Although many people still think of opera as elitist, there is now more opera being performed than at any other time in English theatre history. The
growth of opera in the late 20th century was not restricted to London. Welsh National Opera began with occasional performances in 1943. Scottish Opera
was founded in 1962 and Leeds-based Opera North was founded in 1975 as a northern base for English National Opera. It is now an independent company.
Glyndebourne
The most famous opera company outside
London is Glyndebourne, with its theatre attached to the country
house of the Christie family. Glyndebourne is famous for its long
intervals when the audience picnic in the gardens. The first theatre
was built in 1934 by John Christie for his opera-singer
wife, Audrey Mildmay. In the 1930s conductor
Fritz Busch and producer Carl Ebert, gave British audiences the
opportunity to experience Mozart's work. It was here in 1934 that Cosi fan tutte was
first performed in its entirety in England – nearly 150 years after its first performance.
Experimental Opera
New and experimental
works
that needed smaller stages than the
international opera houses emerged from smaller companies. The English
Opera Group
was
set up in 1946 by Benjamin Britten to
stage
his experimental small-scale chamber
operas. Kent Opera revived rare works
by Handel,
like
Atalanta, which had not been seen
for over 200 years, and commissioned new works, notably Judith Weir's A
Night at the Chinese Opera.
The
experimental Opera Factory worked
to make opera less artificial and relate to real people. It caused
great controversy with
its
sexually explicit production of Cosi fan tutte set
on
a Mediterranean beach. Pavilion Opera
have for over twenty years presented opera anywhere with a room, chairs
and a grand
piano.
Introduction
