Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2018

By Claudia Pritchard on 5/3/2018

It's the most sought-after opera season of the year: glamour and artistry meet at Glyndebourne, so stand by to get booking

Madama Butterfly opens Glyndebourne's 2018 season. Photo: Clive Barda

Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Puccini's ravishing opera Madama Butterfly opens the season. It's the heartbreaking story of a young Japanese woman married on a whim by an American naval officer and abandoned by him. With its fragrant Japanese setting and soaring melodies, it is one of the most loved operas in the repertoire.

WHEN

19 May 2018 – 18 Jul 2018, times vary; 17 performances lasting four hours, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Glyndebourne's 2014 production of Der Rosenkavalier returns with a new cast. Photo: Bill Cooper

Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

In Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, the ‘rose chevalier’ of the title pledges everlasting love to an older woman, but she knows it is time for their relationship to end. Romance and comedy are bound together by Strauss's ravishing music.

WHEN

24 May 2018 – 26 Jun 2018, times vary; 11 performances, with long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

The composer Handel would surely have loved this joyous Giulio Cesare. Photo: Mike Hoban

Handel's Giulio Cesare, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

When the rulers of warring Egypt and Rome fall in love, the prospects for peace are much improved, but there are many slips and resolutions on the way in Handel’s ornate opera Giulio Cesare. This sassy Glyndebourne production has all the pizzazz of a Bollywood musical.

WHEN

15 Jun 2018 – 28 Jul 2018, times vary; 12 performances, with long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Baritone Christopher Purves sings the role of Golaud at Glyndebourne. Photo: Chris Gloag

Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

When two brothers fall in love with the same melancholy young woman, there can be no happy ending. But in this new production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, marking the composer's centenary year, you'll be won over by the beauty of the music.

WHEN

30 Jun 2018 – 09 Aug 2018, times vary; 13 performances lasting 4 hr 40min, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Handel's Saul at Glyndebourne is a joyous riot of sound and colour. Photo: Bill Cooper

Handel's Saul, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

The Australian director Barrie Kosky burst on to the elegant scene of Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2015 with his action-packed jamboree Saul, which won rave reviews and many awards. Now it's back with all its razzmatazz.

WHEN

19 Jul 2018 – 05 Aug 2018, times vary; 13 performances with long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Soprano Emma Bell sings the title role in Glyndebourne's first production of Vanessa. Photo: Paul Foster-Williams

Samuel Barber's Vanessa, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

A woman jilted by her lover waits in a dark mansion house for his return. Years later, she mistakes the man's son for her former lover; but the son is interested in a younger woman. Samuel Barber's psychologically complex opera is staged at Glyndebourne for the first time.

WHEN

05 Aug 2018 – 26 Aug 2018, times vary; 10 performances lasting 3hr 50min, including long dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU