Longborough Festival Opera is an

opera festival This is an inclusive list of opera festivals and summer opera seasons, and music festivals which have opera productions. This list may have some overlap with list of early music festivals. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition, ...

which presents a season of high quality opera each June and July in the English

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

village of

Longborough Longborough is a village and civil parish north of the market town of Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was 471. The village is about east of the A424, around west of the Fosse Way ( A429) ...

in north

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. It began in 1991 as Banks Fee Opera by presenting concerts, and moved forward with operas presented by a travelling company. This was followed by converting a barn into an opera house. Audiences grew rapidly in the 1990s and, during the last decade, a focus on

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's operas led to three complete

Ring Cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

s being performed in 2013. The present chairman of the festival is Martin Graham, the music director Anthony Negus and the artistic director is Alan Privett.

Beginnings

After its initial start and after a series of chamber music concerts in the drawing room of the founders' house, Banks Fee, Travelling Opera, a small touring opera company, was invited to give two performances with a small orchestra on a temporary stage in the courtyard of the stable block in aid of the charities

Sue Ryder Care Sue Ryder is a British palliative, neurological and bereavement support charity based in the United Kingdom. Formed as The Sue Ryder Foundation in 1953 by World War II Special Operations Executive volunteer Sue Ryder, the organisation provides c ...

and

Barnardo's Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same group ...

. A barn was then converted into a theatre, using seats from the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, which were being discarded during the refurbishment of the late 1990s. The original audience was mainly local supporters of the charities and about £3,000 was raised after costs, including donations which were divided between the two charities. The opera evenings, with picnic interval, were very popular and there was demand to continue. Until 1998, the Festival's relationship was exclusively with Travelling Opera, whose productions of well-known operas in English were much enjoyed by the steadily increasing audience, which grew from a total of 400 in 1991 to 1,600 in 1997. Over that period, Banks Fee Opera presented many popular operas by

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

and

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', which has become on ...

Longborough and Wagner

If each of the British

country house opera Country house opera is opera performed at a country house, whether in the house itself, in the grounds, or in an adapted or purpose built theatre on the grounds. It is a feature in particular of the English summer. Country house opera is usually in ...

companies have their speciality, Longborough’s is its commitment to

. Longborough Festival Opera (LFO) is the first privately-owned opera house to be mounting a complete cycle of Wagner’s ''

Ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

''. After LFO’s acclaimed production of the reduced version prepared by

Graham Vick Sir Graham Vick (30 December 1953 – 17 July 2021) was an English opera director known for his experimental and revisionist stagings of traditional and modern operas. He worked in many of the world's leading opera houses and was artistic d ...

and

Jonathan Dove Jonathan Dove (born 18 July 1959) is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (now Birmin ...

for the

City of Birmingham Touring Opera Birmingham Opera Company is a professional opera company based in Birmingham, England, that specialises in innovative and avant-garde productions of the operatic repertoire, often in unusual venues. History The company was founded by leading in ...

company, Longborough is now producing a fully orchestrated version making use of its excellent

orchestra pit An orchestra pit is the area in a theater (usually located in a lowered area in front of the stage) in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music (such as opera and ballet) or in cases when incide ...

, which is modelled on that at the

Bayreuth Festspielhaus The ''Bayreuth Festspielhaus'' or Bayreuth Festival Theatre (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspielhaus, ) is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and dedicated solely to the performa ...

and accommodates 72 players. The 2007 season featured the first instalment of a new full-length Ring Cycle: ''

Das Rheingold ''Das Rheingold'' (; ''The Rhinegold''), WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National ...

'' was sung in German and had an orchestra of 60 players conducted by Anthony Negus. Alan Privett directed, and the set was designed by Kjell Torriset. ''Das Rheingold'' returned in 2008 for a further three performances, and ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...

'' was staged in 2010 2011 saw a production of ''

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

'' and 2012 involved a production of '' Gotterdammerung''. In Wagner's bicentenary year, 2013, the whole cycle has been staged; it is believed that this will be the first time that this has happened in a privately owned opera house.

Education at Longborough

Longborough Festival has since 2003 been involved in education projects in two ways: through workshops in local schools and productions for young artists to perform. The 2012 education production was ''

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial ''The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London urban legend, legend. A barber fr ...

,'' and local children are often featured in the Festival's productions. The company runs workshops in schools and at Longborough as well as offering work experience.

References

Notes {{reflist

External links

Longborough Festival Opera's official website
Opera festivals Opera in the United Kingdom Music festivals in Gloucestershire Recurring events established in 1991 1991 establishments in England

Beginnings

Longborough and Wagner

Education at Longborough

See also

References

External links