Suddenly, last summers' operas were over

Mark Stone: a memorable Macbeth in a drably austere staging at Longborough Picture © Matthew Williams-Ellis

With the summer opera season drawing to its close, this seems an appropriate moment to muse on the health of the UK’s non-subsidised sector, which seems to be thriving, possibly at the expense of our national companies. Even the comparatively well-off Covent Garden isn’t immune to the ‘country house opera’ effect, if unsold top-price seats for recent productions is anything to go by.

During this ‘festival’ season I try to avoid standard repertoire pieces that every opera house performs to keep the tills ringing. Tosca, La Bohème and La traviata are not my idea of ‘festival’ works. I did go to Grange Park Opera’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, mainly because it was conducted and directed by Italians (Gianluca Marcianó and Bruno Ravella). It was a zinger of a show.

Of the ‘country house’ companies, Garsington Opera is rapidly developing the strongest artistic track record. I ducked the widely praised Traviata, but a revival of Der Rosenkavalier - Ravella again - and new productions of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and even Gerald Barry’s madcap adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest were broadly immaculate stagings on the highest musical level. Garsington has increasingly been barking at Glyndebourne’s heels in recent years, and now, although its season is shorter, it is racing ahead under Douglas Boyd’s artistic lead.