New opera house planned for Bonkers Hall

Photo of the stable block at Nevill Holt by Mat Fascione

A few days ago the Leicester Mercury reported:

A permanent opera house could be built in the heart of a historic country mansion. 

Multi millionaire entrepreneur David Ross has filed plans to build a 400-seater auditorium in the centre of a 17th century stable yard. 

It will replace a temporary structure at the medieval Nevill Holt Hall near Market Harborough which is beyond effective repair. 

Agents and architects for the project say a permanent home is needed if the opera is to be retained. 

For more than a decade more than 20,000 people have attended productions during the summer opera festival. 

Productions have included Carmen and this year there were sell out audiences for Verdi's Rigoletto and Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. 

Recently school children have been invited to sample classical music and take part in productions.

Regular readers will recall that most literary scholars now believe that Nevill Holt was the model for Bonkers Hall.

Lord Bonkers does mention the Royal Opera House, Oakham, from time to time, but I can see him having an opera house.

He might use it to perform his own operas which, on a Wagnerian scale, would tell the story of British Liberalism.

Speaking of Nevill Holt and Wagner...