Nicola Lisle talks to the man in charge of Garsington Opera about what the future holds

With another successful Garsington Opera season done and dusted, and plans for next year’s 25th anniversary season recently revealed, Douglas Boyd cheerfully admits that he has had little to do with either.

Douglas took over as artistic director from Anthony Whitworth-Jones last November, by which time plans for the 2013 and 2014 seasons were already in place.

“This has been an amazing season and I’ve been joking to everyone that I’ll take the credit for it,” he laughs. “But, of course, we plan so far ahead that I inherited the plans for this season and next.

“It was an amazing balance this year and people loved it, so all credit to Anthony for that.”

Douglas is being a little modest. He may not have contributed to the planning of the 2013 and 2014 seasons, but he has been at the forefront of putting them in place, and he is already thinking ahead to 2015 and 2016. So his time at Garsington so far has been far from idle.

“At the most basic level, it’s talking to people, talking to the audience, representing the face of the company,” he says. “Then there’s been a phenomenal amount of administrative work. I’m really a conductor, but I’ve turned into an impresario for the last few months.”

His most significant contribution is the Beethoven Festival that he is planning to slot into next year’s season.

“Our main focus next year is Fidelio, one of the great operas in the world, and its themes are love and freedom from oppression, sacrifice — these are all the major humanistic enlightenment values, and I thought it could be the ideal theme for a Beethoven Festival.

“Next year is also the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, so we thought we could link the festival into that. We’re also in this incredible location at Wormsley. So these are the three things for next year — Beethoven, First World War and Wormsley.”

Douglas is no stranger to Garsington Opera, having been a guest conductor on three previous occasions — including for the company’s original production of Fidelio in 2009. He is best known these days as a conductor, but he actually started his career as an oboist.

He took up the instrument as a child, and has fond memories of growing up in Glasgow in a very musical environment.

“My mum was a church organist and she encouraged me. At school they had a brilliant programme of youth orchestra courses in the summer, which were all free, and they had free instrumental tuition at school.

“And we had kids from all sorts of backgrounds, which you don’t get now. It tends to be a middle- class thing now.

“I remember there was a hierarchy of a third orchestra, then a second orchestra and the first orchestra, which you got into if you were good enough when you were about 15.

“It was an extraordinary young orchestra. We did major stuff, and rehearsed in this sort of paradise place on the banks of the River Clyde, Castle Towers. A lot of people who went there thought, if this is what it’s like I want to do music.”

Douglas went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music, then played with the European Youth Orchestra for four years before becoming a founder member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe as principal oboe.

“I can say this because I’m not in it any more, but it’s one of the great orchestras of the world. We had an incredible time. I was there for 21 years and travelled all over the world with them.” It was during this period that Douglas began having what he calls “the itch to conduct”, but he felt it was important to bide his time and build up experience as an instrumentalist first.

“I think it’s asking a lot of a 20-year-old to stand up in front of an orchestra of maybe 30-40 years’ experience and have a vision to impart,” he says. “So my learning experience was sitting on the other side of the fence, watching.

“Then I tried to get started and to my astonishment it took over. I stopped playing and I’ve been a full-time conductor ever since.”

Douglas is currently music director of the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland, and has also held similar positions with Manchester Camerata, City of London Sinfonia, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

“I’m 54 but I always say I’m only 27 because as a conductor I’m only 27!” he jokes. “It was a complete change of life, which I’m incredibly lucky to have done.”

Does he miss playing the oboe?

“Not at all!” he laughs. “It’s amazing, because I did it every day of my life for 30 years.

“But I think you have this incredible instrument called an orchestra, or singers in Garsington’s case as well, and I love studying whole works.

“These things are miracles, and you spend hundreds of hours on them and then you get the chance to actually realise them. That’s an unbelievable experience.”

Douglas’s main focus now is ensuring that Garsington keeps the momentum going after a very successful season this year, and continues to attract diverse audiences.

“Because it’s privately run, we don’t get any financial support — it’s funded entirely by our supporters and our members, and it can only survive if people want to support it.

“What we have to do is produce events that are incredibly excellent and have this kind of extraordinary energy and commitment. That’s what the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was like, and I think Garsington Opera can only survive if it continues to grow with the same kind of ethos.

“We’re on a bit of a high from this season, because the response was so extraordinary. What we want to do now is encourage as many people to become part of the Garsington experience as we possibly can.”

nFor more information, visit garsingtonopera.org and douglasboyd.co.uk