Glyndebourne Festival 2019

[Belgrove]

It seems to be the custom nowadays to reveal next year's festival before this year's has even started.
After this year's knockout festival, not much here to warrant interupting attending the Cricket World Cup...

New productions of:
La damnation de Faust, Robin Ticciati, Richard Jones directing
Cendrillon (transferring from this year's Tour), John Williams cond. Fiona Shaw dir.
Die Zauberflote, Antonello Manacorda cond. Andre Barbe and Renaud Doucet producing.

Revivals of
Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rafael Payare cond.
Rusalka, Robin Ticciati cond.
Rinaldo, Maxim Emelyanchev cond.

Details at

https://www.glyndebourne.com/tickets-and-whats-on/our-seasons/festival-2019/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2019announcement-FestivalMembers&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=17838

[kuligin]

Surprised they are reviving that Barber of Seville, it was one of the dullest productions I have ever seen. And another production of an non opera, you would think there was a shortage of operas to stage. As for the boarding school Rinaldo I would have to be paid to sit through that again.

Yes after this year a very disapointing choice indeed.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Exactly my feeling about the Rinaldo production - risible. (Didn't see the Barber....)

[bluestateprommer]

It seems to be the custom nowadays to reveal next year's festival before this year's has even started.

With Santa Fe Opera on this side of the pond, at least, this is fairly normal practice, given that Santa Fe's season begins in late June. Part of the reason for this is to get people to subscribe in advance for the next season, to be sure. I'm sure that Glyndebourne has this in mind as well, for those who can plan summers a year ahead to include opera. Some opera acquaintances here whom I met in Santa Fe told me that they've already gotten tickets for next season.

New productions of:
La damnation de Faust, Robin Ticciati, Richard Jones directing
Cendrillon (transferring from this year's Tour), John Williams [sic] cond. Fiona Shaw dir.
Die Zauberflote, Antonello Manacorda cond. Andre Barbe and Renaud Doucet producing.

Revivals of
Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rafael Payare cond.
Rusalka, Robin Ticciati cond.
Rinaldo, Maxim Emelyanchev cond.

With the 2018 Proms just completed, the guessing game here regards which of these 6 will be the Glyndebourne Prom next summer. The Rossini is out, since that was the 2016 Glyndebourne Prom. Presumably since JEG and the ORR rendered the Berlioz at last year's Proms, my guess is that it won't be La damnation de Faust. In terms solely of running time, my guess would be either Cendrillon or The Magic Flute. But I have been wrong on many occasions, so my guess isn't worth much here and is probably very wrong .

Of course, you meant John Wilson (not John Williams, unless he's given up the guitar for the baton) for Cendrillon. This kind of makes me go "huh?", since I don't rate JW all that much as a symphony conductor. However, now that I think about it, if anyone could cause a Prom of Cendrillon to sell out, JW might be the one, for marquee value.

[David-G]

I absolutely hate this production of Rinaldo. The Glyndebourne Barber is quite entertaining, but also extremely irritating. People seem to be carrying pianos round the stage all the time, for no purpose; it is all very "clever clever" but actually rather off-putting.

The Flute is always a delight in a good production. Unfortunately these days I get very apprehensive about new productions. The old Glyndebourne Flute was perfectly satisfactory, I do not know why it had to be replaced.

Berlioz is necessary in 2019 because it is a major anniversary. Les Troyens presumably is hardly possible.They did Beatrice et Benedict a couple of years ago, in a rather disappointing production, but presumably a new production is required for the anniversary. I would rather have had Cellini, it is a marvellous opera and it would have been good to have actually had Berlioz's Cellini, rather than Gilliam's as at the ENO. But Faust is a marvellous work, I just wish I could be confident it will be staged in a way that serves Berlioz rather than the producer.

The Glyndebourne Rusalka is a complete delight, I shall look forward to a revival without reservation.

My money is on Faust for the Prom, because of the anniversary. Also it seems to me likely that it will be the most "exciting" of the new Glyndebourne productions, in the sense of generating the greatest frisson in the Press - which would make Glyndebourne want to showcase it at the Proms.

[PhilipT]

The Prom is Flute. I agree with David-G that there was nothing amiss with the old production, which provided a welcome abundance of colour after several dreary black-and-white variations-on-a-rehearsal-room-in-a-decaying-opera-house Mozart productions. Apropos of nothing: what's your favourite Flute monster? The first I ever saw was the ENO snake around Tamino's middle (dreadful), but the WNO giant langoustine and the Glyndebourne megamouth caterpillar are both great fun.

[David-G]

But Faust is a marvellous work, I just wish I could be confident it will be staged in a way that serves Berlioz rather than the producer.

Any confidence would have been misplaced. La Damnation de Faust at Glyndebourne is a catastrophe. Black stage, black side and rear walls, poorly lit - so gloom much pf the time. Appalling costumes. "Sets" (if they can be called that) appalling. The whole thing is largely monochrome. People on the stage behave like zombies a lot of the time. I can't see what there is about this Marguerite for anyone to fall in love with her. Marguerite murdering her mother during the divine "D'amour l'ardente flamme" is grotesque. The whole staging of the Ride to the Abyss is grotesque (not in a good way). Much of the choreography is risible (a will-of-the-wisp doing press-ups?).

The summary of it is that Berlioz' music is continually evoking vivid images - but when you look at the stage, you don't see them. The whole thing is twee rather than Romantic. Faust's invocation to Nature evokes rocks, torrents, forests - and all we see is five measly Christmas trees in the gloom.

And the worst thing is that even if you shut your eyes, you can't hear properly. Because the chorus (dressed as devils) are seated so high up the side walls and the rear wall of the stage, that you can't see them from the Upper Circle. And the consequence is that you can't hear them properly either.

This is the opening production on the 25th anniversary of the new theatre. And Glyndebourne's contribution to the Berlioz anniversary. To say that this is a disappointment would be an understatement.

[Dave2002]

This is the opening production on the 25th anniversary of the new theatre. And Glyndebourne's contribution to the Berlioz anniversary. To say that this is a disappointment would be an understatement.

That’s a great shame. I hope I won’t come away as disappointed as you clearly are.

[kuligin]

I can never see the point of staging a work so clearly intended to evoke images in the mind and not at all operatic. Why Glyndebourne staged it is a mystery, if they wanted to stage Berlioz perhaps Cellini or revive their Beatrice and Benedict. I attended the Halle performance which did justice to the work, and was a lot cheaper than go to Sussex.

I expect however to receive from them a lot of blurb saying how wonderful it was, they really have gone down the road of lots of PR which I find irritating. Last year the awful Pelleas was followed up by lots of selective positive quotes.

[David-G]

I think Faust might be staged, but it requires a producer with imagination, intelligence and flair. And a lack of ego. Does such a creature exist?

[Bax-of-Delights]

Massenet: Cendrillon. Opening night.

Oh dear, what a disappointment. A dark staging with Fiona Shaw's direction working tirelessly away at the "gender fluidity" so en vogue at present. That the composer indicated a mezzo for the role of Prince Charming gave the green light for Shaw's contemporary take to transmogrify the fairy tale into a dark psychological dream of a "youthful lesbian crush" and commentary on the role of women in a patriarchal society. Massenet's light but instantly forgettable score became incidental to the antics going on on stage. The ball scene became a succession of silly games enacted in near silence and the story dissipated into a series of confusing costume changes in which the Prince Charming became the maid -or was it the other way round? By the time the final curtain dropped I couldn't have cared less.
There are seats available at all further performances. And as a sign that it may not be as successful in drawing in the audiences I managed to exit the car park in 3 minutes flat - a task that has taken up to 25 minutes for most other performances in recent years.

[Dave2002]

Oh dear - that's another one to "look forward to"! Doesn't sound like a good year. We didn't bother with tickets for the Touring Opera performances at Glyndebourne later in the year either. The two most promising possibles were Rigoletto and L'Elisir d'Amore but we've seen those before. The St Trinian's Handel is being given yet another outing - pity, as I think some of the music is lovely.