Music students visit Garsington Opera thanks to academic enrichment fund

15 June 2023

A group of Hertford music students and their intrepid tutor enjoyed an evening at Garsington Opera, thanks to the generosity of Hertford’s academic enrichment fund. The purpose of the fund is to enable experiences which benefit students in their love and understanding of their subject. This visit to an opera seria from the eighteenth-century, Mitridate by Mozart (composed when he was but 14) was a special evening which allowed us to glimpse something of the glamour and atmosphere which, along with some magnificent music, appealed to audiences in the past. Of course, it was a very modern evening too, complete with interval picnicking amidst the glories of the pastoral setting at the Wormsley estate, where Garsington is based. It therefore served an additional function of allowing us to discuss – and critique – country-house opera as a cultural activity in the twenty-first century. Most importantly it exposed us to an opera which most of us did not know and enriched our comprehension of Mozart’s compositional development.

By Dr Benjamin Skipp, Organising Tutor and College Lecturer in Music