There are few places more beautiful than the valley of The Grange on a summer evening, looking across the fields over the Baring’s estate with its nineteenth-century planting, some of which presumably dates back to the 1820s when Alexander Baring, the first Lord Ashburton, added the conservatory which is now the opera house. I went for the first night of Eugene Onegin, a wonderful opera, so full of drama and tragic misunderstanding.
This is the view from the Indian tent where we drank champagne and had tea after the performance:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Have never seen the opera but earlier this year we went to the Barbican to see the Vakhtangov theatre company dramatic version of the story. I had booked the tickets about ten months before having seen a trailer but when it came to the actual evening I was very grumpy about going. Three and a quarter hours in Russian with surtitles! But it turned out to be fantastic – beautiful, very funny and completely bonkers. Would highly recommend it if it came round again.
Joan