Britten’s
The Turn of the Screw
 
The first Opera Festival at Glyndebourne was in 1934. The festival was started by John Christie, owner of the estate at Glyndebourne, which he had inherited in 1920 to present ‘not the best we can do, but the best that can be done anywhere’.  In 1968, Glyndebourne Touring Opera made its inaugural tour, visiting Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Oxford. It was renamed Glyndebourne on Tour in 2003.

Audience development and touring

Glyndebourne on Tour

1997/98 to 2005/06

2007 Opera Experience

Rarely performed opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

1995 & 1996 Rossini's Ermione first staging in the UK.

2005 Rossini's La Cenerentola

2006 Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery

Britten’s The Turn of the Screw

The Independent

‘The house, garden and lake at Glyndebourne are spookily perfect as a backdrop for The Turn of the Screw – indeed the home-movie played during the prologue of Britten’s opera shows the children, Flora and Miles, playing in the East Sussex estate’s very grounds. Inside the theatre, meanwhile, Jonathan Kent and his designer Paul Brown probe the psychology of the piece in extraordinary ways. Theirs is the theatre of the mind made physical – and disturbing… Kate Royal as the Governess is quite something. The voice is intoxicatingly true, but it is her descent into irrationality that is startingly chronicled… there is a sense of sexual hysteria reigned in. But only just.’

Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery
Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery

The Times

‘It took 66 years for this garrulous, flimsy, charming, irksome opera to reach a professional British company. We made it, finally. Vladimir Jurowski, Glyndebourne’s music director, perched in the pit, armed with eight Russians in the principal roles. The curtain rose, and off Prokofiev ran with chattering rhythms and lyrical sighs, chasing after the insanely complicated libretto. Phew!’

The Daily Telegraph

‘The instrumentation is ravishingly colourful and imaginative, but it always puzzles me that a composer who could write such wonderfully graceful and shapely melodies for orchestras should be so reluctant to indulge the human voice… Prokofiev just isn't interested in plumbing or expanding on human emotions: what engages him is the challenge of swift, lively story-telling and effective scene-painting. Nevertheless Betrothal in a Monastery is a diverting confection that sits well in Glyndebourne's summer pleasure garden, and the performance is first-rate.’

Rossini's  La Cenerentola

The Stage

‘Confronted with Rossini’s dark yet captivating take on the Cinderella story, directors often opt for commedia capering and mugging. Fortunately, Peter Hall takes the piece seriously. The comedy mostly arises naturally from the action allowing the music’s restless, at times haunting, subtext to really tell.  Vladimir Jurowski’s conducting of the London Philharmonic makes doubly sure. Crystalline textures, rhythmic verve and an almost impeccable pacing propel the drama towards its enigmatic conclusion with a compelling urgency.’

The Financial Times

‘England's most genteel opera-goers… found themselves captivated by one of the best nights Glyndebourne has enjoyed in many a year… it was good to find the privately run Sussex opera house returning to Rossini and scoring a triumph… La Cenerentola provides the

quintessential Glyndebourne experience because it extols all the traditional virtues: high musical standards, crisp ensemble, intelligent entertainment. It fuses the youthful talent of Vladimir Jurowski, Glyndebourne's music director, with the experience of Peter Hall, who has staged many operas there but never Rossini. Despite the age difference their partnership is one of equals because Jurowski tells us as much about Rossini's dramatic flair as Hall does about his musical subtlety.'
Rossini's  La Cenerentola
3 December 2008