Within the extensive grounds of the Wormsley estate in Buckinghamshire sits a glorious cricket ground. Set in a natural bowl, it is surrounded by tree-lined hills and adorned with an elegant Tudor-style pavilion. Just add two teams in white, a sunny day, a smattering of spectators lazing on deck chairs around the boundary and a glass of wine or two, and you have the ‘leather on willow’ idyll itself.
This immaculately tended patch of grass is not the only perfect pitch with which Wormsley is associated, however. Since 2011, the estate – acquired by Sir Paul Getty in 1985 and now owned by son Mark – has also been the stamping ground of world-class singers, instrumentalists and conductors, as the home of the annual Garsington Opera festival, with productions staged at the Opera Pavilion set up within its grounds. So… cricket… opera… You can probably see where this is going.
And, yes, you’re right. This summer, Garsington will be staging its first production about cricket, when , a new community opera by composer Roxanna Panufnik and librettist Jessica Duchen, pads up and swings its bat
