Donna Anna in the Loire Valley
The swallows are wheeling overhead, the scent of lavender hangs heavy along the dusty road to the chateau, and the high sun scorches the grass where keen audience members are already staking out their interval picnic spots. One table is replete with a silver candelabra and a couple of bottles of Crémant de Loire cooling in an ice bucket. It can mean only one thing: summer festival opera is on the wing, and this time it's in the Loire Valley, France.
Opéra de Baugé, run by Bernadette and John Grimmett since 2003, is a petite Glyndeborne française, and this summer I'm here to sing the stunning role of 'Donna Anna' in Mozart's Don Giovanni. This masterpiece about the final day of a marauding philanderer contains some of the most beautiful music Mozart ever wrote. Our wonderful orchestra, under the expert baton of Thomas Payne, and the stellar international cast played 3 sold out performances with standing ovations each night. We retired happy to Baptiste's restaurant in town, to celebrate until the early hours of the morning, walking home with only energetic bats as company and our mobile phone torches illuminating the cobblestones.
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