. He has been particularly acclaimed for his Billy Budd, Pelléas, Eugene Onegin, Ulisse and Beckmesser, as well as the great Mozart roles of Count Almaviva, Don Alfonso, Papageno and, of course, Don Giovanni. As a director, his projects have included Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte for Scottish Opera; Don Pasquale for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Così fan tutte for the Boston Lyric Opera. An acclaimed recitalist, he is equally renowned on the concert platform and has appeared with the world’s great orchestras and conductors. He is Chancellor of Durham University. His many honours include the title of Bayerischer Kammersänger awarded by the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the New Year’s Honours of 1989 he was made a Commander of the British Empire and in the 1999 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Bachelor. Among his proudest achievements are having a Channel Tunnel locomotive named after him, being awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music 2013 and most recently being awarded with honorary doctorates from the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music.

Peter Auty DES GRIEUX

MANON LESCAUT

Peter Auty is established as one of Britain’s leading tenors. Since his professional debut at Opera North, he has sung with all major UK companies including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera. Abroad he has worked with companies including Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, Oper Frankfurt, Nationale Reisopera, New Zealand Opera, and Malmö Opera. He made his recital debut in London in the 2009 Rosenblatt Recital Series and has appeared in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, at the BBC Proms and in the Leeds International Concert Season. Abroad he has appeared with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Royal Flemish

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Philharmonic and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. Recent and future highlights include a return to Welsh National Opera (Don José Carmen), Johnson The Girl of the Golden West for the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the title role in Puccini’s Edgar for Scottish Opera and at Konzerthaus Berlin, and highly acclaimed performances of Canio Pagliacci with Opera Ensemble in London and at The Grange Festival, Longborough Festival Opera and Iford Arts.

Stephen Barlow DIRECTOR

LA CENERENTOLA

Stephen was born and educated in Melbourne, Australia and has staged productions for many of the world’s leading opera companies including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Glyndebourne Festival and Opéra de Monte Carlo. His recent work as a Director includes a new production of The Phantom of the Opera (Thessaloniki Theatre, Folketeateret Oslo), Roméo et Juliette (Estonian National Opera), Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Grange Festival), Flight (Scottish Opera), Così fan tutte (Central City Opera, Colorado), Madama Butterfly (Danish National Opera), Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi (Hong Kong), Rigoletto (Lyric Opera Chicago, Bucharest National Opera), Tosca (Santa Fe Opera), La Rondine (The Metropolitan Opera, Théâtre du Capitole), Carmen (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis), Les Deux Enfants — a unique coupling of two French operas: Debussy’s L’enfant prodique and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (Brisbane Conservatorium). Stephen has had a longstanding relationship with London’s Opera Holland Park where he has staged La bohème, Flight, Tosca, Hänsel und Gretel, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, La Fanciulla del West, Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci, and the European premiere of Fantastic Mr Fox. Stephen will be returning to Opera Holland Park for the 2021 season. Other productions include La Cour de Célimène (Wexford Festival), Madama Butterfly (Mid-Wales Opera), La bohème (British Youth Opera), La traviata (Singapore Lyric Opera), Dovetales (Glyndebourne Jerwood Studio), Alfonso und Estrella (University College Opera), Die Zauberflöte (Royal Academy of Music in London) and Trial by Jury (Covent Garden Festival).

Stephen is also a regular director at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he has staged Dialogues des Carmélites, L’enfant prodigue, Francesca di Foix, Le donne curiose, La navarraise, Portrait de Manon, Comedy on the Bridge and most recently Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata.

Kim Begley FOOL

KING LEAR

Kim Begley began his career in 1970 as an actor working in rep including Liverpool Playhouse and Everyman Theatres, and Birmingham Rep. Throughout 1977/1978 he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Kim joined Covent Garden as principal Tenor in 1981 where he sang over forty principal roles. He sang regularly with the Metropolitan Opera New York, Lyric Opera Chicago, San Francisco, Bayreuth, Vienna Staatsoper, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Geneva, La Scala, Bastille and Chatelet Paris, Florence, Glyndebourne and ENO, he has also enjoyed a busy international concert career. Kim made many recordings and in 2003 was the recipient of a Grammy Award for his performance as Mefistofeles in Busoni’s Dr Faustus. He was nominated for an Olivier for his performance as Parsifal for ENO. Alongside his performance schedule, Kim has directed and designed productions and has inaugurated Arts Festivals and Community Projects in the UK. He founded and ran the International Opera course Broomhill alongside Jonathan Miller and Nicholas Cleobury which provided a platform for young international opera singers. After thirty-five years, Kim retired from singing in 2018 following the highly acclaimed premier of Brett Dean’s opera Hamlet at the Glyndebourne Festival. He has been involved in the development of this unique and exciting Lear project since its inception five years ago following a conversation with director Keith Warner in the back of a taxi in Vienna!

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Emma Bell REGAN

KING LEAR

Winner of the 1998 Kathleen Ferrier Award Emma Bell trained at the Royal Academy of Music with Joy Mammen. In recent seasons she has moved on from the Mozart heroines with whom she established her career to the key jugendlichdramatisch roles, making house debuts at Bayerische Staatsoper as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, at Deutsche Oper Berlin as both Elisabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser, at Opernhaus Zürich as Leonore in Fidelio and at Staatsoper Hamburg as Elsa in Lohengrin. With an exciting early career that took Bell to Teatro alla Scala as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Elettra in Idomeneo and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, to the Metropolitan Opera as Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Donna Elvira and to Teatro Real Madrid, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Dallas Opera and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, more recent seasons have seen appearances as Elisabeth at Bayerische Staatsoper, Madame Lidoine in Les dialogues des Carmélites at Staatsoper Hamburg, both Leonore and Strauss’ Arabella at Oper Köln, and on the stage of the Royal Opera House she has received praise as Eva, Madame Lidoine and Elisabeth. Her return to Glyndebourne Festival in 2018 as the title role in Keith Warner’s celebrated production of Vanessa was met with critical acclaim, The Guardian writing “Bell gives one of her finest performances to date, beautifully acted, her voice soaring with elation and anguish”. Plans in the 2021/22 season include new productions at English National Opera.

Richard Berkeley-Steele ALBANY

KING LEAR

In a career spanning over forty years, Richard has performed leading tenor roles ranging from Tamino to Tristan in many of the world’s great opera houses. He made his debut in 1976 at Glyndebourne in the lyric tenor roles of Flamand in Strauss’s Capriccio, Fenton and Tamino.

The development of his voice enabled him to take on heavier repertoire, leading him eventually to the great Heldentenor roles. Notable appearances include Siegfried and Siegmund in the famous Seattle Ring, Siegfried for the ENO, Siegmund at the Liceu, Barcelona and throughout Germany, Tannhäuser at Sydney Opera House, Beijing, Chemnitz and the Palafenice, Venice, Lohengrin at ENO, Teatro Massimo, Palermo and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Loge in the Adelaide, Melbourne and Toronto Ring Cycles, Peter Grimes at the Liceu, Barcelona, Laca Jenůfa at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and at San Francisco Opera, Herodes Salomé at Stuttgart, Washington and New York City Opera, Sir Philip Wingrave at the ROH, Covent Garden, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals and Opera de Toulouse. He has also sung Tristan with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and at GPO in their first Wagner production. In 2016, Richard became a professor of singing in the Vocal Faculty at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is enjoying working with the next generation of exciting young singers.

Alex Bevan

KING OF FRANCE

KING LEAR

Alex Bevan is a young British tenor and a recent graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He gained both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Royal Academy of Music where he was a recipient of the Elton John Scholarship and the Norman Mcann prize. On the concert platform, Alex has performed nationwide. Notable performances include Mozart’s Requiem at St-Martin-inthe-Fields and the Royal Courts of Justice; Tippett’s Child of our Time in Truro Cathedral, Mozart’s Coronation Mass at St John’s Smith Square and Verdi’s Requiem at the McEwan Hall in Edinburgh. Operatic experience includes; the Opera Highlights tour with Scottish Opera; Le Mari in Les Mamelles des Tiresias and George Jones in Street Scene with RCS Opera; Neptune in The Enchanted Island with British Youth Opera; Ruggero in La Rondine and Julian in Louise with Opera Coast. Alex will be covering the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto at Opera North in January 2021. During the past year Alex has spent his time learning to bake bread and narrating audiobooks.

Although he now keeps a long dead sourdough starter sitting in his fridge, he is still actively recording audiobooks when he is able.

Kamil Bien

EDMONDO/DANCING MASTER/LAMPLIGHTER

MANON LESCAUT

Kamil is a master’s student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama studying with Janice Chapman. Kamil has performed extensively in both Poland and the UK, where has won various prizes. Significantly, he was awarded the 3rd Prize in the 51st International Antonín Dvořák Singing Competition in Karlsbad as well as the George Fischer Prize for the best interpretation of a Mozart aria (Czech Republic, 2016), 1st prize in the inaugural International Vocal Competition of Sacred Music ’Arts Et Gloria’ (Poland, 2016), the Jan Kiepura Prize (2016), the Young Singer’s Prize at the 24th Riccardo Zandonai International Singing Competition (Italy, 2017), the James Martin Onken Song Prize (Manchester, 2016) as well as the Bridgette Fassbender Prize for Lieder (2018). Kamil has performed with various ensembles, including the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zabrzańska Philharmonic Orchestra. His operatic experience includes performances at The Grange Festival — Don Curzio Le nozze di Figaro (2019) and at the RNCM — Messenger and the Interpreter in the Pilgrim’s Progress; Le Prince Charmant in Cendrillon; The Merry Widow and Street Scene.

John Bishop

LIGHTING DESIGNER

KING LEAR

John was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa and grew up in Jamaica, Tanzania and Fiji before eventually settling in Lancashire. John began his theatre lighting career with Welsh National Opera and has worked as a freelance Professional Theatre Lighting Designer throughout the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, America and further afield for some 35 years. John has created beautiful lighting designs for more than 200 productions including: Der Ring des Nibelungen, Fliegende Holländer (Oslo); Elektra (San Francisco, Karlsruhe, Prague);

Pagliacci, Il tabarro (Seoul); Doktor Faust, The Great Gatsby (Dresden); Notorious (Gothenburg); Hänsel und Gretel (Frankfurt, Belfast); Roi Arthus, Tannhäuser (Strasbourg, Tokyo), Le nozze di Figaro (Warsaw); Tristan und Isolde (Aarhus); Peter Grimes (Madrid); Carmen (Turin); Don Giovanni (São Paulo); Chair in Love (Montreal); Così fan tutte, Falstaff, The Cunning Little Vixen, Don Giovanni, Tosca, Hänsel und Gretel (Maastricht); Ernani (London); La traviata, West Side Story (Cardiff); Albert Herring (Leeds); Vanessa (Manchester); Scoring a Century (Birmingham & BYO); Under Milk Wood (Swansea); La bohème, Falstaff, The Life and death of Alexander Litvinenko (Grange Park Opera); Dracula (Northern Ballet); Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet (Kiev); Demones (Athens); The Woman in Black (Dubai); Brand (London); Passion, Icarus (Montepulciano). John has been a frequent and regular guest at the Buxton Opera Festival where he has created original Lighting Designs for 35 operas over a 13 year period. John is making his debut with The Grange Festival this year with his Lighting Design for King Lear. Future plans include: Jenůfa (Oslo). Outside of his life in the theatre, John lives in the beautiful Lake District and is an accomplished theatre photographer and commercial drone pilot.

Susie Blake

MRS HIGGINS / MRS PEARCE / COCKNEY WOMAN MY FAIR LADY

Theatre includes: The Mirror Crack’d (UK Tour); Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em (UK Tour), Murder, Margaret and Me (York Theatre Royal); Grumpy Old Women Live 3 (UK Tour); Cider with Rosie (UK Tour); Aladdin(Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest: A New Musical (Riverside Studios); When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre); Pygmalion (Chichester Festival Theatre); Grumpy Old Women Live 2(UK Tour and Novello Theatre); Bertha in Boeing Boeing (on Tour); Snake In The Grass and Life and Beth (Stephen Joseph Theatre and on Tour); Wicked (Apollo Victoria); High Society (UK Tour); Noises Off(National Theatre); A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Regents Park Theatre); Virtual Reality (Stephen Joseph Theatre); The Shakespeare Revue (RSC); Absent Friends (West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Lyric, Hammersmith); Prin (Lyric, Hammersmith); Blithe Spirit (Royal Exchange).

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Television includes: Murder On The Blackpool Express for UKTV, The Cockfields for BBC, Cuckoo (Series 3); New Tricks for BBC; You, Me and Them for UKTV Gold; Murder on the Homefront for Carnival Film and Television; Mrs Brown’s Boys (series 3&2) for BBC; Series regular Beverley Unwin in Coronation Street for ITV. Great Night Out for ITV; Parents for Sky; The Crossing for BBC; House of Rooms for Channel 4; Doctors for BBC; Judith in Wild At Heart for ITV; Eve Beckett in Rogerfor BBC; Mrs Buchanan in Sunburn for BBC; Beverley in two series of A Prince Among Men for BBC; Louise in April Fools Day for ITV; Eleven Men Against Eleven for Channel 4; Wake up with... for ITV; Susan Hopkins in A Year in Provence for the BBC; Fay Morgan in The Wail Of The Banshee for Central TV; Mrs Jerebohm in The Darling Buds Of Mayfor YTV; Blore for BBC 4; 4 Series of Singles for YTV and The Victoria Wood Show for BBC. Film includes: Nativity 3 and Fierce Creatures with John Cleese.

Gwilym Bowen SNOUT

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Acclaimed for the clarity and beauty of his singing and dynamic stage presence, British tenor Gwilym Bowen performs internationally with orchestras and ensembles of the highest calibre. Engagements in the 2020/21 season include Bach Magnificat and St John Passion (Evangelist) with the Britten Sinfonia and Snout A Midsummer Night’s Dream for The Grange Festival. Next season’s concert highlights include Bach St John Passion with the Ensemble Orlando Fribourg, a US tour to San Francisco, Stanford and Berkeley of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra conducted by Richard Egarr. On the opera stage, he will sing Male Chorus The Rape of Lucretia for Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing and Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream in his debut at the Opéra de Lille. His engagements in the severely curtailed 2019/20 season included a Purcell programme, Gabriel — An Entertainment with Trumpet with The English Concert, Alison Balsom and Harry Bicket at the Barbican Centre; Messiah with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra cond. Stephen Layton; Christmas Oratorio with the Oslo Philharmonic and Haydn Creation in Hereford Cathedral with Hereford Choral Society and Geraint Bowen.

A regular with the Academy of Ancient Music, Gwilym’s most recent recording with the orchestra, of Handel’s Brockes-Passion conducted by Richard Egarr, was released in September 2019. Gwilym’s repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary, with a specialist interest in Bach, Monteverdi and Handel. His operatic highlights include Valletto L’incoronazione di Poppea for AngersNantes Opéra; Eurimaco/Giove Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at The Grange Festival; Damon Acis and Galatea and multiple roles in Poppea and Ulisse with the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican, at the Ateneul Roman in Bucharest and Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice; Sylph in Rameau Zaïs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Father in Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe with Classical Opera conducted by Ian Page. Gwilym’s opera roles also include Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress and Davey in Jonathan Dove’s Siren Song. A passionate proponent of new music, Bowen has created the roles of Tamino in Be With Me Now at the Festival d’Aix- enProvence, with performances at the Philharmonie de Paris, La Monnaie and the National Opera of Poland; the protagonists in two operas by Kate Whitley, Unknown Position and 0520, and Smith in Matt Rogers’ and Sally O’Reilly’s And London Burned.

Susan Bullock GONERIL

KING LEAR

Susan Bullock’s unique position as one of the world’s most sought-after dramatic sopranos was recognised by the award of a CBE in June 2014. Of her most distinctive roles, Wagner’s Brünnhilde has garnered outstanding praise leading Susan Bullock to become the first ever soprano to sing four consecutive cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Royal Opera House under Sir Antonio Pappano. Appearances as Richard Strauss’ Elektra have brought her equal international acclaim and collaborations with some of the world’s leading conductors including Fabio Luisi, Semyon Bychkov, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Mark Elder and Edo de Waart. In recent seasons, Susan has begun to explore new repertoire making debuts as Klytaemnestra Elektra for the Canadian Opera Company under Johannes Debus, the role of Liz Stride in the world

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premiere of Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper for ENO; and her acclaimed portrayal of Mother for Scottish Opera in Mark Anthony-Turnage’s Greek at BAM which she debuted at the Edinburgh International Festival. Further debuts include in the role of Kostelnička Jenůfa for Grange Park Opera, both Gertrude and The Witch Hänsel und Gretel for Opera North and Grange Park Opera, Mrs Lovett Sweeney Todd for Houston Grand Opera, her debut as Mother in the European premier of Missy Mazzoli’s award winning Breaking the Waves for Scottish Opera also at the Edinburgh International Festival, and a welcome return to the role of Mrs Lovett with Bergen National Opera. New roles in the 2019/20 season include in special virtual projects Feast in the Time of Plague and her debut as an actor in Keith Warner’s unique staging of King Lear in which she plays Goneril at The Grange Festival. Susan’s vast and diverse concert work has included the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde with EsaPekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra and with Zubin Mehta and the orchestra of the Bayerische Staatsoper. Popular appearances have included the Last Night of the Proms in 2011 and a special appearance at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. Last season Susan returned to Wigmore Hall in their Late Night series with pianist Richard Sisson in an eclectic programme — Songs my father taught me — which ranged from Sondheim to Noel Coward and Burt Bacharach. This season she joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall for a gala concert in celebration of Raymond Gubbay. Susan Bullock’s substantial discography includes Der Ring des Nibelungen with Oper Frankfurt under Sebastian Weigle on OehmsClassics (also available on DVD), and the title role in Salome with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras for Chandos.

Alfonso Casado Trigo CONDUCTOR

MY FAIR LADY

Alfonso Casado was born in Alcalá de Guadaíra, Seville, in 1984. He began his musical training under María Floristán and Juan Luis Pérez in Seville before moving to Madrid to complete his piano degree at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He was also part of the Jonde (National Young Orchestra of Spain). Alfonso worked with Stage Entertainment in Spain between

2003 and 2012 on Mamma Mia!, Beauty and the Beast, The Producers, High School Musical and Les Misérables. Moving to London in 2012 he has worked with Cameron Mackintosh conducting Les Misérables at the Queen’s theatre in London and continues to conduct and supervise shows in the West End and abroad. Main credits as Musical Director include Les Misérables (2012–2014) Queen’s Theatre, Miss Saigon (2014–2015) Prince Edward’s Theatre, The Phantom of the Opera (20152016) Her Majesty’s Theatre, Les Misérables (2016) Dubai Opera. Alfonso has conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at the ROH (Miss Saigon performance) during the Olivier Awards, and at the Royal Variety Performance (London Palladium). He was musical director of the 25th Anniversary Gala performance of Miss Saigon, released worldwide on DVD, and was co-supervisor of the 30th Anniversary Gala performance of Les Misérables in London. Awards include Best Musical Director for Les Misérables in Spain and Best Musical Director in the West End for Miss Saigon. Albums include Mamma Mia! (Spanish cast), High School Musical (Spanish cast), Les Misérables (Spanish cast), Miss Saigon (London 2014 revival cast).

Alexander Chance OBERON

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Supported by Michael and Sue Pragnell

Alexander Chance was a Choral Scholar and read Classics at New College, Oxford. As a student he enjoyed the many opportunities for solo performances that came his way, including singing the alto arias in Bach’s St John Passion in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. He made a number of recordings with New College Choir, including solos for the Symphony Anthems by John Blow. At university he also developed a love of ensemble singing, particularly Renaissance works, and he still devotes part of his concert schedule to this repertoire with groups such as The Tallis Scholars, Vox Luminis and The Gesualdo Six. Recent solo appearances include Handel’s Triumph of Time and Truth with Edward Higginbottom and The Instruments of Time and Truth; Purcell’s King Arthur with Mark Deller; Messiah at Canterbury Cathedral with Richard Cooke; Bach’s St John Passion with Vox Luminis and Café Zimmermann; Christmas Oratorio at the Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre;

Bach’s Magnificat with Edward Higginbottom at King’s Place; St Matthew Passion at Hereford Cathedral; ‘Micah’ in Handel’s Samson at Stour Music; Bach’s B Minor Mass at Utrecht Early Music Festival; works by Arvo Pärt at Nargenfestival in Tallinn; and regularly in Oxford with the Oxford Bach Soloists. In summer 2019, Alexander performed solo songs by 20th century Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi at the Salzburg Festival; a recital for solo countertenor by J C Bach, Schütz and others, at Musikfest Bremen; and toured a programme of lute songs with lutenist Toby Carr in Germany and Holland, featuring works by John Dowland, John Danyel and Thomas Campion. 2021 highlights include a return to Musikfest Bremen with a programme of lute songs; a recital with tenor Guy Cutting and pianist Roger Vignoles; touring Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium and St Matthew Passion with Masato Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan; soloist in two performances (St David’s Hall, Cardiff and Symphony Hall, Birmingham) of a new work by Karl Jenkins — Miserere: A Song of Mercy and Redemption; a tour of Belgium and Holland with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe; Handel’s Messiah with Le Concert Lorrain; and Alexander’s stage debut, as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at The Grange Festival.

Francesco Cilluffo CONDUCTOR

MANON LESCAUT

Francesco Cilluffo’s recent engagements include Verdi’s Requiem and Falstaff at The Grange Festival, La voix humaine (with Anna Caterina Antonacci), Cavalleria rusticana Cremona, Como and Pavia, L’italiana in Algeri Opera Toulon, Miseria e Nobiltà at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Isabeau OHP and New York City Opera, Aida Circuito Lombardo, L’Oracolo, Mala vita Wexford Festival and Falstaff Circuito Marchigiano. Born in Turin, he received his conducting and composition degree from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi and graduated in Musicology from Turin University. He continued his studies in London, where he was awarded Master in Composition (with distinction) Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a PhD in Composition King’s College, London.

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Samantha Clarke

Darren Clarke

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

KING LEAR

Supported by Isla Baring OAM/ Tait Memorial Trust

Born in Lancashire, Darren studied at the Royal Northern College of Music as a baritone. After college Darren played various roles in opera, operetta and musicals before moving to London to continue his voice studies as a tenor. He was soon offered a full time position with Carl Rosa Opera Company with whom he travelled across the UK and all over the world. Darren has sung with OHP, Dorset Opera, Raymond Gubbay, Birmingham Opera, Mid-Wales Opera, Heritage Opera and at the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals. Although he continues to perform on the opera stage he mainly performs with his wife as the award-winning opera and guitar duo Trovatori entertaining audiences worldwide in concert and on prestigious cruise liners as guest artists. Darren is also a Qi Gong practitioner, which he incorporates into his own craft and in his work as a singing teacher. He continues his vocal studies with Arwel Treharne Morgan.

TYTANIA

Australian/British soprano Samantha Clarke is the winner of the 2019 Guildhall Gold Medal and first prize winner in the 2019 Grange International Festival Singing Competition. Samantha studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, as a Sir John Fisher Foundation and Independent Opera Scholar, under the tutelage of Mary Plazas. She is a recent graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera School as a Baroness de Turckheim Scholar, Help Musicians, Tait Memorial and Countess of Munster Trust Scholar and studied with Yvonne Kenny. In addition to the 2019 Guildhall Gold Medal, Samantha is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Leverhulme Royal Northern College of Music Award, the Dame Eva Turner Award and the Michael and Joyce Kennedy Award for the singing of Strauss. Samantha was awarded a 2017 RNCM Gold Medal and the Nora Goodridge Developing Artist Award through the Australian Music Foundation for 2017/18 and 2018/19. The list of conductors and directors she has already worked with include Ian Page, Mark Tatlow, Dominic Wheeler, Matthew Richardson, Timothy Redmond, Martin Lloyd-Evans and Olly Platt. Her operatic roles include: Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress, The Governess The Turn of the Screw , Georgiana Georgiana, Anna Gomez The Consul, Theodora Theodora, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Pamina Die Zauberflöte, Countess Le nozze di Figaro, and Beth Little Women. Recent and future engagements include concerts with Classical Opera, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the West Australian Opera and Symphony Orchestra, Musetta La bohème at Opera North and John Rutter’s Requiem with the Munchner Rundfunkorchester.

CORNWALL

Paul Curran

DIRECTOR & SET DESIGNER

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Paul Curran is a much-awarded Scottish stage director with productions at The Metropolitan Opera, ROH Covent Garden, La Scala, La Fenice, Royal Opera Copenhagen, LA Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago, National Theatre Tokyo, Covent Garden Festival, Paulau Valencia, Mariinsky Theatre St Petersburg, Garsington Opera, Maggio Musical Florence, Norwegian National Opera among others. A graduate of The National Institute of Dramatic Art Sydney, he was Artistic Director of the Norwegian National Opera from 2007 until 2012. Recent productions include: La Donna del Lago Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera; Der Fliegende Hollaender, Maggio Musicale Firenze; Golden Cockerel Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera; Khovantshchina BBC Proms; My Fair Lady Teatro San Carlo, Teatro Regio Torino; Bartered Bride, Death in Venice Garsington Opera; Carmen Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Irish National Opera; Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Tosca, Otello Canadian Opera; Tristan und Isolde Teatro La Fenice Venice; Peter

Grimes Norwegian National Opera, Washington National Opera, Savonlinna Festival; Billy Budd, Albert Herring, Santa Fe Opera; Daphne, Ariadne auf Naxos Teatro La Fenice; Man of La Mancha Covent Garden Festival; Il trovatore, Bunka Kaikan Tokyo, Teatro dell’Opera Rome, Teatro Comunale Bologna, Teatro Regio Torino; The Tsar’s Bride ROH Covent Garden.

Chris Darmanin PUCK

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Originally from Malta, Chris trained at Central School of Ballet in London, where he graduated with BA (Hons) Degree in 2012. He then went on to study a postgraduate diploma in contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Chris’ credits include Phoenix Dance Theatre; New Adventures’ Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake; Jaschiu in Garsington Opera’s Death in Venice; Puck in Palau De Les Arts’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as its revival at Teatro Massimo; Mercury in the ROH’s Adriana Lecouvreur; Salzburg Festival’s Ariodante (2017); Theater St Gallen’s premiere performances of On The Town, and it’s revival at Gärtnerplatz Theater. Chris is very excited to be revisiting the role of Puck for The Grange Festival.

Nico Darmanin DON RAMIRO

LA CENERENTOLA

Supported by Nigel Beale and Anthony Lowrey

Recent and upcoming: 2018/2019 highlights include Ernesto in Don Pasquale in Cardiff WNO, Alberto in La Gazetta (Salzburg Landestheater), Ernesto Don Pasquale (WNO), Gastone, Alfredo La traviata (Glyndebourne on Tour), Raymond Gubbay’s Strauss Gala Tour, Sammut Aħna Refuġjati (Valetta Opera). Next seasons engagements include Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Estonian National Opera), Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (Innsbruck Opera). Other Engagements: Apparition of a Youth Die Frau ohne Schatten, Danieli Les Vepres Siciliennes (ROH), Conte Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia (WNO), OHP, (Gozo), Don Ramiro La Cenerentola (Scottish Opera, OHP), Italian Tenor Der Rosenkavalier and Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Opera Vlaanderen), Belfiore in Il Viaggio

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a Reims (Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro), Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Nederlandse Reisopera), Comte Ory (Dorset Opera Festival), Mergy Le Pré aux clercs (Wexford Opera Festival) Massenet’s Thaïs at the Cadogan Hall. His concert appearances include Messiah at the Royal Festival Hall, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the Barbican in London, a recital at the Three Palaces Festival in Malta and Washington, Messiah with Nederlandse Reisopera. Nico represented Malta at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Eleanor Dennis HELENA

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Supported by David McLellan

Scottish soprano Eleanor Dennis is a graduate of the Royal College of Music’s International Opera School and a former Harewood Artist at the ENO where her roles included Contessa Le nozze di Figaro, Micaëla Carmen, Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream, High Priestess Aida and Laura Fleet in the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Marnie. Highlights elsewhere include Helena at the Aldeburgh Festival, Contessa for Scottish Opera, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for OHP, Cominio in Caldara’s Lucio Papirio Dittatore for the Buxton Festival and Ginevra Ariodante for the Salzburger Landestheater. In the 2019/20 season Eleanor makes her debut with Opera North as Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw and her debut for The Grange Festival as Helena in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On the concert platform, her engagements include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (CBSO/Andrew Manze); Britten’s A Spring Symphony (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Cornelius Meister & BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ilan Volkov); Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Three Choirs Festival); Haydn’s Harmoniemesse (Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir András Schiff); Elgar’s Une Voix dans le Désert(CBSO/Andris Nelsons); Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins) and Beethoven’s Egmont(BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena), Missa Solemnis (Three Choirs Festival & RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland/Macelaru), Christus am Ölberge (Bamberger Symphoniker/ Rolf Beck) and Symphony No. 9 (Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España/David Afkham).

Heather Douglas CHOREOGRAPHER

LA CENERENTOLA

Heather began her career as a member of the Louisville Ballet and Dayton Ballet (USA), before going on to gain a BFA in Dance and Musical Theatre from Wright State University, USA. In the UK, some of Heather’s choreographic works include: The Country Wife and Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), the new adaptation of Dusty, for P&O Cruise lines, Spend, Spend, Spend (Union Theatre), Cinderella (Birmingham Hippodrome), Jack and the Beanstalk (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Jabberwocky (The Other Palace/ Theatre Royal Margate), Mort (Rose Theatre Kingston), the UK premieres of Hands On A Hardbody, Speak Low — A Kurt Weill musical, and, most recently, Jason Gardiner’s debut show In The Closet, West End. Heather has also choreographed Actor/Musician shows: Cabaret, Betty Blue Eyes, and The Threepenny Opera. International work includes: Paris Plumes, a Lido de Paris show in Beijing; Qatar National Day Parade; Godspell, Oklahoma!, and Cats(USA), and the award winning Bachelor Girls for the She Festival, NY, NY. As Associate Choreographer to Craig Revel Horwood, Heather’s credits include: Beautiful & Damned (Lyric Theatre), My One and Only (Chichester/Piccadilly Theatre), Il trovatore (Rotterdam), Chess (Denmark) to name a few. Heather has performed leading roles on Broadway and the West End in such shows as: The Producers (Ulla), Chicago (Velma), Cats (Bombalurina), The Beautiful and Damned (Lois), Crazy For You (Tess), as well as Jekyll and Hyde, My One and Only, The Will Rogers Follies. Other favourite roles have been Cassie in A Chorus Line and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors.

Jon Driscoll

PROJECTION DESIGNER

MANON LESCAUT

Jon studied Cinematography at the National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield and Theatre Design at Croydon College of Art. Theatre: The Prince of Egypt (Dominion Theatre); Small Island, I’m Not Running, 3 Winters, King Lear, The Effect, People, Travelling Light, Earthquakes in London, Nation, The Power of Yes, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Observer, Gethsemane, Her Naked

Skin, Fram, A Matter of Life and Death (National Theatre); Mack and Mabel, Separate Tables, The Last Cigarette (Chichester Festival); Richard III, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Complicit (Old Vic); Little Eyolf, The Lightning Play, Whistling Psyche (Almeida); The Winter’s Tale, Harlequinade (Kenneth Branagh Company); Madame Sousatzka (Toronto) West End & Broadway: Brief Encounter (Kneehigh, West End — LADCC Award, Obie Award, Critics’ Circle Theatre Award); GHOST the Musical (Drama Desk Award), INK, ENRON, Frost/Nixon. West End: The Exorcist (& UK tour), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Olivier Award), Stephen Ward, From Here to Eternity, The King’s Speech, The Wizard of Oz, Love Never Dies, Dirty Dancing, Our House, Up for Grabs, Dance of Death. Broadway: Finding Neverland, Chaplin the Musical. Dance: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (The Royal Ballet, ROH, Tokyo New National Theatre, Australian Ballet, Bayerische Staatsoper). Opera: Carmen (Santa Fe Opera). Concert and Events: Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (25th anniversary), Blade Runner (Secret Cinema), Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn (Hammersmith Apollo).

Andrew D Edwards DESIGNER

LA CENERENTOLA

Opera Credits Include: Madame Favart (Opera Comique); Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Grange Festival & Santa Fe Opera 2020); Così fan tutte (Central City Opera); La bohème (Opera Holland Park). Theatre Credits Include: A Flea in Her Ear (La Comédie-Française); Amélie; Fack Ju Göhte (Werk7, Munich, Stage Entertainment); Hogarth’s Progress (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Tartuffe (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Après La Pluie (Théâtre du VieuxColombier, Comédie-Française, Paris); Dry Powder; Labyrinth; Donny’s Brain (Hampstead Theatre); The Comedy Of Errors; Pericles; Twelfth Night; The Taming Of The Shrew; The Merchant Of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe on Tour); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe & World Tour); As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); IMPOSSIBLE (West End & International Tour); Les Parents Terribles (Donmar Season at Trafalgar Studios); Backbeat (West End, Toronto & Los Angeles); Jesus Christ Superstar (Madrid & European Tour).

A RT I S T I C B I O G R A P H I E S

Sian Edwards CONDUCTOR

(Recording)

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Sian Edwards studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, and with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London, she has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland, Berlin Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, St Petersburg Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris, London Sinfonietta and the Hallé. She made her opera debut in 1986, conducting Fall und Aufstieg der Stadt Mahagonny for Scottish Opera, and her Royal Opera debut in 1988 with The Knot Garden. Formerly Music Director of ENO (1993–5), she has conducted productions in Munich, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna, Paris and Aspen. She conducted the world premieres of Turnage’s Greek and Coraline. Recent opera engagements include The Rape of Lucretia and La traviata at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna; The Rake’s Progress and Bluebeard’s Castle for Scottish Opera; David Bruce’s Nothing at Glyndebourne; Thomas Adès’ The Tempest in Frankfurt; King Priam in concert at the Brighton Festival and Orpheus in the Underworld for ENO. In spring 2022 she will conduct Aida for the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.

Anthony Flaum EDGAR

KING LEAR

Anthony Flaum is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and National Opera Studio. His studies were generously supported by ENO and the John Wates Foundation. His operatic roles include Borsa in Jonathan Miller’s production of Rigoletto (ENO); Tybalt Roméo et Juliette, Motel Fiddler on the Roof, Tchekalinsky Queen of Spades and Lensky Eugene Onegin (GPO); Macduff Macbeth (Scottish Opera); Nemorino L’elisir d’amore (Nevill Holt Opera and Northern Ireland Opera); Pinkerton Madame Butterfly and Rodolfo La bohème (Iford Arts); Gonzalve L’heure espagnol (Mid Wales Opera); Turiddù Cavelleria Rusticana

(Portsmouth Choral Society); Don José Carmen (Tonbridge Philharmonic Society) and the title role in UC Opera’s production of Aroldo. For OperaUpClose he was the first Rodolfo in their critically acclaimed production of La bohème, with subsequent roles including Lensky Eugene Onegin, Don José Carmen and Don Ottavio Don Giovanni. On the concert platform Anthony has performed with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Proms and in galas concerts, most notably Fiddler on the Roof at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.

Christopher Gillett OSWALD

KING LEAR

After a singing career of forty years, in venues around the world, Christopher now likes to call himself an “arts handyman”. While continuing to sing (most recently at the La Monnaie, the Royal Opera, Grange Festival and Bergen Opera) he is the Artistic Administrator of Wild Plum Arts, which commissions new music and hosts artist residencies. He has directed Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the University of Illinois, written articles for The Observer, Opera, BBC Music Magazine and Opernwelt, and written four books; the most recent, Knowing Britten, is a biography of the conductor Steuart Bedford.

Sion Goronwy SNUG

Opera; Longborough Festival); Bass Roles The Nose (Aix-en-Provence Festival & Opera de Lyon); Bass Roles The Martyrdom of Saint Magnus (Den Norske Opera/Oslo Kammermusikkfestival); Rodrigo Gloria von Jaxtberg (Bregenzer Festspiele & ROH); Pistola Falstaff, Antonio Le nozze di Figaro, and Doctor/Herald/Servant Macbeth (Glyndebourne on Tour); Sarastro Die Zauberflöte, Dikoj Kát’a Kabanova and Osmin Die Entfürung aus dem Serail (English Touring Opera); Sarastro Die Zauberflöte, Gremin Eugene Onegin and Micha The Bartered Bride (Mid Wales Opera); Osmin Die Entfürung aus dem Serail, Caspar/Hermit Der Freischütz, Alvise Badoero La Gioconda, King Filippo Don Carlo, title role Mefistofele, Gremin Eugene Onegin (Opera Valladolid). Subsequent roles include Don Magnifico La Cenerentola, Banquo Macbeth, Ferrando Il trovatore, Sparafucile Rigoletto, Sacristan Tosca, Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Vodnik Rusalka, Talpa, Betto and Simone Il trittico, Truffaldino Ariadne auf Naxos, Tiresias Oedipus Rex, Zio Bonzo Madama Butterfly, Bartolo Le nozze di Figaro, and the title role Falstaff. Engagements have seen him feature as guest soloist with orchestras including London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, ROH, Opera de Lyon, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester with conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Kazushi Ono, Vladimir Jurowski, Robin Ticciati, Steuart Bedford, Jonathan Cohen, Stuart Stratford, Daniel Cohen, Terje Boye Hansen, and Alexander Soddy.

John Graham-Hall

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

OLD GENTLEMAN

Recent highlights have included his debut at the ROH in a new production of Shostakovich’s The Nose directed by Barry Kosky; Hans Schwarz Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and Snug A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Glyndebourne Festival Opera); Quince A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stadttheater Klagenfurt); Snug A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Teatro Massimo Palermo & Aldeburgh Festival); Marchese d’Obigny La traviata (Longborough Festival Opera); and joins the roster of the Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv. In the current season Mr Goronwy returns to WNO, ENO and Scottish Opera. Previous seasons’ highlights have included Snug A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Opera North; Garsington

KING LEAR

John Graham-Hall studied at King’s College Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. Recent and future engagements include Saul in Witch of Endor (Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Théâtre du Châtelet), Aron in Moses und Aron (Opéra National de Paris and Teatro Real, Madrid), Aschenbach in Death in Venice (for which he won the Franco Abbiati prize for best male singer) and Grimes in Peter Grimes (both La Scala, Milan), Basilio Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier and Triquet in Eugene Onegin (Metropolitan Opera), Peter Grimes (title role) for Opéra de Nice and Säo Carlos; Ashenbach (ENO and on DVD)’ Kedril in From The House of The Dead (ROH, La Monnaie and Opéra de Lyon), Mr Taupe in

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Capriccio (Madrid), Aufidio in Lucio Silla, Il Carciere / Il Grande Inquisitore Il Prigioniero (La Monnaie and Oper Stuttgart)’ Shuisky Boris Godunov (ROH, Paris, Toulouse, Oviedo and Pamplona), Mayor in Albert Herring (Toulouse), Zivny in Osud (Stuttgart and Opera North), Captain James Nolan in Dr Atomic (Strasbourg), Kaufmann in Jakob Lenz (Berlin Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Stuttgart), Schoolmaster The Cunning Little Vixen (La Monnaie and Netherlands Opera), Beadle in Sweeney Todd (Châtelet)’ Basilio (Metropolitan Opera, New York, La Monnaie, Glyndebourne and Aix en Provence), Monostatos in The Magic Flute (ENO and Northern Ireland Opera), Tree Frog/Tea Pot/Arithmetic L’enfant et les sortilèges (Opera North).

Johnny’s lifelong love of song has been developed in a long and fruitful duo partnership with William Vann, with whom he won the Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Competition and the Jean Meikle Duo Prize at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. Will is the founder and curator of the London English Song Festival and Johnny has enjoyed many performances with Will’s inventive programming. Johnny has collaborated with other outstanding recital pianists including James Ballieu at the invitation of the Wigmore Hall, Gary Matthewman for his Lied in London series, Libby Burgess for the Oxford Lieder Festival and her New Paths Festival and Joseph Middleton in the Leeds Lieder Festival.

Johnny Herford

Lynne Hockney

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

MANON LESCAUT

British baritone Johnny Herford is known for his fearless and passionate commitment to new approaches in opera. This has led him to premiere main roles in operas by Philip Glass, Pascal Dusapin, Péter Eötvös and Maxwell Davies and to collaborate with dancers, multimedia elements and act multiple roles in quick succession. In 2014, Johnny was asked to create the central role of Josef K in Philip Glass’s adaptation of The Trial by Kafka. This opened in the ROH, Covent Garden to five star reviews and Johnny’s performance led to him being nominated for Best Male Performance in an Opera at the Welsh Theatre Awards. Johnny has relished his collaborations with Mike McCarthy and Music Theatre Wales, which have seen him search for a missing tooth in Eötvös’s The Golden Dragon, sing neo-baroque extended techniques from the top of a ladder in Passion by Pascal Dusapin, and most recently perform Philip Venables’s score of Denis and Katya to an in-ear click track in sync with cellists from the London Sinfonietta, while switching between six different onstage personas. Other operatic highlights have included roles in Deborah Warner’s production of Billy Budd for Opera di Roma, Bernard Herman’s Wuthering Heights for Opéra national de Lorraine, The Traveller in Curlew River for Opéra de Dijon, Samuel for a run of Mike Leigh’s production of The Pirates of Penzance for ENO, understudying the role of Pelléas for WNO and his recent American debut for Opera Philadelphia.

Lynne Hockney trained at the Royal Ballet School. Her choreographic career has encompassed opera, theatre, film and television, largely in the UK and USA, working with directors as diverse as James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sir Peter Hall. Her work has been seen at repertory theatres throughout the UK and USA and her extensive list of film credits include The Village, Titanic, True Lies, Town & Country, Wild Wild West, and Rocky and Bullwinkle. Recent and forthcoming engagements include Katya Kabanova (Scottish Opera and Magdeburg); directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Malmö), Dead Man Walking (Royal Danish Theatre and Den Norske Opera), The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko and La bohème (GPO); Simon Boccanegra (Latvian Opera), Billy Budd (Opera North) and Lucia di Lammermoor (Oldenburg). Other engagements her own production of La Cenerentola (Erfurt); Der Rosenkavalier (Bolshoi Theatre); Otello (Korean National Opera); Giulio Cesare (Erfurt); Rusalka, La traviata and La vie parisienne (Magdeburg); Don Quichotte (Nederlandse Opera); Tancredi, Iolanta, Francesca da Rimini and Orfeo ed Euridice (Theater an der Wien); Otello and William Tell (Graz); The Maiden in the Tower (Buxton Festival); Jenůfa (Glyndebourne); Jenůfa, La bohème, Fiddler on the Roof and A Little Night Music (Malmö) and Eugene Onegin (Opera de Lyon).

STARVELING

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR

Gabriella Ingram COSTUME DESIGNER

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Gabriella Ingram trained as a theatre designer at Wimbledon School of Art. She has designed costumes for baroque and Indian dance, circus, fashion shoots, plays and TV commercials but she primarily works with opera companies. She has designed shows for the Teatro Maggio Florence, Herod Atticus Theatre Acropolis Athens, Chateau de Blois and Chambord France, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Palau de les Arts Valencia, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater and in London at Sadler’s Wells, HPO, ROH Linbury Studio, The South Bank Centre- Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Almeida Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Royal College of Music and the Swan Theatre Stratford upon Avon. Gabriella also costume supervises for productions at the Opera de Lausanne, Opera de Oviedo, Dallas Opera, New York Broadway, Wiener Staatsoper, Goettingen Handel Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Garsington Opera and London’s West End. She is based in London and Bibbiena Italy where she also designs handbags.

Ben Johnson FLUTE

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Acclaimed tenor Ben Johnson enjoys a varied career as a singer, conductor, teacher and artistic director. He is the Founder and Chief Conductor of the Southrepps Sinfonia as well as joint Artisitc Director of the Southrepps Classical Music Festival. He is a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London. He represented England in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2013 and won the Audience Prize. A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and 2008 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award, Johnson was formerly an ENO Harewood Artist and a Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent. Much in demand in concert, recital and opera, he has worked with some of the worlds greatest conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Andris Nelsons, Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, FrançoisXavier Roth, Edward Gardner,

Frans Brüggen, Sir Andrew Davies and Sakari Oramo. He enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the late Sir Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, performing a wide ranging repertoire that included the Evangelist in Bach’s passions through to the Passio of Arvo Pärt. He has made several appearances at the BBC Proms, performing at the Last Night of The Proms in 2017, and has performed in most of Europes great concert halls as well as Carnegie Hall and Boston Symphony Hall in the USA. As a dedicated recitalist, Johnson performs regularly with Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, Tom Primrose, Louis Schwitzgebel and James Baillieu. With Graham Johnson he has given several performances at Wigmore Hall, the Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany, Aldeburgh Music, and the duo have recorded songs by Poulenc for Hyperion Records and a disc of sonnet settings for Champs Hill. Baillieu accompanied his acclaimed debut album of the Britten Canticles with Signum Records and a Rosenblatt Recitals disc of English song (as well appearing together in two live Rosenblatt Recitals). He also features on Malcom Martineau’s recorded surveys of Britten and Fauré. In 2020 he was invited by Maria João Pires to perform Schubert with her in Portugal. Most recently he has enjoyed collaborating with the British pianist Martin James Bartlett. They have given many performances of recitals that link the song and solo piano repertoire, and bring such a programme to London’s Wigmore Hall this January. He also performs regularly with guitarist Sean Shibe, together completing an extensive and much acclaimed tour with Music Network Ireland in 2019. Johnson’s close relationship with ENO has included two celebrated runs as Alfredo in Peter Konwitschy’s La traviata, Tamino in the British premiere of Simon McBurney’s Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, directed by Rufus Norris and a notable debut as Nemorino in Jonathan Miller’s L’elisir d’amore. He recently returned to play Earl Tolloller in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe which gained considerable critical success. Other recent operatic highlights include Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, both for OHP, Don Ottavio for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Bordeaux, Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Bergen National Opera, Oronte in Alcina with The English Concert on a world tour, Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict for Chelsea Opera Group, Carlo in Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco for

A RT I S T I C B I O G R A P H I E S

Buxton Festival Opera, directed by Elijah Moshinsky, the Novice in Billy Budd at Glyndebourne, and Martin in The Tender Land by Copland at Opéra de Lyon. Highlights of the 19/20 season included Nebuchadnezzar in Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace for Scottish Opera and a return to one of Johnson’s trademark roles, singing Tamino in Die Zauberflöte on an extensive tour with WNO. He also be performed Don Basilio (Le nozze di Figaro) with The Grange Festival and Britten’s Serenade with English Chamber Orchestra. He returns to The Grange Festival in 2021 to perform the role of Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and sings Eumete in Montiverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria for Longborough Festival Opera. He recently performed in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, Mozart’s Requiem with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (also under Jurowski) and with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, and Bliss’ The Beatitudes with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, recorded for Chandos Records. Previous highlights include Nielsen’s Springtime in Funen at the BBC Proms, Britten’s War Requiem on Remembrance Sunday under Marin Alsop at the Royal Festival Hall, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri for Festival de Saint-Denis, several performances and tours of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the CBSO and Andris Nelsons as well as with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Royal Northern Sinfonia, Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette with Bergen Philharmonic, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with BBC Scottish Symphony, Evangelist in St John Passions and St Matthew Passion with the RTÉ National Symphony; St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir and Residentie Orkest, Bach’s Magnificat and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with Britten Sinfonia, and Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed Mendelssohn’s Lobegesang with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Residentie Orkest and at the BBC Proms.

Peter Kirk LYSANDER

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

British tenor Peter Kirk studied at the University of Wales, the Royal College of Music International Opera School (graduating with the Eric Shilling Prize for Opera), and on l’Opéra national du Rhin’s Young Artist’s Programme. Whilst on l’opéra national du Rhin’s programme Peter sang the roles of Paolino Il Matrimonio Segreto, Prince la Belle au Bois Dormant, 2nd Peasant Ariane et Barbe-Bleu, Tchaplitsky Queen of Spades. He has since been invited back to sing the roles of Antonio Das Liebesverbot, Pasek Cunning Little Vixen and 3rd Jew Salomé. In 2017/2018, Peter sang Tamino Die Zauberfloete (Opera Up Close), Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Nomade at the Theatre Imperial de Compiegne and with Opéra de Vichy), Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress (Latvian National Opera), Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opéra de Tours), and the Sailor Dido & Aeneas (Festival d’Aix en Provence). On the concert platform notable performances included a Berstein Gala with the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchester under the Baton of Yutaka Sado, and Mozart’s Requiem at the Gasteig with David Reiland and the Münchner Symphoniker. Other productions in recent seasons include Lucano L’incoronazione di Poppea (English Touring Opera), Charlie Mahagonny Songspiel ( London Philharmonic Orchestra), the Congressional Page Two Boys (ENO), Chulak in The Firework Makers Daugter (ROH) and Lysander (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre Japan, Opéra de Lyon) Wagner/ Nero Mefistofele (Aix-en-Provence Festival) Sailor Dido and Aeneas, Mr Erlanson, A little Night Music (Nederlandse Reisopera, Japan) New Years Eve Bernstein Gala (Nishinomiya, Hyogo Performing Arts Centre).

Anthony Kraus CONDUCTOR

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Anthony was educated at St Paul’s School and read Music at Bristol University, where he was also University Organ Scholar. Further studies followed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he won the Ricordi Conducting Prize

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for his performances of Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Viktor Ullmann), and the National Opera Studio, supported by WNO. Anthony is now in demand as a conductor, chorus master and accompanist throughout the UK and Europe. He has worked for many British and European opera companies, including English Touring Opera, The Grange Festival, Garsington Opera, Almeida Opera, Bampton Classical Opera, Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg and the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro. He was Organist of St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, and has worked extensively with the Royal School of Church Music. In 2000 he joined ENO as a trainee repetiteur, becoming a full member of the music staff later that year. From 2003 until 2017 he was on the staff of Opera North, initially as Chorus Master, and subsequently as Acting Head of Music and Assistant Head of Music. While on the music staff there he conducted several productions, including The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Cautionary Tales! (Errolyn Wallen), The Bartered Bride, L’enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Jonathan Dove), Carousel (Rogers and Hammerstein), Ruddigore (Gilbert & Sullivan) and Joshua (Handel). He was also Chorus Master for the critically acclaimed Grimes On The Beach at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival. Since leaving Opera North he has conducted Hansel and Gretel for the Royal Northern College of Music, Dido and Aeneas and Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein) for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, La scuoloa di gelosi (Salieri), Gli sposi malcontenti (Storace) Amahl And The Night Visitors (Menotti). He has also appeared with the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North and Sinfonia Viva in concert, and is Music Director of the British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, and Associate Music Director of Sinfonia of Leeds. He has also worked regularly with the Leeds Festival Chorus, and with Huddersfield Choral Society and The Sixteen, amongst others. Future plans include a return to Opera North for both concert and opera work, and working with the opera students at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Ellie Laugharne ELIZA DOOLITTLE

MY FAIR LADY

Ellie Laugharne studied on the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera course after graduating from Birmingham University and Birmingham Conservatoire. While at the Guildhall she won the Musicians Benevolent Fund Maggie Teyte Prize and Miriam Licette Scholarship. She was a Jerwood Young Artist for the Glyndebourne Festival and more recently an Associate Artist for Opera North. She is also a Samling Artist and an Associate Artist of the Classical Opera Company. Recent operatic roles include Cupid Orpheus in the Underworld and Frasquita Carmen both at English National Opera, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro in her company debut at The Grange Festival, Pamina The Magic Flute for Opera North, the title role in Blackheath Halls’ production of Offenbach’s La Belle Hélenè, Polissena in Handel’s Radamisto and a semi-staged performance of the St Matthew Passion for English Touring Opera, Further operatic appearances have included: Susanna Le nozze di Figaro and Lucia The Rape of Lucretia (in a new production by Fiona Shaw) for Glyndebourne on Tour; Phyllis in a new production of Iolanthe and Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro for English National Opera; Adina L’elisir d’amore, Frasquita Carmen and Mabel The Pirates of Penzance for Scottish Opera; Governess The Turn of the Screw (in a new production by Annilese Miskimmon), Tina Flight and Zerlina Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park; Despina Così fan tutte, Gretel Hänsel und Gretel and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North; Sandrina La Finta Giardiniera and Edna Tobias and the Angel (by Jonathan Dove) for the Buxton Festival; Valencienne The Merry Widow for the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival and Yum Yum The Mikado for Raymond Gubbay Productions in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Among her concert engagements Ellie has sung Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; St John Passion with the Ulster and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras; Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at the Edinburgh International Festival; a programme of music commemorating the Battle of the

Somme for Brighton Festival; Auretta in Mozart’s unfinished opera L’oca del Cairo, completed by Stephen Oliver for the London Mozart Players, and recitals for Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Ryedale Festival and with the Myrthen Ensemble. With Classical Opera and Ian Page, Ellie has performed Haydn’s cantata Applausus and Zerlina Don Giovanni at Cadogan Hall and made her debut at Wigmore Hall singing Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne.

Stephen Lawless DIRECTOR

MANON LESCAUT

Stephen Lawless’ current engagements include Le nozze di Figaro (Cincinnati, San Diego and Palm Beach), Romeo et Juliette (Barcelona), Anna Bolena (Canadian Opera Company), Roberto Devereux (Los Angeles and San Francisco), Lucia di Lammermoor (Oldenburg), Così fan tutte (Essen), and Katya Kabanova (Scottish Opera and Theater Magdeburg). Other productions include Don Giovanni (Metropolitan Opera), Boris Godunov (Vienna Staatsoper); Der Fliegende Holländer’ Daphne, Capriccio, Semele, Cav and Pag (New York City Opera); Il trovatore, Vanessa and L’elisir d’amore (Washington and Philadelphia); Un ballo in maschera, Il trovatore, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale, Falstaff (Los Angeles); Capriccio, Boris Godonov (San Francisco); Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème (Chicago); Le nozze di Figaro, Cav and Pag, La clemenza di Tito, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, Boris Godunov (Dallas); Scarlatti’s Griselda (Deutsche Staatsoper); Boris Godunov, Un ballo in maschera (La Fenice); Orfeo, Tancredi, Iolanta, Francesca da Rimini (Theater an der Wien); Die Fledermaus (Geneva, Beijing); Death in Venice, Falstaff, Die Fledermaus (Glyndebourne); Le nozze di Figaro, Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier, Un ballo in maschera (Hong Kong Festival); Peter Grimes, Die Fledermaus, Otello, William Tell (Graz); Acis and Galatea, Venus and Adonis, Dido and Aeneas, Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena (Innsbruck); Salomé, Ring Cycle (Nürnberg); Maria Stuarda (Toronto); L’elisir d’amore, Faust, Romeo et Juliette, Carmen (Santa Fe); Der Rosenkavalier (Boshoi); Otello, Die Fledermaus (Korea); The Flying Dutchman (Washington); Le nozze di Figaro (Kansas and Philadelphia); La clemenza di Tito (St Louis) and Rusalka (Magdeburg).

Nicholas Lester LESCAUT

MANON LESCAUT

Supported by Isla Baring OAM / Tait Memorial Trust

Nicholas Lester studied at the Adelaide Conservatorium of Music and the National Opera Studio, sponsored by Glyndebourne. He was a State Opera of South Australia Young Artist, a recipient of an Independent Opera/ NOS Postgraduate Voice Fellowship’ awards from the Simon Fletcher and Tait Memorial Trusts, and Glyndebourne’s Anne Woods/ Johanna Peters Award, and is grateful for support from Chris Ball and Serena Fenwick. Recent and future engagements include: title role in Glass’ Orphée, Cascada The Marry Widow, Marcello La bohème (ENO); Marcello (New Zealand Opera), Eugene Onegin, Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia (WNO); Ford Falstaff (Grange Festival); Guglielmo’ Dandini La Cenerentola, Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia, Frédéric Lakmé (OHP); Marcello, Valentin Faust (Dorset Opera Festival); Chou En-Lai Nixon in China, Josef K in Glass’s The Trial’ Germano La scala di seta’ Dr Malatesta Don Pasquale, Ping Turandot (Scottish Opera); Guglielmo (Danish National Opera); Marco Pandora’s Box, Daddy Bear Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs (The Opera Story); Escamillo (Mid Wales Opera); Gianni Schicchi (Amsterdam). Concerts include Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen for Maurice Béjart’s ballet Song of a Wayfarer (ENB)’ Brahms Requiem (Beijing)’ Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs (CBSO)’ Fauré Requiem (St Martin-in-the-Fields) and Messiah conducted by Laurence Cummings.

Adrian Linford DESIGNER

MANON LESCAUT

Adrian trained at the Wimbledon School of Art in London. UK productions include The Castle, The Tyrant, Eugene Onegin, Così fan tutte, The Witch of Edmonton and the environment for the New Writing So & So Hopeful season this summer (London); Star Quality, Betrayal, Family Voices, The Glass Menagerie, The Maids, the UK premiere of Lorca’s When Five Years Pass (Edinburgh Fringe First Award), Blood Wedding, Iphigenia at Aulis, The Shoemakers

A RT I S T I C B I O G R A P H I E S

Wonderful Wife and Yerma. Work abroad includes Il turco in Italia (Angers Nantes Opera and Theatres de la Ville, Luxembourg), Sunday in the Park with George (Theatre du Chatelet), Falstaff (LA Opera), Offenbach’s La Grande Duchesse du Gerolstein (Santa Fe Opera), Orfeo ed Eurydice with David Daniels (Minnesota Opera), The Bald Soprano and The Maids in New York, ART, A Twist of Fate (world premiere), Blithe Spirit (Sing Other productions include Sondheim’s Assassins for Pimlico Opera, new writing at The Finborough includes Tango ’til you’re sore, The Chain Saw Manicure and Acid hearts, The Turn of the Screw (Macedonian Opera), Die Fledermaus and Katya Kabanova (Scottish Opera), and co-designed Il Trovatore (Bastille Opera, directed by Francesca Zambello). This year Adrian is working on a production of The Rake’s Progress for Royal Academy of Music which opens in March, Rigoletto for Santa Fe Opera opening in July, and a new play Dear Lupin, staring James Fox which starts its UK tour in April.

Carolina Lippo CLORINDA

LA CENERENTOLA

Supported by Mark and Sophie Ashburton

Carolina Lippo studied at the “Rodolfo Celletti” Belcanto Academy in Martina Franca in collaboration with the Itria Valley Festival under Lella Cuberli, Vittorio Terranova, Sonia Prina, Stefania Bonfadelli. Notable roles include Carolina in Il matrimonio segreto and Adina L'elisir d'amore in Turin, Norina Don Pasquale in Vienna, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro in Dresden and Vicenza (the latter published on DVD by Velut Luna), Despina in Così fan tutte on tour in the UK and in Vienna, Zerlina in Don Giovanni in Fano, Italy, Merab in Saul in Vienna and at Glyndebourne, Lisetta Le metamorfosi di Pasquale (released on CD with Dynamic), Susanna in Nina, o sia La pazza per amore by Paisiello in Savona, Gnese in Il campiello in Venice and Rovigo, Fiorina in Don Checco in Martina Franca (published on CD with Dynamic), Seraph in Mendelssohn’s Elias oratorio in Vienna, Adelaide in Pietro Generali's Adelaide di Burgundy in Rovigo, Cintia in Leonardo Leo’s L’ambizione delusa in Martina Franca, Ifigenia in Handel’s Oreste in Halle and Vienna, Sandrina in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera in Hannover, Giulia in La scala di seta by Rossini in Sassari,

Semiramide in La Semiramide in villa by Paisiello (first performance in modern times, published on CD by Bongiovanni), Ernestina in Salieri's La scuola de’ gelosi in Cologne and Vienna, and Crobyle in Thaïs by Massenet in Vienna (forthcoming DVD release with Unitel).

John Lloyd Davies DRAMATURG

KING LEAR

John Lloyd Davies has worked throughout Europe as director, designer and lighting designer in both opera and theatre, including directing The Rape of Lucretia and Il re pastore for The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Ariadne auf Naxos and Salomé (Dallas Opera), Der Rosenkavalier (Dortmund), and Maria de Buenos Aires (Los Angeles). At the start of his career, he worked at ENO on over thirty productions, also directing revivals in Frankfurt, Glasgow and Rome. He made his European debut directing and designing Don Giovanni at the Vienna Kammeroper, followed by Die Zauberflöte and Rigoletto. He directed and designed Madama Butterfly in Dublin and Ludwigshafen, Wozzeck and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Maynight in London and directed, designed and lit his first play in Europe — Schnitzler’s Sommerlüfte in Vienna. Since then he has directed, designed & lit over a hundred productions, including Madama Butterfly at the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, Un Ballo in Maschera and Die Zauberflöte (Klagenfurt), and Tosca (Malmö). Other work includes, Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw (Aldeburgh), Cabaret (Graz), and Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress (Brighton Festival), as well as designing Racine’s Phaedra (Vienna), Tales of Hoffmann (Nürnberg), Don Giovanni and Falstaff (Dortmund), and Der Talisman (Salzburg). In Vienna he has become well-known as a specialist in contemporary opera, with the Austrian premieres of Britten’s Death In Venice, Aribert Reimann’s Das Schloß, The House of Usher (Philip Glass), Weiße Rose (Zimmermann) and Powder Her Face (Adès). He also designed and lit the world premiere of John Casken’s opera God’s Liar at the Almeida, London, and La Monnaie, Brussels, and was Associate Director to Keith Warner for Die Dreigroschenoper at Theater an der Wien, Vienna. John Lloyd Davies has been awarded the Josef Kainz Medal, one of Austria’s major theatre

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prizes, for opera and theatre work in Vienna, and he was recently Dramaturg to Kasper Holten, Director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden on the Royal Opera’s new production of Szymanowski’s King Roger. He has recently directed and designed Birtwistle’s Gawain and Yan Tan Tethera at the Barbican for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and has written and directed a new stage adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover for the Festspiele Reichenau and Austrian TV.

Roberto Lorenzi THESEUS / ALIDORO

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM LA CENERENTOLA

Supported by Morgan and Georgina Krone

Roberto Lorenzi is a graduate of the Luigi Boccherini Institute of Musical Studies in Lucca, Italy. He won the First Prize in the AsLiCo’s Competition and took part at Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival and the Opernhaus Zürich International Opera Studio graduating in 2015. In these years he performed: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (F Luisi conducting; DVD for Accentus), Médée by Charpentier (W Christie conducting), Otello, Orlando Paladino, Il matrimonio segreto, La Straniera, La Cenerentola, Il Viaggio a Reims, Le Comte Ory, Carmen and La Clemenza di Tito (O Dantone conducting). Lorenzi made his La Scala debut in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La bohème, under the baton of Daniele Rustioni. Elsewhere he appeared in Tosca, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni (title role) in Lucca; Alidoro in La Cenerentola in Tuscany and Lille; Ferrando in Il Trovatore for AsLiCo circuit; Der fliegende Holländer in Rome, Bologna, Turin; Don Giovanni in Tel Aviv; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in Pesaro; La Straniera in Amsterdam; I Puritani in Palermo; La Cenerentola (Alidoro) in Martigny, Lecce and on tour; Il Viaggio a Reims at the Musikverein in Vienna; Carmen in Rome; Don Giovanni in Bologna; Il Trovatore in Fermo and Jesi; Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at The Grange Festival in London; Verdi’s Requiem in Pisa; Mozart’s Requiem in Lucca and Händel’s Messiah in Madrid, Gdansk and Sevilla with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Verdi Orchestra in Milan. Future plans: Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in Nice and Antibes; Leporello at the Guangzhou Opera House; Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Norske Opera in Oslo.

Heather Lowe ANGELINA

(25, 28, 30 June)

LA CENERENTOLA

Heather studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio, supported by Scottish Opera. She is a trained ballet and ballroom dancer. Her recent and future engagements include an Opera Rara recording of Marcella il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, Angelina La Cenerentola (The Grange Festival and West Green House Opera), Rosina The Barber of Seville (Opera North and Welsh National Opera), Hansel Hansel and Gretel (ENO), Dorabella Così fan tutte (Northern Ireland Opera and Dorset Opera), Cherubino The Marriage of Figaro‚ Sesto Giulio Cesare‚ Hansel‚ The Page Salome and Lel Snowmaiden (Opera North), Tisbe La Cenerentola (WNO and Opera Holland Park).

Angharad Lyddon

HIPPOLYTA/MUSICIAN

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM MANON LESCAUT

Supported by Tim and Beverley Guinness

Welsh mezzo-soprano Angharad Lyddon studied at the Royal Academy of Music and made her professional début for English National Opera in 2015 as Kate in Pirates of Penzance. She performed the role again in their 2017 revival and sang Daughter of Akhnaten in Akhnaten for them in 2019. Other roles include Flosshilde in Das Rheingold for Grimeborn Festival, Olga in Eugene Onegin for Buxton Festival Opera, Hansel in Iford Arts’ Gingerbread, Julia Bertram in Mansfield Park for The Grange Festival and Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte at the Åbo Svenska Theater in Finland. Angharad is a Samling Artist and concert highlights include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘Beethoven: The 1808 Concert’ with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC NOW’s St David’s Day Celebration, a three-concert tour of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Cardiff, St Davids and Berlin, Mozart’s Requiem at Windsor Castle, , Bach Cantatas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Angharad was a Finalist in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition Song Prize

where she represented Wales. Upcoming engagements this season include Rossweisse in London Opera Company’s concert performance of Die Walküre and Olga in Eugene Onegin for West Green House Opera.

Ashley Martin-Davies DESIGNER

KING LEAR

Ashley Martin-Davis studied at Central School of Art & Design and Motley Theatre Design School. He designs internationally for theatre and opera. Recent opera work includes: Egmont (Theater an der Wien); Vanessa (Glyndebourne Festival Opera); Francesca da Rimini (Opera du Rhin); Tri Sestri and Peter Grimes (Oper Frankfurt); Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette (Santa Fe Opera/Liceu Barcelona); Une nuit à Venise (Opéra de Lyon/ Oper Graz/ROH Muscat); I Capuleti e I Montecchi (Bergen National Opera); Pelleas och Melisande (Royal Swedish Opera); The Merchant of Venice (Bregenz Festspiele Austria/ Polish National Opera/WNO/ROH, Covent Garden); Otello, Macbeth and Falstaff (Royal Danish Opera). Recent theatre work includes: Jude, Filthy Business, Rabbit Hole, Hapgood, Wonderland, #AIWW: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei and 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre); Leonora Christina (Odense Teater); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Liverpool Everyman); The Last Days of Troy and Britannia Waves the Rules (Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Betty Nansen Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark).

Oskar McCarthy EDMUND

KING LEAR

Actor-singer Oskar McCarthy’s recent roles include Leporello and Don Alfonso for Waterperry Opera Festival (were he returns as Dulcamara L’elisir d’amore in 2021) and King George Eight Songs for a Mad King with Red Note Ensemble (“a tour de force... mesmerising”, The Herald). He has staged Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death with movement director Rachel Drazek for the London Month of the Dead and toured his own staging of Schoeck’s song cycle Buried Alive. Other projects include The case against..., a pair of 6 hour freelyimprovised installations performed

in Glasgow with composer Rufus Elliot, and work for young audiences: Spitalfields Music’s Catch a Sea Star (part of their award-winning series of music theatre pieces for 0–2.5 year olds) and Peter Rabbit’s Musical Adventure for Waterperry Opera Festival with the Echéa Quartet. Oskar has portrayed Robert Schumann in Re: Sound Music Theatre’s acclaimed play-with-music Duet at the Oxford Lieder Festival and Wilfred Owen in Where Then Shall We Start?, a multimedia theatre piece at the Queen’s House, Greenwich. He is company manager of Festival Voices, an experimental vocal ensemble whose most recent project — Handel Remixed: Volume II — brought electronic-choral reimaginings to a Peckham warehouse for the 2020 London Handel Festival. Oskar is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Opera School and the University of Cambridge. He has studied Lecoq technique, fooling, improvisation, and mime at the International School of Dramatic Corporeal Mime in Paris.

Nadim Naaman

FREDDY EYNSFORD - HILL

MY FAIR LADY

Nadim trained at The Royal Academy of Music, where he won The Ronald William White Prize for Excellence in Acting Through Song and has since been appointed an Associate. Recent Credits include: Count Carl-Magnus in A Little Night Music (Holland Park Opera), Raoul in The Phantom of The Opera (West End, Athens and Thessaloniki), Khalil Gibran in Broken Wings (West End and International Tour) and Bertie Wooster in By Jeeves (The Old Laundry). Other Credits include: On The Town (Royal Albert Hall, BBC Proms), Sweeney Todd (Tooting Arts Club and West End), One Man, Two Guvnors (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Sound of Music (The Palladium), Titanic (Toronto and Southwark Playhouse), Chess (The Union), Knight Crew (Glyndebourne) and The Last Five Years (The Pleasance). As a concert soloist, Nadim has performed internationally and across the UK with leading Orchestras and venues including The John Wilson Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, RCO Amsterdam, RTE Concert Orchestra Dublin, Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Gothenburg Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, London Symphony and BBC Proms at The Royal Albert Hall. Nadim’s 2016 studio album, Sides, topped

A RT I S T I C B I O G R A P H I E S

the iTunes UK Vocal Chart, and is available on iTunes and Spotify.

Stuart Orme

LANDLORD/SERGEANT/ CAPTAIN

MANON LESCAUT

Stuart is a Samling Artist from Bewdley in Worcestershire. His studies took place in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music where he obtained in Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. Roles on stage include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (Opera Loki), Gregorio in Romeo et Juliette (Grange Park Opera), Sicario in Macbeth (Buxton Festival), Eldest Son in Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom (British Youth Opera), Luther and Crespel in Tales of Hoffmann (Opera Mio), Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (RNCM), Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (RNCM), Harry Easter in Street Scene (RNCM), Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro (Heritage Opera), Schaunard in La bohème (Heritage Opera), Sciarrone in Tosca (Mananan Opera Festival), and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas (Eboracum Baroque). Stuart also took part in a research and development project for a new opera Tan Tan & Dry Bone by Hannah Kendall. This project was in partnership between Opera North and the Royal Opera House. On the concert platform, Stuart has been a soloist for Durufle’s Requiem (Manchester Chamber Choir) at the Bridgewater Hall, Macmillan’s Seven Last Words on the Cross (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Huddersfield Choral Society and BBC Phil. Other Oratorio solo performances include include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mass in B Minor and Magnificat, and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle.

Nigel Osborne COMPOSER

KING LEAR

Nigel Osborne is a composer and aid worker. He has worked with the world’s principal orchestras, ranging from the Philharmonia of London to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and from the Vienna Symphony to the Moscow Symphony. He has spent much of his life in the theatre: as Master of Music at the Shakespeare Globe, composer

for Ballet Rambert, where he worked on a series of contemporary dance “classics” such as Wildlife and Apollo Distraught, and currently house composer for Ulysses Theatre in Istria, with over twenty productions including Medea, Marat Sade, Waiting for Godot, The Tempest, Arturo Ui, Antigone and The Bacchae. His many operas have been performed in opera houses and theatres in the UK and around the world including Glyndebourne, Wuppertal, Berlin and Oslo The Electrification of the Soviet Union, Scottish Opera The Queens of Govan, ENO Terrible Mouth, The ROH The Piano Tuner, Royal Court Hell’s Angels, National Theatre Sarajevo Evropa, Hofburg, Vienna Differences in Demolition and Matera Silent City. Among many awards, he has received the Opera Prize of Radio Suisse Romand/Ville de Genève, a Netherlands Gaudeamus Prize, the Radcliffe Award, the Koussevitzky Award of the Library of Congress Washington, and in 2017, the Inspiration Award of the British Academy of Songwriters and Composers (BASCA). He has pioneered methods for using music to support children who are victims of conflict in the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, East Africa, India and South East Asia.

Maria Ostroukhova TISBE

LA CENERENTOLA

Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Ostroukhova began her international career after winning the Michael Oliver Prize at the London Handel Competition in 2015. Recent engagements include Arsace Ormisda with the London Handel Festival, Bradamante Alcina for the Lammermuir Festival and Ryedale Festival Opera, Albino in Johann Hasse’s I pellegrini al Sepolchro di Nostro Signore, in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Philharmonic Hall, Ottavia L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Longborough Festival, Dardano Amadigi at the London Handel Festival, Alcina Orlando Furioso with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli and Les Noces with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko. Concert performances encompass Messiean Harawi¸Verdi’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Janacek’s The Diary of the One Who Disappeared and Mahler’s Symphony #2. Born into a family of Muscovite musicians, Maria’s formal education include degrees from the Moscow

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Gnessins’ College of Music as a pianist and accompanist with Anna Arzamanova and Marianna Shalitaeva, graduated magna cum laude, the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire as a pianist, harpsichordist, historical piano and basso continuo with Yuri Martynov and Alexandra Koreneva and recently graduated from the Royal College of Music, London, with a Master of Vocal Performance and a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance, both with distinction.

Haydn’s The Seasons, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, and Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony. Alex gained a first-class degree in Economics from the University of Manchester before embarking on his studies at the DIT Conservatory in Dublin. Alex is also the proud recipient of an Independent Opera Fellowship award.

Alex Otterburn

MY FAIR LADY

DEMETRIUS

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Described as “ruling the stage” (Opera Magazine) in his debut as Pluto last season in ENO’s new production of Orpheus in the Underworld, British baritone Alex Otterburn delights audiences and critics alike with his bright tone and commanding stage presence. As an ENO Harewood Artist, Alex has appeared as Morales in Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen conducted by Valentina Peleggi, and Squibby in the world premiere of Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel conducted by Martyn Brabbins. This season Alex returns to The Grange Festival in his role debut as Demetrius in Paul Curran’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Alex’s critically acclaimed debut as Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek at the Edinburgh International Festival defined him as an exciting and important artist of the new generation, with further performances given in Glasgow for Scottish Opera and on tour to the Brooklyn Academy of Arts, marking his US operatic debut. Further successes have included Chip in Antony McDonald’s new production of On the Town at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre and on tour in Tokyo, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos for both Scottish Opera and OHP, Pallante in Agrippina for The Grange Festival, and his company debut at Opera North as Cascada in The Merry Widow under Martin André. Building a diverse concert repertoire, recent highlights have included Carmina Burana with the Oulu Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba, Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles accompanied by James Baillieu and Philip Moore at the Edinburgh International Festival, and a selection of repertoire including Vaughan Williams and Gurney at the Ludlow English Song Festival with Iain Burnside. Elsewhere he has sung

Steven Pacey HENRY HIGGINS

Theatre includes: Steven in The Nightingales (Theatre Royal Bath); Mr Burgess in The Knowledge (Charing Cross); Holofernes/Leonato in Loves Labours Lost/Much Ado About Nothing (RSC — West End); Sir Politic in Volpone, Ferneze in The Jew of Malta (RSC); Peter in Relative Values (Comedy); Kent in King Lear (Chichester Theatre / BAM New York); King Arthur in Spamalot (Playhouse): Captain Hook in Peter Pan (American Tour); Larkin in Six Degrees Of Separation, Alec in Dolly West’s Kitchen ( Old Vic); George in La Cage aux Folles (Playhouse); Flemyng in Moonlight and Magnolias (Tricycle); Fowles in The Old Masters (Comedy); Arno in Democracy, Gadd in Trelawny of The Wells (National); John Middleton in The Constant Wife (Apollo); Russell in Celebration, Bert in The Room (Almeida/ Lincoln Centre New York); Stanley in The Birthday Party (Piccadilly); Hamish in Things We Do For Love (Gielgud); Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Henry Travels in With My Aunt (Chichester); Bertie Wooster in By Jeeves, Jesus in Godspell (Duke Of York’s); Raoul The Phantom of the Opera (Shaftesbury); Valentine in Valentine’s Day (Chichester); Dexter in Exclusive (Strand); Lord Brocklehurst in The Admiral Crichton (Haymarket); Macauley Connor in High Society (Victoria Palace); Tony in West Side Story (Her Majesty’s); Film: Benediction; Hope Gap; The Birth of a Nation; Return to House on Haunted Hill; Boy A. Television: The Rook; Flack; The Alienist; Humans; Poirot; Casualty; Wallander; Foyles War; Ptivates; Pie in the Sky; Distant Shores; Troubles & Strife; and Tarrant in Blake’s 7. Steven has recorded over over 250 radio plays and 200 audio books.

David Parry CONDUCTOR

LA CENERENTOLA

Supported by Peter and Nancy Thompson

David Parry is acknowledged as an inspirational champion of operatic, concert and symphonic repertoire across a vast range. He is known both for the re-appraisal of important lesserknown compositions and for a consistently fresh approach to established repertoire. Significant credits include the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opera North; also Staatstheater Stuttgart), Der Fliegende Holländer (Portland Opera), Madama Butterfly (in Anthony Minghella’s production for ENO which earned him an Olivier Award), Così fan tutte and the premiere of Dove’s Flight (Glyndebourne Festival Opera) and Maria Stuarda (Stockholm Royal Opera). He has an extensive discography for Chandos and Opera Rara. His recording of Rossini’s Ermione won a Gramophone Award for best opera 2011. Recent highlights include Tales of Hoffman in Wuppertal, La traviata at Scottish Opera, Mose in Egitto at Oper Köln, Tosca for Nederlandse Reisopera and the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Marx in London at Theater Bonn. At The Grange Festival he previously conducted Mansfield Park and Il barbiere di Siviglia.

James Platt BOTTOM

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Supported by Tim and Beverley Guinness

British bass James Platt was educated at Chetham’s School of Music and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and the Opera Course of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 2014–2016 his roles in the house included Gremin Eugene Onegin, Caronte Orfeo, Dr Grenvil La traviata, Frontier Guard Boris Godunov and Blansac in Rossini’s La scala di seta. Elsewhere he has sung Ortel Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at La Scala, Milan; First Soldier Salome for the Dutch National Opera; Crespel Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Basilio Il

barbiere di Siviglia for the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Il Commendatore Don Giovanni for Opera North; Gremin, Bertrand Iolanta and Dr Grenvil La traviata for Scottish Opera; Sarastro Die Zauberflöte and the roles of Count Rostov, Tichon, Berthier, Ramballe and Beningsen in War & Peace for the Welsh National Opera and Notary Don Pasquale at the Glyndebourne Festival. He has also performed the roles of Bottom/Deutsche Oper, Berlin and Sparafucile/WNO. Concert appearances include Bach’s Weihnachts-oratorium on tour with Les Musiciens du Louvre/ Marc Minkowski, Shostakovich’s Four Romances on Poems by Pushkin with the Hallé Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder, Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Bach Choir/David Hill, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Royal Northern Sinfonia/Lars Vogt, Handel’s Messiah with the Hallé Orchestra/ Christian Curnyn, Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestre National de Lyon/ Leonard Slatkin, Dvorak’s Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Jiri Belohlavek, Polyphemus Acis & Galatea with La Nuova Musica/David Bates Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the BBC Proms with the BBC Singers/David Hill and Nino’s Ghost in Rossini’s Semiramide also at the BBC Proms with the OAE/Sir Mark Elder. He was both a finalist in the GSMD’s Gold Medal Competition and was awarded the Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has also been the recipient of a Richard Van Allen Award and an Independent Opera Scholarship. James has studied with Brindley Sherratt and Sir John Tomlinson and, as a Samling Scholar, he has worked with Malcolm Martineau, Stephen King and Sir Thomas Allen. James continues his studies with Janice Chapman. Recordings include Shostakovich’s Four Romances on Poems by Pushkin (Hallé Live), Don Pasquale (Opus Arte DVD), Fata Morgana, an album of songs by Pavel Haas with pianist Lada Valasova and Messiah (Resonus) and Semiramide (Opera Rara).

Peter Polycarpou

ALFRED P DOOLITTLE

MY FAIR LADY

Theatre includes: Indecent (Chocolate Factory), A Very Expensive Poison (The Old Vic), Oslo (NT and Pinter — Olivier Award Nomination), Moonlight, Night School (Pinter — Jamie Lloyd Season) Beadle in Sweeney Todd (CFT and Adelphi) and Love Story (Minerva and Duchess). The Magistrate and Ali Hakim in Oklahoma! (NT), Artefacts

A RT I S T I C B I O G R A P H I E S

(Brits Off Broadway and Bush), Last Easter, A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Rep), Imagine This (Plymouth Theatre Royal and New London), Silver Birch House (Arcola Theatre), Anna in the Tropics, Follow My Leader (Hampstead Theatre), Ui in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Bridewell), The Odd Couple, Angels in America (Manchester Library), Titus Andronicus (RSC) and original John in Miss Saigon (Drury Lane). Television includes: The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, Unforgotten, Defending the Guilty, Hustle, The Lehman Brothers, Holby City, Empathy, The Bill, EastEnders, Waking the Dead, Planespotting, Casualty, Mile High, Birds of a Feather and Sunburn. Films include: Clean Skin, O Jerusalem!, I Could Never Be Your Woman, De-Lovely, Oklahoma!, Evita, The Bezonians, Blue Iguana. Shorts: Disarm, Broken, Mad George. BBC Radio Drama includes: The Deportation Room, Beirut Days, Afternoon Outing, The Bronx, The History of Titus Groan and Bad Faith, BOTW Where the Line Is Drawn, HR (Series V), The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep.

Elin Pritchard MANON LESCAUT

MANON LESCAUT

Supported by Mr and Mrs Roger Phillimore

Welsh Soprano Elin Pritchard is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is also a Samling Artist. Her operatic roles have included Micaëla in Carmen, Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, Giorgetta in Il tabarro, Musetta in La bohème, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress. Recent and future engagements include Nedda in Pagliacci and Kupava in The Snow Maiden for Opera North, Marie in Daughter of the Regiment for the Buxton Festival, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and Violetta in La traviata for Den Jyske Opera, Alice in Falstaff and Manon Lescaut (title role) for The Grange Festival, Ofglen in The Handmaid’s Tale for ENO, Nedda for Iford Arts, and Micaela for WNO. On the concert platform recent and future engagements include Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Brucker’s Mass no 3 with the Waynflete Singers at Winchester Cathedral, The Apostles at Canterbury Cathedral, Brahms’ Requiem with the Ulster Orchestra and Opera Galas for the Samling Foundation and Opera North.

Paul Pyant

LIGHTING DESIGNER

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM LA CENERENTOLA MANON LESCAUT

British lighting designer Paul Pyant made his Royal Opera debut in 1991 on the world premiere of Gawain. He has since returned to create the lighting designs for Il viaggio a Reims, Stiffelio, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, Boulevard Solitude, Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito, The Minotaur (world premiere) and Parsifal on the main stage and The Corridor/The Cure in the Linbury Studio Theatre. For The Royal Ballet he created the lighting design for the 2008 revival of Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au voyage. Pyant was born in 1953 and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he is now an associate. His enduring relationship with Glyndebourne Festival began in 1974, with lighting credits there including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Le nozze di Figaro and Falstaff, directed by Peter Hall, and Death in Venice, directed by Stephen Lawless. He has worked extensively for opera houses around the world, including for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, La Scala, Milan, the Kirov Opera and ENO, and for ballet companies including ENB, Boston Ballet and Norwegian National Ballet. Pyant has worked prolifically in theatre, particularly with the National Theatre, where credits include The Wind in the Willows and The Madness of King George, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and Troilus and Cressida, directed by Trevor Nunn. His work has also been seen widely in the West End and on Broadway. His music theatre credits include The Lord of the Rings in 2008. His awards include a Critics’ Circle Award for Best Lighting for Carousel.

Stephen Richardson GERONTE

MANON LESCAUT

Supported by Colin Murray

Stephen Richardson studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. He has created roles in operas including Thomas Adès’s The Tempest, Tan Dun’s Tea and Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, The Intelligence Park and The Importance of Being Earnest. He also sang Commander in the UK premiere of

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Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale (ENO) and performed in world premieres of works by John Tavener including The Apocalypse and Fall and Resurrection. Recent engagements include Baron Ochs Der Rosankavalier (Bolshoi’ Moscow and Opera North), Simone Gianni Schicchi, Dikoj Kát’a Kabanová, The General Silent Night and Dansker Billy Budd (Opera North), Dansker (Rome), Doctor Bartolo Le nozze di Figaro (Garsington and GPO), title role The Mikado (Scottish Opera); Hotel Manager Powder Her Face and Timur Turandot (Northern Ireland Opera), Sir Joshua Cramer The Intelligence Park (Linbury Theatre, Music Theatre Wales). Further highlights include Mr Flint Billy Budd, Stefano The Tempest and Hobson Peter Grimes (ROH), Baron Ochs and Daland The Flying Dutchman (ENO), Rocco Fidelio (OHP), Don Quichotte Le Chevalier Imaginaire (Ensemble Intercontemporain) title role Falstaff and Sarastro Die Zauberflöte (Opera Australia). Richardson has sung in concert with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and London Sinfonietta and recorded widely.

conducted by Paul Daniel. Mark works with David Owen Norris. He played the character of Salieri in David’s comic radio opera Die Sober Flirter! in Norway and the UK. With Bampton Classical Opera he has helped to introduce several lesser known classical works to a UK audience notably Salieri’s Falstaff. He has been heard several times on BBC Radio 3 and has sung in a variety of oratorios and recitals including Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’ Requiem (at Birmingham Symphony Hall), Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana (at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall) and Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (in Rochester Cathedral). He has recorded the role of Ben Budge in Beggar’s Opera with the City of London Sinfonia and Royal Opera, conducted by Christian Curnyn. Mark has recently been working with ENO covering the role of Zurga in The Pearlfishers by Bizet. Mark is performing in Sudbury on June 30 with Julie Roberts and Matthew McCombie.

Mark Saberton

The Chilean-born baritone, Christian Senn, has been living in Italy for several years. After a Master degree in Biology, he was accepted by the Academy for young singers at Teatro alla Scala, in Milan studying with L Gencer, L Alva and V Manno. Christian Senn sings with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, M Benini, M Barbacini, C Rizzi, Giovanni Antonini, Ottavio Dantone, Fabio Biondi, Jean Christophe Spinosi, R Gandolfi, R Rizzi Brignoli, C Rovaris in some of the most important European halls and theaters including Teatro alla Scala, Wiener Konzerthaus, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Teatro La Fenice in Venice as well as important halls outside of Europe such as the Kanagawa Hall di Yokohama and at the National Theatre in Santiago del Cile. Christian Senn is one of the most sought after baritones for Belcanto repertoire in Italy and abroad. One of his last prestigious engagements was a performance as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in several productions at the Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Regio in Torino, La Fenice in Venice. Recently he had great success with his Conte in Le nozze di Figaro at the Teatro alla Scala, as well as Taddeo

CORNWALL’S SERVANT/ OFFICER

KING LEAR

Mark studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he was awarded the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Trust to study in the Opera School. He has sung with many opera companies including Royal Opera, ENO, Opera North, Raymond Gubbay, Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, OHP, Mid Wales Opera and Savoy Opera. Roles include Rigoletto and Escamillo (Carmen) for Kentish Opera and Heritage Opera; Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Longborough Festival Opera; Figaro (The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro), Scarpia (Tosca), Don Giovanni and Sharpless (Madame Butterfly) for Heritage Opera; Ben Budge/Wat Dreary (Beggar’s Opera) for Royal Opera; Antonio (The Marriage of Figaro) for Garsington Opera at the Barbican conducted by Jane Glover; Narumov (Queen of Spades) for OHP; Krusina (Bartered Bride) for Mid Wales Opera, and the Hotel Waiter/ Boatman (Death in Venice) for the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals

Christian Senn DANDINI

LA CENERENTOLA

in L’italiana in Algeri in Teatro Regio in Turin, and Papageno in The Magic Flute in Montpellier. Furthermore, he performed Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Santiago Teatro Nacional in Chile under the baton of M Benini and again in Verona and Reggio Emila directed by J Webb. Recently, he sang the role of Pacuvio in Rossini’s La Pietra di Paragone at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Teatro Regio in Parma conducted by J C Spinosi and staged by P Sorin and Barberio Corsetti; Zoroastro in George Frideric Handel’s Orlando at Palau de las Arts in Valencia; Valentin in Charles Gounod’s Faust and Enrico in Donizzetti’s Lucia di Lamermoor in Santiago de Chile; Nanni in Haydn’s L’Infedeltà delusa in Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci. Also specialized in Baroque repertoire, Christian Senn has sung the title role in Antonio Vivaldi’s Bajazet in the major European capitals and in Japan with Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi; Mozart’s Betulia Liberata with Ottavio Dantone; La Senna in Vivaldi’s La Senna Festeggiante with Paul Goodwin; Handel’s Alexander Feast with Diego Fasolis at the Swiss Radio. Particularly fond of Bach’s music, he has sung many Cantatas, Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248), Johannes-Passion (BWV 245), Matthaus-Passion (BWV 244), Magnificat as well as modern masterpieces like Messe Solemnelle by César Franck and Messa di Santa Cecilia by C Gounod, Requiem by Gabriel Fauré. He is also a member of Coro Bach Santiago since 2018. Recent and forthcoming engagements: Maestro di Musica in Donizetti’s Convenienze e Inconvenienze Teatrali at Teatro alla Scala; Astolfo in Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso at Théâtre de Champs Elysée in Paris with revivals in Nizza; Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro in Potsdam and Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Sevilla with Jean-Christophe Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus for a european tour and the same role in Teatro La Fenice; etc. His recordings include: Vivaldi’s Tito Manlio and Rossini’s La Pietra del Paragone on DVD (live recording in Paris Théâtre du Châtelet) for Naïve.

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Angela Simkin HERMIA

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Ralph and Patricia Kanter

Angela Simkin began her training at the Royal Northern College of Music, furthering her studies at the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. Between 2016 and 2018, Angela Simkin was a member of the Jette Parker Programme at the ROH, Covent Garden, where she sang Mlle Dangeville Adriana Lecouvreur, the title role in Handel’s Oreste (at Wilton’s Music Hall), Second Lady Die Zauberflöte, Annina Der Rosenkavalier, Tebaldo Don Carlo and Flora Bervoix La traviata. She has since returned to the Royal Opera House to sing Mercédès Carmen and Flosshilde Der Ring des Nibelungen. Elsewhere, her engagements have included the Russian premiere of George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Mercédès Carmen for Welsh National Opera, Teseo Arianna in Creta and Iside Giove in Argo for the London Handel Festival, Lucilla Il Vologeso and Messiah for The Mozartists, The Angel The Demon with Chelsea Opera Group, Siegrune Die Walküre with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony No 9 and Mozart Requiem with the Orion Orchestra, Messiah by Candlelight for Raymond Gubbay Ltd at the Royal Festival Hall and a recording a Dorcas in Sullivan’s Haddon Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Angela Simkin made her debut at The Grange Festival as Meg Page Falstaff in 2019.

Victoria Simmonds ANGELINA

(3, 7 July)

LA CENERENTOLA

Victoria Simmonds studied at GSMD and in 2000 made her ENO debut as Nancy T’ang in Nixon in China. She went on to become a company principal. She has sung numerous roles at all of the major UK opera companies including the highly acclaimed The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opera North). Engagements abroad include appearances at the Aix en Provence Festival, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Opernhaus Halle and the Netherlands Opera.

Recent and future commitments include Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen and Meg Page in Falstaff (Garsington), Luke Bedford’s Through His Teeth (ROH), Boy in The Way Back Home (ENO), Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park), Angel 2 in Marie Written on Skin (Netherlands Opera, Toulouse, Lisbon, Opéra Comique Paris, Royal Opera House, La Scala Milan, Lincoln Centre New York, Wiener Festwochen, Bavarian State Opera Munich and a European Tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra), Angelina in La Cenerentola (Opera Holland Park and Danish National Opera), Minsk Woman in Flight (Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park), Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera) as well as concerts with the Nash Ensemble and performances at the Beijing Music Festival.

Richard Suart

COLONEL PICKERING

MY FAIR LADY

Richard Suart studied at St John’s College‚ Cambridge‚ and the Royal Academy of Music‚ where he was elected a Fellow in 2004. Recent and future engagements include Pangloss Candide Toronto Symphony Orchestra‚ The Duke of Plaza Toro The Gondoliers and Scaphio Utopia (Scottish Opera), Judge Trial by Jury (ENO) ‚ Doctor Bartolo The Barber of Seville (Charles Court Opera)‚ Baron Zeta The Merry Widow (Calgary Opera/ Michigan Opera Theatre)‚ MajorGeneral Stanley The Pirates of Penzance (Scottish Opera)‚ Judge Turpin Sweeney Todd (Reisopera) ‚ Jack Point The Yeomen of the Guard and Major- General (RTE Concert Orchestra)‚ Pangloss Candide (Firenze, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and LA Philharmonic‚ Hollywood Bowl)‚ Ko-Ko The Mikado (ENO and Scottish Opera)‚ Lord Chancellor Iolanthe (San Francisco Symphony)‚ The Soldiers’ Tale and Façade (Psappha) and Registrar Madama Butterfly (Raymond Gubbay). Richard has worked for all the major British opera houses and is much sought after in music theatre‚ contemporary opera and as a comedian in the more standard repertoire. Roles include MajorGeneral The Pirates of Penzance‚ Frank Die Fledermaus Baron Zeta The Merry Widow‚ Lesbo Agrippina and Benoit/ Alcindoro La Bohème (ENO); Jack Point (Welsh National Opera and ROH)‚ French Ambassador Of thee I Sing‚ Snookfield Let ’Em Eat Cake and Barabashkin Paradise

Moscow (Opera North and Bregenz‚ Don Jerome The Duenna (ETO‚ Edgar The Tell-Tale Heart (ROH2) ‚ Stan Stock in the premiere of Benedict Mason’s Playing Away (ON‚ Bregenz and St Pölten)‚ Magnifico La Cenerentola‚ Antonio Le Nozze di Figaro (Garsington)‚ Lord Chancellor‚ Don Inigo Gomez L’Heure Espagnole (Grange Park)‚ the British première of Shostakovitch’s Cheryomushki (Pimlico Opera) and King Arthur Gwyneth and the Green Knight (Premiere‚ Music Theatre Wales). He has enjoyed a long association with Diva Opera for whom he has appeared as Dr Bartolo‚ Gianni Schicchi and Dulcamara; with whom he has directed (and appeared in) three operettas Trial by Jury‚ Die Fledermaus and Cox and Box in the Channel Islands‚ UK‚ Switzerland and France. Richard has been a member of the D’Oyly Carte since 1988 with whom he has sung many of the Savoy operas‚ Orpheus in the Underworld and La Vie Parisienne. His involvement with the works of Gilbert and Sullivan has led him to create As a Matter of Patter‚ which he has performed at many venues in the UK‚ South Africa and the Middle East. Generally considered the leading patter man of his generation‚ he has appeared as the Duke of Plaza-Toro‚ Lord Chancellor and Sir Joseph Porter (BBC Proms) and made many other appearances at Gala Concerts in the UK‚ North America and Canada. He has also given performances of The Parson’s Pirates (Opera della Luna‚ Bridewell Theatre‚ London) and took part in the Venetian premiere of The Mikado. Richard is a regular visitor to the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival‚ held in Buxton each summer‚ and is a Vice President of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Productions abroad have included Mr Walter Afterlife (Melbourne Festival‚ Holland Festival‚ Lyon)‚ Punch Punch and Judy (Berlin) ‚ Donizetti’s L’Ajo nell‘Imbarazzo (Batignano); Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King (Gelsenkirchen‚ Milan‚ Helsinki‚ Strasbourg‚ Stavanger and Paris‚ Mason’s Chaplinoperas with the Ensemble Modern (Germany‚ Portugal‚ Holland and Austria‚ world première performances of Param Vir’s Snatched by the gods and Broken Strings (Netherlands Opera‚ Munich‚ Antwerp‚ Rotterdam and Rouen‚ Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon (Ensemble Intercontemporain‚ New York and Paris)‚ Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (Salzburg Festival and the Châtelet)‚ Peter Grimes‚ Reigen and The Mikado (Reisopera)‚ Dido and Aeneas (Bremen and Turin)‚ Les Noces (Brussels)‚ Koko The Mikado New York City Opera‚ Vancouver and Penang.

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Recordings include Eight Songs for a Mad King (Finnish TV and Channel 4)‚ Turnage’s Greek (BBCTV and Decca)‚ Candide‚ A Midsummer Night’s Dream‚ The Fairy Queen and Orpheus in the Underworld; The Geisha‚ The Maid of the Mountains and Sullivan’s The Contrabandista (Hyperion)‚ and Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince‚ (BBCTV and Sony CD and DVD). Savoy operas include The Gondoliers and Iolanthe (D’Oyly Carte) and The Mikado‚ The Pirates of Penzance‚ HMS Pinafore‚ The Yeomen of the Guard and Trial by Jury under Sir Charles Mackerras.

William Thomas QUINCE

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

A recent graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recipient of a number of major awards, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. As a Jerwood Young Artist he sang the role of Nicholas in the British premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival, he has sung Shepherd Pelléas et Mélisande for Garsington Opera and he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Snug in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other recent engagements have included Zweiter Priester/ Zweiter Geharnischter Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne and Colline La bohème at Alexandra Palace for the English National Opera. Upcoming engagements include Ashby La fanciulla del West with the Verbier Festival Orchestra/ Valery Gergiev; Priest/Badger/ Harašta in concert performances of The Cunning Little Vixen with the CBSO/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla; Parsi Rustomji Satyagraha, Sciarrone Tosca and Colline La bohème for the English National Opera; a return to Glyndebourne and debuts with the Opéra de Rouen Normandie and the Opéra national de Paris. Concert engagements have included Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the English National Opera/Laurence Cummings; Bartok’s Cantata Profana with the London Symphony Orchestra/FrançoisXavier Roth and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Orchestre national de Lyon/Alan Gilbert.

John Tomlinson LEAR

KING LEAR

Supported by Tessa and Jonathan Gaisman

John Tomlinson was born in Lancashire. He gained a BSc in Civil Engineering at Manchester University before winning a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was awarded a CBE in 1997 and knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2005. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Singer in 1991, 1998 and 2007 and in 2014 their Gold Medal. John Tomlinson’s engagements include performances at La Scala, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Geneva, Lisbon, Metropolitan Opera, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Tokyo, Opera Australia, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin (Deutsche Oper and Deutsche Staatsoper), Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Antwerp, and Bilbao and the Festivals of Bayreuth (where he sang for eighteen consecutive seasons), Orange, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Edinburgh and the Maggio Musicale, Florence. He has sung regularly with ENO since 1974 and with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, since 1977 and has also appeared with all the other leading British opera companies.

Guy Unsworth DIRECTOR

MY FAIR LADY

Writer and director of Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em (UK Tour); Director of Julius Caesar (Fort Canning Park, Singapore); Of Mice and Men (UK Tour); Hand To God (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Cinderella (Manchester Opera House); Moving Stories (Haymarket, West End & Houses of Parliament); The Food of Love (Royal Festival Hall & Cadogan Hall); A Whirligig of Time (Royal Shakespeare Company); Cool Rider (Lyric & Duchess, West End); The Collector, Death and the Maiden (English Theatre Frankfurt); A Night with Bonnie Langford (London Hippodrome); Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse); Sweet Smell of Success, Company (Arts Ed); Marguerite (Tabard); Fresher the Musical (Pleasance, Islington and Edinburgh); Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Cockpit); Play-in-a-Day Series (London Bridge Tunnels); Metamorphosis (British American

Drama Academy); The Bear Who Paints (Pleasance Edinburgh); Proof (NSDF Finals). Other titles: Legally Blonde, Made in Dagenham, Billy,The Ghost Train, Into the Woods, Humble Boy, Disco Pigs, Company, The Good Person of Sichuan, Merrily We Roll Along, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Lucky Stiff, and The Laramie Project. Pantomimes include Cinderella (Chelmsford Civic Theatre), Sleeping Beauty (Beck Theatre, Hayes, and The White Rock, Hastings), Jack and the Beanstalk and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Swindon Wyvern). Other credits include: Associate Director on Much Ado About Nothing and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Royal Shakespeare Theatre and West End); Associate on Spamalot (West End & UK Tour); Producer of The 70th Birthday celebrations for His Royal Highness Prince Charles (Buckingham Palace); Associate Director of The 90th Birthday celebrations for Her Majesty the Queen (Windsor Castle); Associate on Travels With My Aunt (Menier Chocolate Factory); Resident on Dandy Dick (UK Tour), Creative Associate on Megan Mullally and Supreme Music Program (West End); Assistant on The Beggar’s Opera (Regent’s Park), Tick, tick...Boom! (Duchess, West End), Oleanna (Octagon).

Henry Waddington BURGUNDY

KING LEAR

Henry Waddington studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. He performs regularly with all the major UK opera companies as well as with La Monnaie Brussels, Liceu Barcelona, de Nederlandse Opera, Teatro Real Madrid and Stuttgart Staatstheater. His repertoire includes Baron Ochs Der Rosenkavalier, the title role in Saul, Banquo Macbeth, Colline La bohème, Don Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tutor Le comte Ory, Geronimo The Secret Marriage, Publio La clemenza di Tito, Plutone Orfeo, Valens Theodora, Soljony Three Sisters (Eotvos), Leporello Don Giovanni, Don Magnifico La Cenerentola, Don Fernando Fidelio, Don Alfonso Così fan tutte, Pallante Agrippina, Frère Laurent Roméo et Juliette as well as Quince and Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent/future operatic engagements include Man at window, Old man, Youth, Beggar in Martinu’s Julietta, Jupiter Castor and Pollux, Sacristan Tosca and Lt Ratcliffe Billy Budd (ENO), Spinellocchio (ROH) Bartolo Le nozze di Figaro (WNO), Lt. Ratcliffe Billy Budd (Netherlands

Opera), Pallante Agrippina (Gran Teatre del Liceu), Pastor Oberlin Jakob Lenz (Staatstheater Stuttgart, La Monnaie and Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin), Kothner Die Meistersingers and the title role in Saul (Glyndebourne), Publio La clemenza di Tito, Lodovico Otello, Joshua, Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Baron Ochs and Don Magnifico (Opera North), Priest Cunning Little Vixen, Barone di Kelbar Un Giorno di Regno and Falstaff (title role) (Garsington), Swallow Peter Grimes (Aldeburgh), Prospero Miranda (Opéra Comique in Paris), Caen and Bordeaux, Bottom (New National Theatre, Tokyo), Gobrias Belshazzar (The Grange Festival), Baron Ochs (Norwegian Opera) as well as concert performances of Wozzeck with the Philharmonia under Esa Pekka Salonen in Europe and the US, Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Cleveland Orchestra, Beethoven 9 with the Classical Opera Company and The Creation with Huddersfield Choral Society.

Keith Warner DIRECTOR

KING LEAR

Keith Warner was Associate Director at ENO and Scottish Opera, Artistic Director of Opera Omaha, and Head of the Royal Danish Opera. He has directed more than one hundred and fifty operas, plays and musicals for over 60 companies, in 18 countries. He has written librettos to four operas with the composer David Blake. He directed two Ring cycles for The New National Theatre, Tokyo and at The ROH, London. Also Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival. His production of Wozzeck (ROH) won an Olivier Award. Also for the ROH: Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker/Globe playhouse and Otello. He has directed the world premieres of a new version of Penderecki’s The Devils of Loudun (Copenhagen), Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried (Karlsruhe), Hans Gefor’s Notorious (Göteborg Opera), and Christian Jost’s Egmont (Vienna). The UK premieres of André Tchaikowsky’s The Merchant of Venice and Richard Ayres’s Peter Pan (WNO). Other work includes: André Chénier on the lake stage in Bregenz. Ten productions at the Theater an der Wien, and a dozen productions at Oper Frankfurt. A trio of Faust operas by Berlioz, Gounod and Busoni at the Semperoper Dresden. Elektra (Prague, San Francisco and Karlsruhe) and Vanessa

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(Glyndebourne). Sondheim’s Passion (Montepulciano) was named by The New York Times as one of the four best productions in Europe 2019. Plans include: Boris Goudonov (Frankfurt), Tannhäuser (Tokyo), and Handel’s Julius Caesar (Vienna). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Bristol.

The Midsummer Night’s Dream Fairies BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC

COBWEB

Francesca Pringle Supported by The Seawall Trust

MOTH

Isabel Irvine Daisy Mitchell BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC

MUSTARDSEED

May Abercrombie PEASEBLOSSOM

Ceferina Penny Supported by Jonathan and Gillian Pickering

Anna Munoz

Photography credits: Thomas Allen © Sussie Ahlburg Peter Auty © Pippa Wilson Louise Alder © Gerard Collett Emma Bell © Paul Foster-Williams Alex Bevan © Clare Park Gwilym Bowen © Pablo Strong Susan Bullock © Christina Raphaelle Stuart Orme © Joanna Harries Alex Otterburn © Christina Riley Richard Stuart © Neil Mockford Henry Waddington © Gerard Collett

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M E S S U M S W I LT S H I R E

Thank you to everyone who suggested and recommended that we create an arts programme to complement the musical programming at The Grange. It is an inspiring setting and a wonderful springboard for artistic imagination of all forms. As with a performance it is important to know who the soloist is and who is the accompanist. I hope that the sculpture, photography and drawings on view here are enjoyed in the moments of anticipation leading up to a performance and can be objects of consideration whilst assessing what you have just experienced. If you do want to dig a little deeper into the artists and these works in particular we have set up an information page that is accessible from here and that will tell you more about these artists and also the work that we do in the creative field. Johnathan Messum

Laurence Edwards, Borrowed Breath, bronze, 205 x 180 x 60cm

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Rebecca Newnham

Quercus, Steel, fiberglass, glass, 600 x 150cm Quercus spirals skyward and celebrates the proportion of the oak

the angle that they turn through is the Golden section angle.

leaf. It was created following a residency at The Hillier Gardens,

The physical presence of the sculpture is essentially tree like,

which has a world-famous collection of oaks. Oak trees have lobed

in minimal or skeletal form. The glass skin is handmade, and has

leaves and acorns with cups. Many trees have lobed leaves, but

minerals fired into the surface in tones of

the oak is distinctive; it has a unique proportion, which Quercus

bronze and copper. The glass was painted in

celebrates. The bodies of the pair are in sections, which have the

response to experiencing ancient woodland.

proportions 1,1,3,5 from the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, and

Bridget McCrum

Solstice, bronze, 280 x 46 x 18cm Solstice takes as it’s reference the long craning form of a wading

modern. She works primarily in stone, from which some pieces

bird stretching its neck. Carved initially in plaster, a material

are also cast in bronze. Initially influenced by archaeological

Bridget prefers for her works of scale. It is a material that can

finds and by the work of Brancusi, Hepworth and Moore, her

be added and subtracted in the making process as well as being worked in two difference constituencies _ both wet and dry.

sculpture also contains oblique references to the landscape and fauna around her homes in Devon and Gozo.

McCrum’s work is a potent fusion of the ancient with the

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Nicholas Hare

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Sleepers 1, Reclaimed wood Hare's sculptural works represent explorations of spatial

encourage contact with the rusted metal and the worn timber.

geometries. Simple geometric elements in wood or metal are

Almost all of the works are conceived at a large scale, so that

combined in consistent ways to form coherent structures designed

they have a palpable presence, but smaller versions are used

to intrigue and satisfy the eye and the spatial sense. The nature

in their development, which have a different quality of their

of the material and awareness of gravity are equally important,

own and can be appreciated from all angles.

so that some of the works give rise to the question – conscious or subliminal _ of how do they stand up? They also allow and

Laurence Edwards

Man of Stones, bronze, 240 x 90 x 75cm, 1 in a series of 5 “Man of Stones” embodies the philosophical concerns that drive

figure. There are also elements of symmetry too with the process of

Edward's artistic practice. The large oversize figure suggestive of

Flint creation and the shells of the bronze and the notion of burdens

landscape inhabited by ancestral Homo Sapiens and a lineage of scale.

physically carried. Edwards is one of the country's most exciting

Using techniques of bronze casting that are precise and refined he is

sculptors and uniquely runs his own foundry that allows his

able to fuse the languages of different materials into one voice.

artistic process to continue through, past the

A physical statement about our unity with the materials around us _ rocks, fungi and other elements that conjoin into being within the

studio and, into the bronze pouring world.

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Art at The Grange

The interior of this building is as striking and challenging as the exterior. I hope with this collection of work we have suggested ideas to glimpse whilst passing and also views that will connect to the passage of time. In the years to come we hope to work further with the spaces themselves to create a response that is unique to the building and sits separate to the performance programming, but part of the wider activities at The Grange. It is a fascinating space and I hope you enjoy these works.

Kim Simonsson

I liked the idea of these figures in the space. They are

decoration he invented with nylon fibre The name Moss People refers

imaginings for the award winning Finnish/Swedish sculptor

to the children’s sensible camouflage; the moss green figures blend

Kim Simonsson (1974), and have become known as the Moss

perfectly into their surroundings. The world created by Simonsson

People Community. They were exhibited in our touring show

is a comprehensive artwork that spans from one year to the next,

“Beyond the Vessel” and are imaginings of a post digital world

progressing, diversifying and growing steadily.

of individuals and communities, with the redundant objects

The artworks can be assembled into various

of a pre-apocalyptic time attached to their back packs.

compilations depending on the space.

He is fascinated by the possibilities of the material and experiments

Veikko Halmetoja, Tales of the Moss People.

with the surfaces of the sculptures as well, such as the moss-like

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Lesotho Green, Lesotho, photographic paper, 137 x 300cm

Alexander Lindsay Alexander Lindsay creates photographic landscapes of

Having recently photographed in Namibia, Lesotho and South

extraordinary beauty. For the past forty years, Lindsay

Africa, Lindsay’s lifelong project is to continually further our

has taken his cameras to the most extreme situations and

appreciation and comprehension of what is possible in photographic

environments on the planet. From his earliest experiences with

landscape art. His work has been exhibited internationally,

the Maasai tribe, a five year spell in Afghanistan during Soviet

including France, London, the USA and South

occupation and his expeditions to photograph and film the

Africa. His prints are included in major private and

wreck of the Titanic 4km beneath the oceans waves, Lindsay

corporate collections in the USA, UK and Europe.

has always sought to immerse himself in situations where, as he explains, ‘the imagination is rendered unnecessary’.

Dance Preserved II, Namibia 2017, photographic paper, 80 x 300cm

Bridget McCrum ‘Migrations’

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Duncan MacAskill The Grange was first built in the 17th century and added to in the 18th and early 19th by Robert Adam and others, and remodelled in neo-Classical style by William Wilkins. Around it, the pleasure grounds and terraces were laid out, looking over woodland and farmland, once worked and peopled, now empty — a landscape tamed and designed, a rural idyll. Now, most of us live in the city. I grew up in Clydebank; for me the stories of the land were of the Highland Clearances, and of mythical, dramatic mountainous terrain devoid of people. I was nine when I first saw paintings of workers in the field — at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. Paintings by Courbet, Millet and Corot, the Barbizon School of painters in the mid-19th century who worked outdoors and — as Gainsborough and Constable had before them — populated their landscapes not with figures from classical myth but with real people, labourers working the land.

There are few if any figures to be seen now if you look out from The Grange. I have brought some back, repopulating the landscape with figures, twodimensional, black (for the moment at least), their poses taken from those famous nineteenth-century paintings. Upright shadows, in the middle distance. They are to be looked at through the apertures I have cut in simple shallow boxes facing out across the grounds windows making a picture in the landscape: like birdwatchers’ hides; like picture frames or film screens; like the proscenium arch; setting the stage; composing the view. The placement, the composition, the framing may be mine, but the drama of the scene, the memories or imaginings triggered by these two-way mirrors, are the viewer’s own. Duncan MacAskill is represented by Vigo Gallery. For sales enquiries please contact

Info@vigogallery.com Vigogallery.com #vigogallery #duncanmacaskillstudio

Shadows in the Landscape, 2018

Plywood, Black Paint

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Life in a day: Becka Cooper I never meant to be a cook. According to the Careers Advisor who came to talk to us in the 6th form, my destiny was to be a Fire Fighter, but I had other plans... Following an early childhood of singing, dancing, playing the piano and oboe and performing showafter-show with my little sister to our long-suffering elder siblings, family and friends, it was apparent that a life on the stage might be beckoning. So off went Miranda and I to The Arts Educational School, Tring Park, where we spent the next 7 years. Term time was for prancing about in leotards and leg warmers and during the holidays I was firmly in jodphurs and wellies. Arts Ed was weird and wonderful and stood me in good stead for a theatrical career, but then I decided that I wanted to be a vet. Yes, a vet. Not the obvious choice for someone who was on a Musical Theatre course and had just about scraped a B in GCSE Human Biology, which was the only science that was actually on offer at my school. Then followed a rather dark time when I completely lost my way, was suffering from anorexia, and ended up leaving school and cramming for my A-levels in Winchester. When I look back on that time all I can remember is miserably trudging up and down the hill between Wessex Tutors and Peter Symonds, usually in bare feet for some strange reason. The thing that kept me going was my singing and I studied with the saintly Marion Studholme in London and regularly performed with ShagWag, the Winchester College funk jazz band.

Showjumping and as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte

I managed to defeat the odds and get some good A-Levels and then spent a strange gap year working in a show jumping yard, riding my horse, and modelling pretty unsuccessfully — I was tall and thin but it was the era of Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford and nobody wanted an odd ball who insisted on dyeing her hair bright pink or shaving it off completely! The singing lessons with Marion continued and I thought that I might like to be an opera singer. It sounded cool, but maybe a stint at university would be a good idea first, so I gained a place to study History at Royal Holloway. But the path was never going to be smooth was it, so I changed to Music a week before I got there, managed to stick to that for a week, changed back to History and left after a term. I loathed it there, but to be fair I wasn’t very well or happy and probably would’ve loathed anywhere. Then followed a couple of courses at the Institut Français in South Kensington, a stint in Paris with Thandie Newton and Gwyneth Paltrow (seriously!), and back I came to take up a place to study singing at The Royal College of Music as a mezzo soprano. My time there was pretty chequered, I have to say... 4 years turned into 5... and then I had another, unexpected, gap year before joining the postgraduate opera course at the Royal Academy of Music. It was at about that time that I turned up to waitress for a friend’s catering company with blue hair and was immediately banished to the kitchen. And so my love affair with food and feeding people began and I cooked to support my studies. I had a rather marvellous time at the RAM singing Meg Page in Falstaff, Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen under Mackerras, Nerone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. What’s more my voice was going up... I wasn’t a Mezzo, I was a Soprano!!

Left: Ballet and singing Evita. Right: First opera job for both of us: Lucy Crowe and I as Fox and Vixen in Opera East’s The Cunning Little Vixen and early piano

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With my beloved dogs at The Grange

At the Grange, with a pair of humongous hispi cabbages!

Thank God I had discovered my flair for cooking because I needed a source of income whilst I changed repertoire etc. With the help of Jonathan Papp and Diane Forlano I worked hard on my voice whilst catering for all sorts of events in and around London. And when love came knocking on my door and persuaded me to move to Dorset and get married, I joined Victoria Blashford-Snell’s phenomenal catering operation and continued cooking and singing, loving the similarities between rehearsing and performing a big role like Violetta or Butterfly to the prep and delivering of a huge catering event like The Chalke Valley History Festival. Soon my career took off and there was no time for cooking, but I continued to feed the five thousand whenever possible — whether performing at the Buxton Festival, Aldeburgh, Longborough Festival, Grange Park Opera, or in Italy and France, I always gathered the cast and production team to Feast chez moi.

“This was not the life I expected. But it is the life I love”

And then I had a crisis of confidence and lost my singing mojo and after battling my demons for a few tough years I decided that I’d had enough of performing. And I stopped. Just like that. By now I was divorced and had returned to my Hampshire roots and was living on the farm next door to The Grange. I was already teaching singing at The Royal Ballet School and privately so thought I’d continue doing that, plus bits and bobs of cooking for Victoria, both of which I did. But then I became friends with Mark Ashburton, and he loved my food, and that changed my life. Before I knew it I was cooking for all the weddings and events at the Grange and across the Estate, as well as doing what has become Supper in the Park for Mark and his friends first at Grange Park Opera and then The Grange Festival. I was there at the inception of TGF, and cooked supper for what I refer to as “the wooing of Michael Chance” (herbed cod cakes in spiced tomato sauce!) when we were all desperately hoping that he would agree to become Artistic Director. Michael and I were determined from the outset that there should be food for the cast, crew and production team, and catering during rehearsals at the Grange has become an annual ritual, and a joyous start to the run-up to opening night. After the 2018 Festival I pitched to take over Dining@TheGrange in its entirety, and the rest is history, as they say. 2019 was an extraordinary baptism of fire, and now we’re gearing up for this year. Long and exhausting days in the kitchen are beckoning, but these will be days full of laughter and music as our kitchen at the Grange doesn’t have a ceiling so we can hear everyone warming up upstairs. Sometimes I join in, just to make sure I’ve still got it. Suffice to say that this was not the life I expected. But it is the life I love. I have come full circle and it still feels extraordinary that I have sung on stage at the Grange and now continue to be part of the performance but in a very different way. I thank my lucky stars for the way things have turned out but it was obviously all meant to be.

Becka Cooper Becka Cooper, Dining at The Grange Festival

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In conversation with Stephen Lawless

This is Stephen Lawless’s first Manon Lescaut and despite having directed 100 operas (not including revivals) ranging from Purcell to Barber he hasn’t been particularly associated with Puccini. He grew up at Glyndebourne as an assistant to 2 directors of productions, Peter Hall and John Cox and later went on to become Glyndebourne’s tour director of productions culminating in an acclaimed Death in Venice. This led to a largely international, more than national career. He’s knee high to a grasshopper, utterly charming and impressively focused, bearing in mind we meet when he’s jet-lagged with a bruised rib — furthermore it’s his 65th birthday (he looks about 12) but none of this diminishes his spirit and twinkle. Your background with Puccini? I did a Tosca when I was starting out for the Hong Kong Festival and about 20 years ago a Bohème in Chicago. I did it was because it was Mirella Freni as Mimi and she was 63 and I’d never worked with her. Rodolfo was a guy called Vincenzo La Scola and Freni’s husband, Nicolai Ghiaurov was Colline and at 68, the most mature student in the world. We got to the final scene and he said “Stephen, don’t make me take Mirella to her death bed” and I said sure “we’ll get Schaunard to do it” — very sweet couple. Were you not attracted to Puccini? No, it’s just because it’s never really come my way and I always slightly thought it wasn’t for me. Too emotional or that’s what people think of it as. But you’re emotional? I am but I like something that has a social conscience and I think what is interesting about Puccini is he was renowned for not being in any way political (although he did meet Mussolini). The fact is his choice of subject matter is socially aware. Bohème, starving people, Butterfly is probably the most damning anti-colonial opera there is and Rondine is about a prostitute. Manon Lescaut is a difficult one because it’s not like the Massenet (which I was supposed to do at the Bolshoi but then there was the acid attack) which uses an awful lot of the Prevost story. Puccini cuts it down massively and adds a new scene in Le Havre, and in cutting it down it becomes something else. It does have a social conscience, but it isn’t French froufrou like the Massenet — it’s something much more than that. You have to find a setting for it and 18th century just doesn’t wash with me for this music — it was Puccini’s first big success and it was when people actually noticed how innovative a composer he was. We’re setting Act 1 in 1939 in Paris, just

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before the German invasion, Act II is 1940 Paris which is the occupation, Act III in 1943 after the liberation of Paris, then the last Act we’ve just left open as it follows on from there. There are moments in it where Puccini writes pastiche 18th century music, and the Ballet Russes did 18th century pastiche in the ’30’s so we do things like that. The designer is Adrian Linford. Would you say your interest in this repertoire has been a slow-burner? Over the years I’ve been to a lot of Madam Butterflys which isn’t a piece I know as I never assisted on it at Covent Garden when I was younger but it always knocks me for six and this social awareness, which Puccini is not renowned for, is there — I started to listen to the others, and kind of became hooked. Manon is a very complex character — can you explain her? She’s a little bit deliberately something of a cypher in that she allows herself to be defined by the men around her until the last act where this awareness of what she’s been put through is pretty remarkable — she doesn’t really seem to have much opinion about sleeping with men or not, which sounds to me like someone who has become habitualized to doing it from an early age — with Lescaut as well — if he’s her brother, if... Would you call Manon a femme fatale? The thing that’s interesting about the Manon character is that she’s not the conventional femme fatale unlike Carmen, Delilah, Lulu or Salome — she’s not a siren. There’s a certain gamine quality to Manon, small, delicate and vulnerable with a desire to be protected which is exploited by Lescaut and it’s only in the fourth act that she discovers her own voice and becomes aware of how men have treated her. And she’s on her way to a convent? My back story is that both Manon and Lescaut are children from an orphanage or fostered and he’s been having his way with her and renting her out — you hear stories like that today all the time so she has no real filter about men — it’s what she’s used to and what she does but as the piece progresses she becomes more and more aware of what has happened to her.

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And Des Grieux? I think that in the Massenet the balance of whose story it is is pretty equal between Manon and Des Grieux but I think in the Puccini the piece is very much viewed from Des Grieux’s point of view because he has the lion’s share of the music and the story is told through his eyes. The first two arias are his — she doesn’t get an exposition until Act II and then you get that extraordinary emotional outburst when she’s just about to be carted off abroad and he just breaks down. You’ve directed everything from Purcell to the 20th century? What about contemporary pieces? Contemporary hasn’t really come my way. I’d do it if it was the right piece. How does it differ directing at The Grange, a small house, to somewhere bigger? Just before the first lockdown, I was working in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA which seats 3,000 and the subtlety in the detail goes out the window, but you have to remember I grew up in a small theatre (Glyndebourne) and in theatres like The Grange and old or modern Glyndebourne you can go for that kind of subtlety. What attracts you to pieces in the first place? Story, music, characters? It’s the music — you listen to something and you have a response to it and sometimes you don’t — they’re the ones not to do unless you’ve got a huge tax bill... As opera directors we are creative interpreters. We are creative in what we do but we are not the initiator of something that will exist for ever and ever — we are the people that interpret something that may last for a few years or not. Unless you feel that you have something worth saying, there’s no point in doing the piece. Are you driven by the music or the text? It is both but I suppose in a sense what Peter Hall taught me was actually to give the text as much weight as the music and there’s a kind of middle ground between the two a lot of the time. It’s interesting doing all these Donizetti operas because when I started out everybody said oh, he’s just so silly because serious music is written in jolly um pa-pa major keys.

My argument would be that he’s being ironic about the text through the music and that’s a really interesting concept and idea and I think it distinguishes great, sophisticated composers like Mozart, Strauss, Verdi — Wagner doesn’t quite have the touch. And our job is to find some way of balancing it. Rossini does big time but his humour is so cynical about human behaviour that it’s a bit too dark for me whereas I think Donizetti is wonderful. When I first did Elisir in ’96 I opened the score and it said L’elisir d’amore and you expected to see the words Opera Buffa written underneath and he calls it a melodrama. So, he sees it as something more serious than what we’ve become accustomed to doing and it does have serious moments in it. Why I was interested in doing the three Donizetti Tudor pieces, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux was to discover if the reverse true — is there irony, wit and humour in the serious things and there is. On your wish list? One thing I’m desperate to do is Cenerentola of all things. I’ve been offered it lots and said it’s not for me and then I met this mezzo who lives just outside Toronto — she’s a mum, she brings in girl guide cookies and knits socks — there’s no side or face to her and I thought that’s Cenerentola. What in your view is the point of opera? At its best, there’s nothing like it or the experience of it. This combination of all the art forms. Everybody thinks of it being elitist and prices are prohibitive but it still has a social conscience like any good drama and that’s why it’s worth doing. How has the pandemic affected this production? What we’ve had to do is cut back on chorus numbers and socially distance the show. That said given the decision we made pre-pandemic to do the show in a chamber-like, noir-ish way helps us to keep people apart.

Louise Flind with Stephen Lawless

T H E G R A N G E F E S T I VA L QU I Z 2 0 21

Quiz “WITH APOLOGIES TO ROSSINI...”

1 2 3 4 5 In this puzzle, every letter of the alphabet (other than Q) is used once to fill the 25 squares. No letter may be in a square that is adjacent — orthogonally or diagonally — to its alphabetical neighbours. This also applies to A/Z and P/R. The letters (in any order) used to spell: MANON LESCAUT are all in squares on the perimeter PUCCINI are all in rows 2 and 3 and 5 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM are all in rows 1 and 2 and 5, with DREAM reading left to right in a single row BENJAMIN BRITTEN appear in every row and every column MY FAIR LADY are all in row 1 and column 1 LERNER AND LOWE are all in rows 1 and 4 and 5 KING LEAR appear in every column, as do the five vowels (AEIOU). Only one row has no vowel • BOX appear in a single row • SMOCK appear in a single column • • • • • • • •

The four corner squares contain Roman numerals (IVXLCDM) J is in row 3 ; X is in a row higher than V Answers can be submitted to us via email: info@thegrangefestival.co.uk or post: Folly Hill Farm, Itchen Stoke, Hampshire, SO24 9TF Closing date for entries is 1st August 2021. All correct answers will be balloted and the winner will receive two tickets to the 2022 Festival.

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