GLYNDEBOURNE OPEN HOUSE

 

The Fairy Queen

Watch Purcell's The Fairy Queen online for free from Sunday 23 August

ONE CHARMING NIGHT…

Taking us from rowdiest, raunchiest comedy to bewitching beauty and pathos, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen is a theatrical fantasy unlike any other. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream finds itself at the centre of a sequence of musical apparitions and conjurings – fairies romp and play, animals dance and mortals are manipulated by the gods. Through it all, love and desire weave their irresistible spell.

 Purcell’s score brings everything from English choral writing to Italian laments and French dances together in a rich musical tapestry. There’s comedy from lusty shepherds and tenderness from separated lovers – a musical story that winds around Shakespeare’s play and characters to create an exhilarating fusion of theatre, music and dance.

 Jonathan Kent’s ‘delectable’ production opens up a 17th-century cabinet of curiosities to reveal the contemporary magic within, working with conductor William Christie and a cast including Lucy Crowe, Carolyn Sampson and Ed Lyon to find the anarchic energy at the heart of this unusual work.

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Hamlet

About the opera

BEFORE YOU SET OUT FOR REVENGE, MAKE SURE YOU DIG TWO GRAVES.

Tormented by his father’s death, Hamlet plots revenge. But it’s a long way from anger to murder, and soon the Prince finds himself losing his grip on sanity, strength, love and even life itself.

 Rapturously received at its 2017 premiere, Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn’s Hamlet is an award-winning reimagining of Shakespeare’s most famous play. Placing his audience at the heart of the drama, immersing them in sound and even physical sensation, Dean invites us all into Hamlet’s consciousness, to inhabit the mind of one of the cleverest, wittiest, most troubled heroes in all literature. 

Transforming the Glyndebourne auditorium into a ‘theatre of sound’, Dean’s richly lyrical score finds the music of Shakespeare’s language, amplifying it to create an evocative, disturbing soundscape. This is Hamlet, but not as you’ve ever heard it before.

 Neil Armfield directs an all-star cast led by Allan Clayton and Barbara Hannigan. Vladimir Jurowski conducts.

 

Hamlet was captured live at Festival 2017. It is available on DVD from our shop.

 

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Handel Giulio Cesare

BOLLYWOOD MEETS BAROQUE IN DAVID MCVICAR’S LEGENDARY STAGING

When Egypt’s seductive queen meets Rome’s powerful ruler, the stakes are high, both for politics and passion. Horrified by the brutal murder of his rival by Cleopatra’s brother Tolomeo, Cesare joins forces with Cleopatra to depose her unscrupulous sibling. But is their alliance one of love, lust or just mutual ambition?

A true Glyndebourne classic, David McVicar’s production brings all-singing, all-dancing energy to one of Handel’s greatest scores. Sumptuous designs that nod to Britain’s colonial history transform a tale of political intrigue into a dazzling spectacle, sweeping the audience up in its tangled web of power, revenge and romance.

 The resourceful, complicated Cleopatra and smooth statesman Cesare are two of Handel’s most fascinating creations – characters whose music, by turns heart-breaking and ecstatic, includes so many of the composer’s finest arias.

 William Christie conducts a cast led by Sarah Connolly’s Cesare and Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra.

 

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09 Jul 2020

New titles announced for Glyndebourne Open House

Glyndebourne has announced the next two opera titles in its virtual festival, Glyndebourne Open House - Britten’s Billy Budd and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

The Barber of Seville at Glyndebourne

Above: Janis Kelly as Berta, Taylor Stayton as Count Almaviva, Danielle de Niese as Rosina, Taylor Stayton as Figaro

Photo credit: Bill Cooper/Glyndebourne

 

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Glyndebourne Open House throws open our doors to everyone, everywhere: join us at 5.00pm each Sunday and enjoy world-class opera in your living room for free.

In true Festival style, we hope you’ll use this as an opportunity to make memories - dust off your finery, clink a glass with friends and family and be united with opera lovers from across the globe. We can’t conjure the smell of the Glyndebourne roses or a view of the lake, but we can still create an experience to share.

Coming up this Sunday 12^th July is Michael Grandage’s production of Billy Budd, followed on 19^th July by Annabel Arden’s staging of The Barber of Seville. These two operas will be available to watch on Glyndebourne's website and YouTube channel.

Visit glyndebourne.com/OpenHouse

Glyndebourne Open House listings

12 JULY - BILLY BUDD

From 5pm on 12 July and on demand for one week. Watch on the Glyndebourne website or YouTube channel.

Inspired by Herman Melville’s novella, Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd is a heart-breaking psychological study of good and evil and the many human shades of grey that lie between. Harnessing the power of a large orchestra and all-male chorus, the opera creates a vast and powerful voice for the sailors of the HMS Indomitable.

At the heart of this claustrophobic community is Billy Budd, a new recruit whose innocence, goodness and beauty attract the unwelcome attention of Master-at-arms Claggart. Conflicted and tormented by the emotions the boy stirs in him, Claggart vows to destroy him. False accusations lead to violence, tragedy and ultimately death.

Britten’s score blends lyricism and moments of startling beauty with evocative sea-shanties and sweeping orchestral textures to create one of his most moving operas.

Glyndebourne’s first ever production is directed by veteran British theatre director Michael Grandage, who makes his operatic debut with this award-winning production starring Jacques Imbrailo in the title role. Mark Elder conducts.

19 JULY - THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

From 5pm on 19 July and on demand for one week. Watch on the Glyndebourne website or YouTube channel.

The beautiful Rosina is kept all but prisoner by her guardian Dr Bartolo, who secretly hopes to marry his wealthy ward. But when Count Almaviva falls in love with Rosina from afar he enlists the help of cunning barber Figaro to help him outwit Bartolo. A comic battle of wills ensues, but will love or greed be triumphant?

Verdi thought it the greatest operatic comedy - a perfect marriage of wit, energy and exhilarating musical invention. Rossini’s score fizzes with virtuosic brilliance, combining bravura solo arias, set to some of the composer’s best-loved melodies, with breath-taking, intricate ensembles.

Embracing the opera’s Commedia dell’arte origins, Annabel Arden’s lively production is suffused with Spanish colour and warmth, with just a hint of the surreal. Enrique Mazzola conducts an all-star cast including Danielle de Niese, Alessandro Corbelli and Björn Bürger.