The capstone of my trip to England was to see my husband's production of The Marriage of Figaro at Garsington Opera, nestled in the Getty Estate at Wormsley—half-way between London and Oxford. Bob designed the scenery and costumes.
The Garsington Opera was founded by Leonard Ingrams, a financier and operaphile. The operas were performed on the stone terrace of Leonard & Rosalind's home—Garsington Manor which was built in the 1630's and added-to every century since. A temporary, tented auditorium provided about 500 seats. The Ingrams's living room became the domain of light boards, electrical panels and stage management. The kitchen became a make-up room. The bedrooms, dressing rooms. After Leonard died in 2012, the Garsington Opera company found a new patron—Mark Getty of the American Getty dynasty.
Perhaps Garsington Manor's most famous owner was Lady Ottoline Morrell. At the Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century, Lady Ottoline opened her home to artists, writers and other Bohemians—members of the free-thinking Bloomsbury Group. Lady Ottoline was fairly free, herself; she had affairs with Bertrand Russell, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, and Virginia Woolf. She even had a fling with the strapping stone mason who was carving plinths for her gardens—an affair which may have been the inspiration for Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Today the Garsington Opera is happily ensconced on the Getty Estate, Wormsley Park, owned by Mark Getty. It is 2,700 acres of meadows, hills and forests. The Gettys have a home there. Additionally, it is home to the opera and has a wonderful cricket pitch—a handsome field surrounded by wooded hills.
Shown above, a view of across the lake—where deer can be seen grazing at sunset.
Next to the opera theatre is a classic, English overgrown garden. Older houses in the background provide "backstage" workrooms and gathering spaces for the company.
Shown above, a "Ha-Ha"—a sunken fence which was used on large estates to keep the sheep, deer and other livestock from invading the human living areas.
Every wonderful trip must come to an end. Here's Heathrow Terminal Two—The Queen's Terminal—at 5:30 am. Time for home.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
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