New artistic director for Garsington Opera

Garsington Opera have a appointed a new artistic director to replace Anthony Whitworth-Jones on his retirement. In an interesting move Garsington have appointed Douglas Boyd, currently chief conductor of the the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland; Boyd is also principal guest conductor of the City of London Sinfonia as well as having relationships with a number of American orchestras.  He was formerly head of the Manchester Camerata and as an oboist, was a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He is by no means an opera specialist though, he has worked at Garsington (where he conducted Don Giovanni this year and returns for Fidelio in 2014) , Glyndebourne on Tour  and Zurich Opera (conducting Salieri) with Opera North to come (conducting La Clemenza di Tito). Perhaps to strengthen the operatic experience in the Garsington admin, Brian Dickie (former head of Chicago Lyric Opera) and Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (principal of the Royal Academy of Music) are joining Garsington's artistic committee. It will be interesting to see how his appointment affects the company's artistic direction and choice of repertoire.