26 Feb 2019

Longborough Festival Opera founders to receive Wagner Society award

The Wagner Society has announced that Longborough Festival Opera co-founders Martin and Lizzie Graham will receive its prestigious Reginald Goodall Award, which recognises individuals who have been of outstanding service to Wagner and his music.


The award comes as Longborough announces its new Ring cycle, following their critically acclaimed 2013 cycle which established the festival as a destination for Wagnerians around the world.

Lizzie Graham comments: “Martin and I are delighted to receive this award on behalf of the whole team at Longborough who work so hard to make Wagner successful here, and are currently helping to put our new Ring cycle in place.”

The upcoming cycle will see Longborough stage brand new productions ofDas Rheingold (June 2019); Die Walküre (June 2020); Siegfried (June 2021) and Götterdämmerung (June 2022); culminating in the full cycle of Der Ring des Nibelungen (June 2023).

The entire cycle will be conducted by Longborough Music Director and eminent Wagnerian Anthony Negus, and brought to life by Royal Opera House Head Staff Director Amy Lane. Lane is currently Co-Directing Drot og Marsk with Kasper Holten at the Royal Danish Opera and was recently Associate Director on Die Walküre and Gotterdammerung on Keith Warner's Ring cycle at Covent Garden.

“The Ring cycle is the most epic of tales with a score that is searing, desperate, sublime and so perfectly unfathomable,” comments Amy Lane. “What an honour it is to set foot upon this glorious pathway and to commence this journey with Longborough.”

Martin and Lizzie Graham will receive The Reginald Goodall award at a ceremony at The Royal Over-Seas League in London on 20 March 2019. Previous recipients include Bernard Haitink, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir John Tomlinson, Plácido Domingo and Longborough Festival Opera’s own Music Director Anthony Negus (2017).