News and Features

Introducing... 2019 at Glyndebourne

Here are some highlights coming up in 2019…

Happy New Year from everyone at Glyndebourne

2019 promises to be a particularly exciting year for us with over 100 performances, 10 operas, three new productions and a world premiere. We will also be celebrating 25 years of the new opera house being built and the opening of our new production hub – a state-of-the-art facility for our making departments so that we can continue to create extraordinary productions.

Here are some highlights coming up in 2019…

World Premiere

Agreed 1, 2 and 3 March 2019

A new opera about love, loss and divided lands from composer Howard Moody. Agreed features an intergenerational chorus of 80 local residents and five professional singers, including the renowned mezzo-soprano Louise Winter and the critically-acclaimed jazz and soul singer Zara McFarlane. It is the latest large-scale community opera to be presented on the main stage at Glyndebourne, following the success of Knight Crew (2010), Imago (2013) and Nothing (2016).

Glyndebourne Festival, summer 2019

A rare opportunity La damnation de Faust

Glyndebourne’s debut production of La damnation de Faust is a rare opportunity to see this extraordinary work fully staged – the perfect way to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death. Directed by Richard Jones, the cast is led by top British tenor Allan Clayton, making a role debut as Faust, alongside Christopher Purves as his nemesis, Méphistophélès. Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati, a passionate champion of Berlioz, conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The production is one of The Times’ arts highlights of 2019.

NEW PRODUCTION Die Zauberflöte

Mozart’s most magical comedy returns to Glyndebourne for the first time in over a decade in a new production by the renowned directing/design duo Barbe & Doucet that promises to take a fresh and playful look at the opera’s troublesome gender politics. Leading British bass Brindley Sherratt stars as Sarastro alongside exciting young singers including Caroline Wettergreen, Sofia Fomina and Björn Bürger. Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In cinemas live across the UK on Sunday 14 August.

FESTIVAL DEBUT Cendrillon

One of the greatest operatic fairy tales, Massenet’s Cendrillon makes its Festival debut in Fiona Shaw’s thoughtful contemporary updating. John Wilson will make his first appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and a cast led by Glyndebourne favourites Danielle de Niese as Cendrillon and Kate Lindsey as Prince Charming. In cinemas live across the UK on Sunday 30 June. The Evening Standard selected Cendrillon as one of their picks of the best operas to look forward to in 2019.

Find out more about Festival 2019

Glyndebourne Tour, autumn 2019

NEW PRODUCTION Rigoletto

Verdi’s own favourite opera, Rigoletto is a tragedy of Shakespearean scope, a disturbing psychological portrait of a man caught in a corrupt world, an outsider in a system built on power and privilege. A dramatic score, heavy with menace, includes many of Verdi’s greatest tunes, including ‘La donna e mobile’. Rising star Christiane Lutz directs Glyndebourne’s first ever production, reimagining Verdi’s classic drama for our own age.

Find out more about Tour 2019