Garsington Opera is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, in the category of Opera and Music Theatre, for their 2016 production of Idomeneo, director Tim Albery, designer Hannah Clark.  The cast included Toby Spence, Caitlin Hulcup, Louise Alder, Rebecca von Lipinski, Timothy Robinson, Robert Murray and Nicholas Masters and was conducted by Tobias Ringborg.  The lighting designer was Malcolm Rippeth and movement director Tim Claydon.

RPS Music Award winners will be announced on Tuesday 9 May.   The annual RPS Music Awards, presented in association with BBC Radio 3, are the highest recognition for live classical music in the UK.  Awards, in thirteen categories, are decided by independent panels consisting of some of the music industry’s most distinguished practitioners. The awards honour musicians, composers, writers, broadcasters and inspirational arts organisations. The list of previous winners reads like aWho’s Who of classical music. This year’s RPS Music Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in 2016

Garsington Opera has established an enviable reputation for producing opera of the highest professional quality performed in a setting of extraordinary beauty.   A programme of well-known operas with discoveries of lesser-known works is presented over two months each summer and the very best performers from around the world are engaged and rising stars from within Britain are showcased.

This year’s festival that runs from 1 June – 30 July presents Handel’s seductive masterpiece Semele, Debussy’s enigmatic Pelléas et Mélisande, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s Il turco in Italia and will conclude with Silver Birch, a large-scale work for a professional cast with local community participants of all ages, commissioned by Garsington Opera from leading British composer Roxanna Panufnik and librettist Jessica Duchen.