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JONATHAN WIKELEY's EDITORIAL
from the current issue of Early Music Today
If the last few weeks are anything to go by (and obviously discounting Wimbledon fortnight and any time the cricket is on) this should be a pretty decent summer. Those of us in the south of England at least got a healthy dose of sunshine over the last few weeks, which set the mind trotting towards what is on offer for the early music lover this year.
And the thing that has leaped out is not just the plethora of music festivals (getting more numerous by the year it seems, and with a number of out-of-the-ordinary composers, performers and themes this year. York, always one for finding a slightly off-the-wall theme, is going for 'Exiled' this year, which promises some interesting programming), but the number of country house operas that are turning to early music for their series.
It has to be said, there is something extremely pleasant about strolling around the grounds of a beautiful English country house, with an ever-so-slightly-too-lavish picnic behind you and the prospect of an evening of opera ahead. With more and more houses offering performances, the elitism argument is no longer so much of an issue. You may have to pay £50 to get on to Glyndebourne's waiting list, but you can still ring up when the box office opens and stand a chance of getting returns on the day. Bampton opera in Oxfordshire, to name just one, is this year offering both Mozart's Apollo and Hyacinth and Gluck's Le Cinesi for a rather more bargainous £28.50.
Even discounting the historical models such as Esterházy-style theatres within the grounds of the local prince's palace, early opera fits extraordinarily well into such surroundings, something that the Drottningholm Slottsteater is making the most of as it brings its own period orchestra and singers to West Green House opera in August (see page 11). Other companies are also embracing the still-growing thirst for early opera. Garsington is this year putting on the UK premiere of Vivaldi's L'incoronazione di Dario, while Iford is using its own period band for a production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and welcoming the Early Opera Company for a production of Cavalli's Giasone. Glyndebourne's scale has always been rather larger than the others, and it too has a healthy - and growing healthier by the year - amount of early music in its programmes. The opera house was the first country-house opera to invite a period orchestra, when Simon Rattle brought the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment there in 1989 for a performance of Le nozze di Figaro. This year it presents Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.
Of course it might rain. It is England after all. But so long as there's no tennis on the TV you'll probably be all right. And it is a glorious way to experience some wonderful music.
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