Summer season

摘要

Garsington Opera, founded in 1989 by Leonard and Rosalind Ingrams, stages summer festivals. It forms part of the 'summer season' activities that are peculiarly English. The venue hosted outdoor performances of both popular and experimental opera, and is obviously accompanied by picnic and tea tents. "It had been described as a lean-to on the patio in their garden," says Snell Associates' director Robin Snell. When Leonard Ingrams died in 2005, Anthony Whitworth-Jones became general director of Garsington Opera which, working with Snell, began to look for a new home. After agreeing preliminary designs for a new 600-seat auditorium, they eventually found a site in Buckinghamshire, in the Getty family's Wormsley Park. It took the company a year to raise ?3.5 million for the move from corporate members and devoted audiences, who pay upwards of ?100 a ticket.