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Opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2019

By Claudia Pritchard on 15/2/2019

Mozart, Rossini and Handel showstoppers, plus Massenet, Dvorák and Berlioz. Booking opens on 3 March, so get ready to register, choose your dates, and bring out those high heels and hampers.

Baritone Christopher Purves is Glyndebourne's devious Méphistophélès. Photo: Chris Gloag

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.

WHEN

18 May 2019 – 10 Jul 2019, 13 performances; times vary. Running time 3hr 45min, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

The hilarious music lesson scene in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Glyndebourne

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.

WHEN

19 May 2019 – 14 Jul 2019, 15 performances; times vary. Running time 4hr 20min, with long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Nothing is quite what it seems in Glyndebourne's new Cendrillon. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

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.

WHEN

08 Jun 2019 – 02 Aug 2019, 14 performances; times vary. Running time 4hr, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

The watery underworld of Dvorak's Rusalka. Photo: Bill Cooper

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.

WHEN

29 Jun 2019 – 21 Aug 2019, 12 performances, running time 4hr 40 min including long dinner interval; times vary

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Picnicking in the long interval is a Glyndebourne tradition. Photo: James Bellorini

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.

WHEN

18 Jul 2019 – 24 Aug 2019, 15 performances; times vary. Running time 4hr 10min, with long dinner interval

Rinaldo has an unexpected setting at Glyndebourne. Photo: Bill Cooper

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.

WHEN

08 Aug 2019 – 25 Aug 2019, eight performances; times vary. Running time 4hr 45min, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2019

Mozart, Rossini and Handel showstoppers, plus Massenet, Dvorák and Berlioz. Booking opens on 3 March, so get ready to register, choose your dates, and bring out those high heels and hampers.

Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust

Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Massenet's Cendrillon

Dvorák's Rusalka

Mozart's Die Zauberflöte

Handel's Rinaldo