Local country house offers charming music in magical garden

What irony. For seven years we've been driving a 170 mile round trip and spending money on B&Bs to see country house opera. Turns out there's a very similar experience less than 10 miles from our house.

West Green House Opera isn't going to replace our allegiance to Longborough. Their season is smaller, their operatic ambitions are more restrained and ... particularly critical for us ... they don't do Wagner. But as an addition to summer musical possibilities, it's a great discovery. It's lovely to find a country house opera option without the hassle and expense of travel; one we could even enjoy on a weeknight. And West Green has one thing Longborough does not: exceptional gardens.

Australian native Marylyn Abbott picked up the lease on the Georgian house near Hartley Witney in 1993. It had been abandoned for three years, since an IRA bomb had destroyed most of its interiors. (It had been the home of Thatcher supporter Lord McAlpine, who laid out the bones of the gardens you see today with architect Quinlan Terry.) Abbott has restored both house and gardens and has been a driving force in setting the opera within them.

The gardens are an exquisite series of outdoor rooms, very much in the style of Sissinghurst or Hidcote. Blazingly-coloured borders backed by tall yew hedges, imaginatively-carved topiary, classical follies, mellow brick walls, ancient vines, venerable orchards and stately avenues ... all the classics are here. Steady rain limited our explorations on the night of the opera, but I saw enough to know I need to return for a more leisurely, and dryer, wander. Not only is this a sophisticated backdrop for an evening out, but you get the rare chance to explore a significant garden at night. Abbott and her team have used lighting in dramatic ways that make the gardens as much of the stars

as the performers on stage.

Most magical of all: we set up our picnic at linen-draped tables in the horseshoe shaped glass houses, surrounded by candles and exotic plants while ripening bunches of grapes hung over our heads. I'm unsure if this is a normal thing, or a consequence of bad weather making the marquees around the lake impractical, but it was an extraordinary setting. (You definitely need to book dining space separate from the tickets.) The experience was so exceptional that the picnic supper alone would have been a memorable highlight of the summer. But there was entertainment, too.

Through a courtyard where box and spikes of red and white flowers formed an oversized chequer board, ducking under a gnarled old wisteria, along the paths of a large walled garden of spectacular borders, through a tunnel arched with vines and bulbous white lights into a purpose-built glass and canvas marquee put up for the season. It's roughly the same size as Longborough, minus the boxes on the sides ... seating about 400.

We were there for Celebrating Gershwin, a one-off performance that was more pop than operatic. Gershwin wrote an opera, of course ... Porgy and Bess is still on my bucket list to see live. But we remember him best for an extraordinary arsenal of romantic firepower that anchors what's come to be known as "The Great American Songbook". Embraceable You, Someone to Watch Over Me, S'wonderful, Summertime and more; almost every song was a familiar and beloved treasure. In fact, the only one I didn't know ... a ditty about Vodka ... was a delightful addition from a forgotten stage show that gave actress and singer Issy van Randwyck a chance to deliver with comic flare.

Van Randwyck was the vocal star of the night, able to belt out show tunes with the rich, resonant power of the best West End stars. Jeff Hooper took the male lead. His voice was pleasing enough in the lounge singer genre, though with rather too much sung-speech rather than proper singing for my taste. My aversion to soprano Celena Bridge may be one of personal taste. Much as I love opera, I can't stand it when opera singers try to take on more popular music. The diction and the phrasing is all wrong, and in the case of Bridge doing Gershwin I thought her range was too high. As I listened to her, all I could do was think about how much better the Ella Fitzgerald on my iTunes versions were.

With this good a repertoire, however, you don't need vocal superstars to deliver delight. The musicians behind them are probably more important, and here the Simon Bates Big Band charmed with its jazzy tapestry of brass, drums and piano. You inevitably lose sound quality in a marquee, of course, even a purpose-built one ... which meant that the strings were sometimes drowned out by their showier fellows. But, overall, it was the musicians who delivered the most notable performances of the evening, particularly with orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris.

Further research reveals that West Green, now in its 17th year of summer performances, typically stages two operas a year with a repertoire favouring Mozart and more modern and light operas. It's a much shorter season than Longborough or any of the better known companies, packing everything into just a week or two, with one or two performances of each title. They sometimes look to touring companies rather than producing their own shows. In addition to the Gershwin night, other non-operatic events this season included a lunchtime concert and a lecture from historian David Starkey.

The gardens are open until 29 October, Wednesday to Sunday (and BH Mondays) from 11 to 16:30. National Trust members get in for free. Upcoming events include a Cinema Supper Club, a classic car show, Christmas illuminations and a holiday gift market.

I might have been shockingly tardy in discovering this local gem, but I predict more visits in the near future.