Garsington Opera’s 2025 festival at Wormsley paired a new Queen of Spades and a new Rodelinda with Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Garsington Opera’s 2025 festival brought four productions to Garsington Opera at Wormsley, its pavilion near Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire, from Wednesday 28 May to Tuesday 22 July.
Leonard Ingrams and his wife Rosalind founded the company in 1989 at Garsington Manor, near Oxford, where it played until 2010. After Leonard’s death it moved in 2011 to Wormsley, the Getty family’s estate in the Chilterns, into a pavilion built for it that opens onto the park.
Garsington is one of the English country-house opera festivals, and the Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert share its pit. Singers from its Alvarez Emerging Artists’ Programme form the festival chorus.
The season opened with Christopher Luscombe’s L’elisir d’amore, which moved Donizetti’s comedy to Italy after the Second World War, with Chloe Rooke conducting. Jack Furness directed a new Queen of Spades, with the artistic director Douglas Boyd in the pit and Aaron Cawley as Herman.
Ruth Knight staged a new Rodelinda, with Lucy Crowe in the title role and Peter Whelan conducting The English Concert.
The season closed with Fidelio in John Cox’s 2009 production, revived by Jamie Manton. Boyd led The English Concert on period instruments, and Jonathan Lemalu sang Rocco.