Giles Woodforde talks to David Parry, conductor of Garsington Opera

The eponymous star is nowhere to be seen on the day I visit rehearsals for Garsington Opera’s new production of Offenbach’s operetta Vert-Vert.

Or maybe he’s already been banished — Vert-Vert is a parrot, and he has learnt some swear words which must not be heard echoing round the posh finishing school where he lives.

“Ah, bloody hell, God damn and blast!” begins the aria that’s next up for rehearsal. At this stage in the convoluted storyline, the original Vert-Vert has finally dropped off his perch, and has been replaced by an equally foul-mouthed human being.

“Things are going badly wrong, because the innocent boy who was once Valentin has become Vert-Vert,” laughs conductor David Parry. “He has gone off and learnt how to swear, drink, and seduce women. Now he has come back to the school, and has shocked them all by demonstrating his newly discovered abilities. But as this is a finishing school, at least the girls are 17 or 18: I think they’re delighted rather than horrified by the language!”

David has conducted a wide range of work during the course of a long career — although he visibly flinches when I use the ageist word “long”. But, I suspect, he particularly enjoys the lighter, fluffier end of the repertoire.

“Definitely. What I particularly love about Offenbach is the absurdity of it all. The story is extraordinarily complicated, like most comedies. But like all great comedies, Vert-Vert has a serious centre to it: it’s the journey of this young man from being a complete innocent to becoming an adult. Then there’s his little childhood sweetheart, Mimi, who he didn’t really know he loved until he went out into the world. Then he realises he really does love her, rather than just having a schoolboy crush. It’s kind of important really.”

David has conducted for Garsington Opera since 2002, and besides Vert-Vert he’s represented this year by a new CD release of the Garsington production of a rare Rossini opera, Maometto secondo, recorded live last year. But would he have preferred the safety net of a studio recording, where mistakes can be put right?

“I think the future is very much in recording live performances,” David replies enthusiastically. “The good fortune you have with opera is that you can record several performances, and you tend not to have the same mistakes recurring each time. On this occasion we needed only one small patching session, just to eradicate some background noise.”

But given the number of things that can go wrong during a performance, has there ever been an occasion when David thought: “How on earth are we going to get out of this situation?”

“Once I had to stop at the old Garsington because the rain was so loud you couldn’t hear anything. But normally as the conductor you must always be one step ahead of the game. I haven’t ever had problems with singers failing to sing, or not coming on in the first place, for instance.

“But, oh yes, I’ve just remembered the marvellous time at Opera 80 when we went to Lincoln, and the orchestral scores hadn’t arrived from the previous venue, which was Southend. We discovered this at 5pm, with a performance due to start at 7.30pm.

“We delayed and delayed, but eventually the company manager said: ‘David, the audience is getting very restive, you must do something’. So I started a performance of The Barber of Seville with no orchestra, just me playing the harpsichord!”

Vert-Vert
Garsington Opera at Wormsley
In repertory, June 7– July 9
For details and tickets, visit garsingtonopera.org or call 01865 361636