Grange Park Opera’s Summer Season

Published on: 24 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 24 Feb, 2019

West Horsley Place

Grange Park Opera, one of Europe’s major summer opera festivals, has announced its repertoire for 2019.

In its third season at West Horsley Place, the company will stage Verdi’s Don Carlo; Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel; and George Gershwin’s masterpiece Porgy & Bess, continuing its tradition of presenting 20th-century American operas and musicals.

The season runs from June 6, with Joyce DiDonato, possibly the world’s most glamorous opera star, bringing it to a close with a special one-night recital on July 11.

A picnic before the performance

Before performances, guests can wander, dine and picnic amid the historic gardens of West Horsley Place: a labyrinth of secret corners, aged trees and neatly clipped box hedges.

The auditorium, still unfinished, based on La Scala

Founded in 1997 by Wasfi Kani OBE (see Dragon interview), Grange Park Opera moved to its Surrey base in 2017. Productions take place in a new five-tiered opera house – The Theatre in the Woods – modelled on the horse-shoe shape of Milan’s La Scala. The building has been praised for its vibrant acoustic and features a generous orchestra pit capable of housing a 70-strong orchestra.

The company has a 99-year lease to remain at The Theatre in the Woods, granted by the Mary Roxburghe Trust.