A successful summer of opera at Glyndebourne has drawn to a close, with the company announcing that box office sales reached 95 per cent of capacity. Beginning on 21 May, the festival ended with a double bill of two short Ravel operas L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges on 30 August.
As well as achieving box office success 2015 also saw Glyndebourne expand its horizons, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, the Daily Telegraph website, Sky Arts, ARTE TV and in Picturehouse cinemas.
‘It is a tribute to our loyal audience that such a bold and ambitious programme should play to near capacity houses as well as reaching many thousands more through television, radio, cinema and online broadcasts,’ said Glyndebourne general director David Pickard.
Along with the Ravel double bill the programme included Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Handel’s Saul and a rare staging of Donizetti’s Poliuto. Both Saul and Die Entführung aus dem Serail will tour in England this Autumn, along with a revival of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
With 2016 marking the 400-year anniversary of Shakespeare’s death Glyndebourne has scheduled two operas based on his work: Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict (based on Much Ado About Nothing) and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The two operas are part of the Shakespeare400 campaign, coordinated by King’s College London.
Next year’s programme also includes Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and revivals of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Singers making their Glyndebourne debuts in 2016 include German-Canadian tenor Michael Schade, French soprano Hélène Guilmette, Italian mezzo soprano Serena Malfi and Italian bass Carlo Lepore. The 2016 festival runs from 21 May to 28 August.