How One Couple Turned a French Manor House Into an Opera House

Peter and Carolyn Bear explain how their 18th-century manoir in northern Auvergne became an opera house

It all began with a rather crazy idea for a house-warming party. Like many French Property News readers, we had fallen in love with a French country property and upped sticks from the UK and moved to France. Our coup de coeur was the 1758 Manoir de la Gozinière in the heart of la France Profonde in northern Auvergne. It took us three years to renovate, carefully preserving its 18th-century character. Once done, we decided to give a slap-up party for the new friends we’d made.

One of the few things we missed in moving to France were our regular outings to the opera. In the UK, we’d been accustomed in the summer, to packing up picnics and rugs and heading for ‘country house opera’. Unfortunately, the English love of these pastoral events isn’t reflected in France. This is partly because there are so many – about 30 – opera houses in the bigger cities. We were near enough to Vichy, where the lovely Art Nouveau opera house provides excellent productions, but tantalisingly few of them.

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

So, to celebrate the departure of the builders, we invited a pianist and some young singers from England to perform a few Mozart arias. We enjoyed this event so much, we asked the singers to return the following year to put on a fully staged opera. We chose Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ based on the 1778 stage comedy by Beaumarchais, which dated from a similar period to the house. The French adore dressing up, so we asked our guests to come in 18th-century costume. One of our naughtiest friends came in full regalia as an 18th-century cardinal while another of our oldest friends got the century wrong, and arrived in doublet and hose, his catwalk legs memorable in ladies’ tights.

And so our first country house opera group was born. After Figaro, we had a long discussion about the possibility of setting up our very own opera company. The upshot was ‘Opera Loki’, named after our resident dog. Over the years, the company quickly developed, becoming a charity both in the UK and France and in the succeeding summers we put on a total of more than 20 productions.

For each production, we auditioned singers in London, most of whom were studying at Royal College, Guildhall School of Music, Trinity Laban or other major music schools in Wales and Scotland. Many of our singers have gone on to enjoy prestigious careers with singing roles at Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne and the Bayreuth Festival.

SINGING THE PRAISES

Word got around and our opera season grew to include more venues. Most were hosted by generous French friends who were willing to open their châteaux, manoirs, abbeys or spacious barns, not only to dedicated music lovers but also to people who might never have considered attending an opera. Opera Loki’s aim was to advance the careers of young singers and also to introduce opera to a wider audience.

“Over the past 26 years, we have hosted performances of operas by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Rossini”

Over the past 26 years, we have hosted performances of operas by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Rossini. We’re now working with London-based Regents Opera, which recently performed Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle’ to critical acclaim.

Opera at La Gozinière isn’t the only imported fringe opera run by Brits. Opéra de Baugé was founded in 2002 by John and Bernadette Grimmett at Les Capucins, near Anjou, and m ore recently, in 2019, Jenny Hemans set up Theâtre Basse-Passière at her home in Perche-en-Nocé in Orne.

You can read more about the trials and tribulations of setting up and running an opera festival in the depths of France in the book written by Chloe Rayban, How to knit an opera, available from Amazon.

We’ve had an absolutely enchanting quarter of a century living at La Gozinière, but after so many happy years it’s time for us to move on. So should you want to buy a beautiful manoir that echoes to the enchanting melodies of Mozart, Verdi, Bizet and Puccini, you know where to come.

Manoir de la Gozinière is for sale at €950,000. Contact the owners direct at [email protected] or email Alison Brettell at [email protected]