Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
The flagship summer programme of world class opera. Enjoy a performance in the indoor auditorium, and picnic in the gardens or dine in the restaurants during the 90-minute interval.
Glyndebourne's first ever Parsifal
Glyndebourne’s first ever production of Wagner’s epic final opera Parsifal will be staged at Festival 2025. Featuring a cast of nearly 200 performers and orchestra, this production will be a landmark moment in Glyndebourne's 90 year history.
The major new staging will be conducted by Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati and directed by Dutch opera and theatre director Jetske Mijnssen, making her Glyndebourne directorial debut. The title role will be taken by leading Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson, with acclaimed German mezzo soprano Kristina Stanek as Kundry, John Relyea as Gurnemanz, Johannes Martin Kränzle as Amfortas and Ryan Speedo Green as Klingsor.
A new Figaro
Parsifal is one of two new productions at the 2025 Glyndebourne Festival. The second is a new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, a work that has been at the heart of the repertoire at Glyndebourne since the first Festival in 1934, becoming the most performed opera in the Glyndebourne's history. The new staging will be directed by French director Mariame Clément whose productions are known for their wit, intelligence and musicality; a fitting combination for an opera that is both charming and subversive in its portrayal of social hierarchies.
Italian conductor Riccardo Minasi conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and an exciting young cast that includes Huw Montague Rendall and Louise Alder as Count and Countess Almaviva, Michael Nagl as Figaro and Anna El-Khashem as Susanna.
Festival favourites return
Four revivals see the return of some of Glyndebourne’s most successful recent productions including Barrie Kosky’s sensational staging of Handel’s Saul, which has travelled to opera houses all around the world since it premiered at Glyndebourne in 2015. Ten years on, Christopher Purves and Iestyn Davies, who starred in the original production, return to the roles of Saul and David, alongside Sarah Brady as Merab and Soraya Mafi as Michal. Early music specialist Jonathan Cohen conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
The second opera of the season will be Annabel Arden’s lively and colourful production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. First staged in 2016, this revival will be conducted by Rory Macdonald, leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra and a cast that includes Cecilia Molinari as Rosina, Germán Olvera as Figaro, Jonah Hoskins as Count Almaviva and Fabio Capitanucci as Dr Bartolo.
Also making a return is Richard Jones’s 2009 production of Falstaff, which transforms Verdi’s Elizabethan comedy into a quick-footed post-war romp. Sian Edwards conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra and a cast that includes Renato Girolami as Falstaff, Anna Princeva as Alice Ford and Rodion Pogossov as Ford.
The final production of Festival 2025 is the first revival of Damiano Michieletto’s intense 2021 production of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová. Conductor Robin Ticciati reunites with Kateřina Kněžíková, who returns to the title role, and Nicky Spence, who performs the role of Boris following his appearance as Tichon in 2021. New to the cast are two eminent British singers with long-standing Glyndebourne connections – mezzo soprano Susan Bickley as Kabanicha and bass John Tomlinson as Dikój. Miles Mykkanen makes his Glyndebourne debut as Tichon.
About the Glyndebourne Festival Opera
The Glyndebourne festival is held annually in England, near the town of Lewis in East Sussex on The Glyndebourne estate. The festival was founded in 1934 by philanthropist and owner of the Estate John Christie, who was a great lover of music. Amateur Opera performances were held in his house. Christie later married singer Audrey Mildmay. They came up with the idea to hold a high-level Opera festival. Thus, on may 28, 1934, the opening of the first festival was held with a production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Opera the Wedding of Figaro with Audrey Mildmay as Susanna. Over time, the Glyndebourne festival has become one of the most important events for music lovers.
In 1968, the festival expanded its program, there was a program of tours. To this day, festival performances can be seen in different parts of England.
If initially, the repertoire of the festival consisted mainly of operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then later the repertoire was expanded. The audience could enjoy operas by Gioachino Rossini, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gaetano Donizetti, Leos janáček, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, and others. These works were directed by such famous conductors as Fritz Busch (1934 – 1951), Vittoro GUI (1951 – 1960), John Pritchard (1960 – 1977), Bernard Haitink (1978 – 1988), and others. Such Opera stars as Luciano Pavarotti, Ruggero Raimondi, and others appeared on the stage of the festival.
The hall where the Glyndebourne festival was held was constantly renovated and expanded. If initially, it could accommodate 300 spectators, by 1977 – 850. In addition, a separate rehearsal room was added. However, this expansion did not meet the requirements of the festival, so in 1992 the construction of a new building began.
The new hall was opened on May 28, 1994, and could accommodate 1,200 spectators. The first production on the new stage, 60 years ago, was the Opera "the Wedding of Figaro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Today, Opera lovers come to the festival every year and note that it retains its own style and unique atmosphere.
