Opera festival to leave Ash Lawn — or is it?

After three decades at James Monroe’s historic estate, the Ash Lawn Opera Festival is searching for a new home.

Held since 1978 at Ash Lawn-Highland, Monroe’s 535-acre farm in Albemarle County, the festival is expected to relocate to an as-yet-to-be-determined indoor venue by next summer’s opera season.

“This will be the last year for the opera here,” said Carolyn Coggin Holmes, executive director of Ash Lawn-Highland. “I think it’s going to work out best for everybody.”

The popular opera festival’s current season starts today with an 8 p.m. show tunes production called “Broadway Bound.”

Holmes said the opera festival has outgrown the gardens of Ash Lawn.

Ash Lawn, she added, relies on revenue from wedding bookings at the estate. The opera festival typically eats up every weekend in July.

Judith H. Walker, general director of the opera festival, adamantly denied that the festival was leaving Ash Lawn-Highland.

“We’re not leaving,” she said. “Nothing has been decided and that’s all I can say about it. … I’m absolutely certain.”

Walker said she is mystified why Ash Lawn-Highland officials are suggesting that the opera festival’s days at the estate are numbered.

The president of the opera festival’s board, however, confirmed that the festival has been asked by Ash Lawn-Highland to find a new venue by the 2009 season.

“They asked us to leave and we’ve said that we’ll plan on doing that,” said Frank Buck, the board’s president. “We’re looking at our options and trying to work something out.”

Buck added that he hopes Ash Lawn might agree to let the festival stay for another year or two while it negotiates its new permanent home.

“If I have to, I may get down on my knees and beg to stay,” he said.

Moving indoors will allow the opera festival to accommodate larger audiences, avoid nasty weather, enjoy better acoustics and avoid mosquitoes. For older opera fans, he added, a venue in downtown Charlottesville would be much more accessible.

On the other hand, he said, many Ash Lawn opera lovers will miss seeing performances under the stars while eating picnics with their families.

“It’s kind of a unique experience for much of the country,” Buck said. “That’s going to something of a loss.”

Buck originally became involved with the festival after years of taking his children and grandchildren to picnics during the performances.

With its venue change, the opera festival will probably grow a bit more professional, but also a little less charming, Buck said.

“There’s some bitter and there’s some sweet,” he said.