2012 Season - Garsington Opera

							                                                                                                    PRESS RELEASE
                        GARSINGTON OPERA’S OLYMPIC GAMES


Garsington Opera presents Vivaldi’s rarely performed L’Olimpiade as part of its second season
in its spectacular new home on the Wormsley estate in the Chiltern Hills. Offenbach’s charming
operetta La Périchole and Mozart’s Don Giovanni complete the season that runs from 2 June to
3 July 2012. The season will, for the second year running, be supported by Jefferies, a leading
global investment banking firm.


Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade takes place near Olympia on the day of the ancient games – rivals on the
race track are also rivals in love. It features a number of artists new to Garsington Opera
including Italian soprano Rosa Bove (Aristea) who recently took part in Claudio Abbado’s
Pergolesi project, and Emily Fons (Megacle) currently a member of the Ryan Opera Center at
the Lyric Opera of Chicago, both making their UK debuts; the talented BBC New Generation
artist Ruby Hughes (Argene) and two counter-tenors – the extraordinary American Michael
Maniaci (Aminta) who has a rare and thrilling voice with a stratospheric range, and Tim Mead
(Licida). William Berger (Alcandro) and Riccardo Novaro (Clistene) complete the cast.
Garsington Opera’s Vivaldi team of conductor and baroque specialist Laurence Cummings
and director David Freeman will bring all their skills and inventiveness to bear on the opera
which will be the third and final production in this ground-breaking enterprise. This will be the
world premiere of the new critical edition of L’Olimpiade, recently published by Ricordi.


Offenbach’s delightful La Périchole features rising Irish soprano star Naomi O’Connell in the
title role. This will be her professional operatic UK debut. She is joined by Robert Murray
(Piquillo), Geoffrey Dolton (Don Andrès de Ribeira), Diana Montague (Berginella), Mark
Wilde (Le Comte Miguel de Panatellas), Jennifer Rhys-Davies (Guadalena) and Fiona Kimm
(Mastrilla). Jeremy Sams, who is currently at the Metropolitan Opera in New York working on
The Enchanted Island, which he has devised and written, will direct and David Parry, recent
winner of a Gramophone Award for best opera (Ermione) 2011, conducts.


Mozart’s Don Giovanni will feature Grant Doyle making his UK debut in the title role with
Joshua Bloom singing Leporello. The cast includes a number of exciting young talents
including Sophie Bevan (Donna Elvira) and her sister Mary Bevan (Zerlina), Natasha Jouhl
(Donna Anna), Jesús León (Don Ottavio) and Callum Thorpe (Masetto). Greek bass
Christophoros Stamboglis, seen recently at the Royal Opera House in La Sonnambula, returns to
Garsington Opera to perform the role of the Commendatore. Mozart specialist and
current Chief Conductor at Switzerland’s Musikkollegium Winterthur, Douglas Boyd conducts and Daniel
Slater, whose productions of La Cenerentola and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Garsington Opera were
so successful, directs.


GARSINGTON OPERA AT WORMSLEY
This will be Garsington Opera’s second season in its stunning new Opera Pavilion. Designed by Robin
Snell to complement, and give spectacular views out into, the outstandingly beautiful surrounding
landscape, the Pavilion offers superb acoustics and is an idyllic setting in which to experience opera
performances of the highest quality.


The Wormsley estate, home of the Getty family, is an English country estate on the grand scale, complete
with lake and deer. It is given a magical sense of seclusion by the thickly wooded slopes that surround it.
This magnificent location in the Chiltern Hills, on the border of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, is within
easy reach of Oxford and is only an hour away from London by car. The train journey from Marylebone to
High Wycombe takes as little as 25 minutes and a dedicated bus meets a particular train to bring
passengers to and from the Wormsley estate.


THE EVENING
Performances start in the early evening and there is a long dinner interval when audiences can picnic or
dine in the marquees, with catering provided by Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts. Audience members may
arrive from 4pm. During the interval patrons may choose to enjoy dinner in the restaurant, settle with
picnics enjoying views across the deer park or over the famous cricket pitch or stroll towards the lake and
beyond. Those arriving early will be able to take afternoon tea, enjoy a glass of champagne, and visit the
historic walled garden which is a short drive from the opera site (there is a shuttle bus to the garden).The
Opera Pavilion’s covered verandas and terraces offer opportunities to linger and admire the views.


EDUCATION

Before and during the season Garsington Opera Education will run a programme in schools and within the
community close to Wormsley.

Don Giovanni          2, 4, 10, 15, 19, 25, 30 June, 2 July 5.50pm
L’Olimpiade           3, 5, 9, 14, 22, 29 June 6.05pm
La Périchole          18, 21, 23, 26, 28,June, 1, 3 July 6.05pm

BOX OFFICE: GENERAL PUBLIC BOOKING OPENS 16 April 2012 Tickets £95 - £170
Telephone 01865 361636 The Old Garage, The Green, Great Milton, Oxford OX44 7NP
www.garsingtonopera.org
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CASTS:

L’OLIMPIADE
Megacle             Emily Fons
Aminta              Michael Maniaci
Aristea             Rosa Bove
Licida              Tim Mead
Argene              Ruby Hughes
Clistene            Riccardo Novaro
Alcandro            William Berger

Conductor           Laurence Cummings
Director            David Freeman
Designer            David Roger                            The operas will be performed with
Lighting Designer   Bruno Poet                             the Garsington Opera Orchestra and Chorus



DON GIOVANNI                                           LA PÉRICHOLE
Don Giovanni        Grant Doyle                        La Périchole          Naomi O’Connell
Leporello           Joshua Bloom                       Piquillo              Robert Murray
Donna Anna          Natasha Jouhl                      Don Andrès de Ribeira Geoffrey Dolton
Donna Elvira        Sophie Bevan                       Le Comte Miguel de Panatellas Mark Wilde
Zerlina             Mary Bevan                         Guadalena             Jennifer Rhys-Davies
Don Ottavio         Jesús León                         Berginella            Diana Montague
Masetto             Callum Thorpe                      Mastrilla             Fiona Kimm
Commendatore        Christophoros Stamboglis           Manuelita               Anna Gillingham
                                                       Ninetta                 Nazan Fikret
                                                       Frasquinella            Ciara Hendrick
Conductor           Douglas Boyd                       Brambilla               Lilly Papaioannou
Director            Daniel Slater                      Don Pedro               Simon Buteriss
Designer            Leslie Travers                     1st Notary              Andrew Dickinson
                                                       2nd Notary              Oliver Hunt
Movement            Ran Arthur Braun
                                                       1st Drinker/Jailor      Robert Gildon
Lighting Designer   Bruno Poet                         2nd Drinker             Henry Manning


                                                       Conductor               David Parry
                                                       Director & Translator   Jeremy Sams
                                                       Designer                Francis O’Connor
                                                       Choreographer           Tim Jackson
                                                       Lighting Designer       Bruno Poet




GARSINGTON OPERA STUDIO PROGRAMME
As part of the West Green House Opera season, Garsington Opera’s emerging young artists from
the Garsington Opera Studio programme will present a new production of Mozart’s The Magic
Flute on 21 and 22 July 2012. Led by Karen Gillingham, creative director of Garsington Opera’s
education programme, the opera will be performed in an orchestral reduction by composer
Jonathan Dove. It will feature some of the brightest and best of Garsington Opera’s emerging
young artists, many of whom have been understudying roles at Garsington Opera.
www.westgreenhouse.co.uk

May 2012

PRESS ENQUIRES CLARE ADAMS Tel: 01295 690344 email: clare@garsingtonopera.org