To be able to stroll around Wormsley’s grounds, to picnic at leisure overlooking the lake or cricket pitch, to sit in the magnificent pavilion on a summer’s evening and take in the green and pleasant wonder that surrounds the setting for Garsington’s extended festival of opera is certainly worth the price of entry to this new Community Opera. Having been to a performance of the more traditional (and expensive) professional-only production, where everyone is dressed formally and having a magnificent time, it was initially odd to be sitting around in shorts, but then the sunshine, the deer and the loveliness of your surroundings take precedence. It’s definitely a good thing that this experience has been opened up to a broader swathe of the public, as spectators, but also as performers of all ages.

The story of a community opera should, I suppose, reflect to a greater or lesser extent the community from which it’s drawn. Road Rage does this, albeit not in a particularly attractive way. The story is about a village, named after an immigrant who may yet be deported for protesting inequality, opposing a new toll road being built through the village green, because the local MP & Minster for Infrastructure doesn’t want it to go too near his house. The original protester, ‘the girl’, played very well by Clare Presland, opposes it immediately, on principle, to save the local animals and trees.

The performances were commendable though, and in general the music was great, except for the poor Red Kites, whose comedic, musical and high-wire skills were marred by arrhythmic songs that were more musical than opera and didn’t really fit in with anything. Having said that, this is still a magnificent initiative that needs to be encouraged and nurtured for the future of Garsington to make sense, and I look forward to next year’s season.