Director Jack Furness to make his Garsington Opera debut

Garsington Opera’s much-anticipated Rusalka production, originally been scheduled for the festival’s 2020 season, has experienced a change of directors this week. The current director, Michael Boyd, has had to withdraw due to ill health with his replacement, British stage director Jack Furness, making his Garsington Opera debut.

Furness studied music at Cambridge University and was an emerging artist director for Scottish Opera in the 2015-16 season. He is the founder and artistic director of Shadwell Opera and has created new productions of Don Giovanni (Nevill Holt Opera), Gianni Schicchi (Copenhagen Opera Festival), Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are (Shadwell Opera), Dido and Aeneas (Royal Academy of Music), and The Rape of Lucretia (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) as well as reviving Kasper Holten’s production of Don Giovanni (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden). He also made his US debut reviving David McVicar’s production of Carmen (Dallas Opera).

Garsington Opera’s artistic director, Douglas Boyd, said: ‘Michael is a wonderful artist, colleague and friend and we all send him our love and wish him a speedy recovery. To direct Rusalka, we are delighted to welcome Jack, a brilliant young director, to Garsington Opera and I look forward to working with him on this production.’

Scheduled to run from 18 June to 19 July, this production of Dvořák’s masterpiece will also feature stage designs by Tom Piper.

You can find out more about Garsington Opera’s upcoming productions on their website.