Jenufa

This is, we are told, the last time Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s 1989 staging of Janacek’s Jenufa will be seen at Glyndebourne. Its appearance marks the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth and the centenary of the opera’s premiere, and even though … Continue reading →

Carmen

David McVicar’s production of Carmen divided opinion when it opened at Glyndebourne two years ago. Many admired his decision to avoid overt Hispanicisms and anchor the opera in the tradition of French naturalism, where, of course, it belongs. Some, however, … Continue reading →

Pelléas et Mélisande

With the return of Pelléas et Mélisande, it’s back to business as usual at Glyndebourne. Graham Vick’s penetrating production, first seen in 1999 and revived now by Anneliese Macskimmon, provides a salutary contrast to the picture-book simplicities of Adrian Noble’s … Continue reading →

Die Zauberflöte

In the last production of Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne, directed by Peter Sellars, most of the action took place beneath a Los Angeles freeway. First seen in 1990 it scandalised audiences, and was only revived once. Its successor, directed by … Continue reading →

Theodora

Peter Sellars’s production of Handel’s Theodora is regarded by many as one of the greatest operatic stagings of the past decade. Now in the repertory of Glyndebourne Touring Opera, its power, at once disquieting and exalting, remains unique. Sellars presents … Continue reading →

Idomeneo

Peter Sellars’ production of Mozart’s Idomeneo caused an almighty stink when it opened at Glyndebourne earlier this year. I missed its notorious first incarnation, though now that the staging has been reworked for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, it would seem things … Continue reading →

Theodora

When Glyndebourne programmed a revival of Peter Sellars’ 1996 production of Theodora as part of the same season as his new version of Idomeneo, the company cannot have imagined how timely and restorative that repeat of one of Sellars’ finest … Continue reading →

Die Fledermaus

Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss’s best-known operetta, is regarded in some quarters as a piece that is wonderfully entertaining but meretricious at best. Like any great comedy, however, it has its dark side. As its title suggests, it deals with things … Continue reading →

Le Nozze di Figaro

Mozart’s operas have always been Glyndebourne’s calling card, and none more so than The Marriage of Figaro, the first work the festival ever presented. Here revived and to some extent reworked by Daniel Farncombe, Graham Vick’s three-year-old production seems more … Continue reading →

La Bohème

Inner-city squalor and the bourgeois refinement of Glyndebourne are, on the surface, worlds apart, though in David McVicar’s production of La Bohème, they converge. This is one of a number of recent stagings that relocates Puccini’s masterpiece to a tawdry, … Continue reading →