We are especially pleased to be able to share the sold-out performances with a larger audience as the first public opera performance to be broadcast since lockdown.

Alan Davey, Controller BBC Radio 3 and BBC Classical Music said: “In a special year of 250 years of Beethoven, it’s particularly wonderful to be sharing Garsington’s Fidelio performance with our listeners and in doing so, continuing our support for the festivals and arts community who are getting back on their feet after quarantine. I can’t wait to tune-in and hear members of the Philharmonia Orchestra and Garsington Opera Chorus, along with the fabulous cast, tell a story that seems ever more relevant today.”

Nicola Creed, Executive Director of Garsington Opera, said: “We are so delighted to welcome these wonderful artists back to Wormsley; it is a privilege to be making music for an audience again. We are also very grateful for BBC Radio 3’s essential support of this project, and others, as performing organisations make their tentative steps back to the stage.”

The cast, announced this week, is as follows:

Leonore - Katherine Broderick
Florestan - Toby Spence
Rocco - Joshua Bloom
Pizarro - David Soar
Marzelline - Galina Averina
Jaquino - Trystan Llŷr Griffiths
Fernando - Richard Burkhard
First Prisoner - Richard Pinkstone
Second Prisoner - Thomas D Hopkinson
Conductor - Douglas Boyd
Stage Director, Lighting & Projection Designer - Peter Mumford
Members of the Philharmonia Orchestra & Garsington Opera Chorus

Peter Mumford's semi-staged concert of Beethoven's masterwork, complete with a beautifully filmed backdrop, was commissioned by the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and last performed by Garsington Opera at the Philharmonie in Paris in 2016. Here Douglas Boyd conducts members of the Philharmonia Orchestra in a specially arranged, reduced orchestration.

Garsington Opera's hybrid indoor / outdoor theatre is unique in being able to bring live opera to a paying audience whilst ensuring the safety and comfort of all involved. The audience will be socially distanced within the auditorium in household groups, further protected by screens specially made for musical performances. ‘SingScreen’ was invented by Matthew Thomas Morgan, a member of our chorus in 2018. See singscreen.co.uk for further details.

https://www.garsingtonopera.org/performance/fidelio-concert

Garsington Opera | General enquiries: 01865 361636 | www.garsingtonopera.org