Grange Park Opera 2015

It is unlikely you’ll ever find a more enchanting setting for opera than The Grange. A crumbling Greek revival mansion surrounded by aces of rolling gardens, it marries Enlightenment grandeur with a romantic sense of ruin.
The Grange Park Opera, which runs from June 4^th to July 18^th, was founded in 1998. Now established as one of the nation’s most important opera festivals, it has a reputation for attracting big-name singers and delving into lesser-known works of the nineteenth century canon.
In many aspects – including the bucolic rural setting – it is a Western parallel to Glyndebourne. As at that redoubtable institution, guests are encouraged to dress formerly, with black tie and cocktail dresses the norm. There is an early evening start to allow for a long interval, where one can either bring a picnic or dine within the atmospheric surrounds of the house itself.
Grange Park Opera 2015
This year’s four productions boast an admirable eclecticism. Opening the season is Fiddler on the Roof (June 4^th – July 3^rd), Bock & Harnick’s classic musical of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia. Considered by the festival to be their ‘most ambitious production ever’, it sees Welsh superstar Bryn Terfel return to the Grange. Next up is Samson and Delilah (June 20^th – July 16^th), Saint-Saens’ Biblical grand opera. Full of spectacular set-pieces and instantly recognisable arias, it is a tale as rompishly fun as it is tragic. Carl Tanner and Sarah Fulgoni take the title roles.
Puccini’s La Boheme (June 6^th to July 17^th) needs no introduction – one of the world’s best known operas, it marries heartbreak with raucous scenes of bohemian life. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (July 10^th – 18^th), produced at the Grange to great applause in 2013, closes the festival. Based on Pushkin’s poem of the same – often considered the very greatest work of Russian literature – it follows a dandyish nobleman’s romantic entanglements. Baritone Brett Polegato and lyric soprano Susan Gritton star.