12 Aug Grange Park Opera Festival
Grange Park Opera Festival
Grange Park Opera Festival is one of the major music festivals in Europe’s operatic summer season.
Venue
Based in Hampshire, just seven miles outside of the historic town of Winchester, The Grange, one of the most celebrated neo-classical mansions in Britain, and owned by the family of John Baring, Lord Ashburton. English Heritage has a guardianship deed on the Grade I-listed building.
The Festival
The season runs for seven weeks, with four productions that are staged in a 550-seat theatre (with red velvet seats from the old Covent Garden ) built within the 19th century orangery. To date, there have been some 53 productions, many of which have been acclaimed for superb singing, outstanding conducting and magnificent stage sets.
At the heart of the festival is a commitment to presenting both international and rising talent, introducing British audiences to little heard operas and bringing in a new audience to hear opera for the first time. To help develop the next generation’s love of opera, there are special schemes that give free tickets to young people and subsidised tickets for under 30s.