Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2019
Stand by for the hottest tickets in opera: this season's Glyndebourne booking opens to the public on 3 March. Here are the shows to catch
Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust
It sounds like a bargain: all your problems solved in exchange for one small change. But when the broker is the Devil, and the payment he demands is a person's very soul, the deal quickly turns sour. Berlioz's powerful opera opens the three-month Glyndebourne Festival.
Read more ...Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia
One of the happiest operas in his repertoire, Rossini's comedy returns in Annabel Arden’s attractive and stylised production, first staged in 2016. Young lovers get the better of a jealous old guardian, with the help of resourceful fixer Figaro.
Read more ...Massenet's Cendrillon
The Cinderella story gets a double twist, with director Fiona Shaw's convention-busting reading of Massenet's magical opera. There is romance, comedy and mystery in equal measure in this very grown-up fairy-tale.
Read more ...Dvorák's Rusalka
The story may sound familar: a water spirit falls in love with a mortal, and sacrifices her beautiful voice in order to live on land with him. But now her main attraction is gone, and the affair turns sour. Opera's version of the little mermaid story, beautifully staged and sung.
Read more ...Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
Glyndebourne Festival Opera was built on Mozart – even if its founder, John Christie, wanted it to be a Wagner house – so every new Mozart production is an event. Expect a race for tickets this year for Die Zauberflöte – The Magic Flute – and be rewarded with an evening of enchanting music.
Read more ...Handel's Rinaldo
This heroic opera is set in the time of knights and crusaders, but at Glyndebourne Festival Opera horses give way to bicycles, and armour to blazers and boaters. Feuding parties are cut down to size in a tongue-in-cheek production starring counter-tenor Tim Mead and US mezzo Elizabeth DeShong.
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