Boris Johnson to speak at the model for Bonkers Hall - and opera singers are up in arms

Boris Johnson is to appear at the Nevill Holt Festival in conversation with Andrew Roberts on 14 June. 

And you will be aware that it's a rare scholar now who denies that Nevill Holt Hall is the inspiration for Bonkers Hall.*

Thanks to the great Solar Pilchard on Bluesky, I find that this news has gone down badly with the nation's opera singers.

A cutting from Van Magazine runs:

Sudden Holt

Opera professionals were already pretty angry with the country house opera company Nevill Holt, which a few years ago made the rather sudden switch from supporting opera to a wider festival of music and arts, leaving singers and other professionals in the lurch. 

So when former prime minister Boris Johnson was announced as a guest speaker at the Summer's Festival - someone who oversaw a rough Covid for the opera sector, to say the least - many were furious. Ashley Beauchamp, a former head of music at Nevill Holt. had the following to say in the Instagram comets section:

Nevill Holt 2023: "Championing emerging talent continues to lie at the heart of Nevil halts ambitions across all strands of the festival's work."

Nevill Holt 2025: 🙃🙃🙃

I shall leave the final words to my mother, who would have been 94 on the day of Johnson and Roberts's event:

"You can't have a prime minister called 'Boris'.  

* Though you can add Rockingham Castle and East Langton Grange at least to the mix.