Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the original and most prestigious summer opera festival in the UK, has announced details of its productions and some casting information for next year's season, which runs from 18 May to 31 August 2008.
A world premiere, two new productions and three revivals make for a varied and tempting season, which features both established artists and up-and-coming young singers.
In terms of repertoire, the season spans several centuries of opera, from Monteverdi in the seventeenth century to a brand new commission.
Continuing the trend for performing early opera, the festival opens on 18 May with a new production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea by Robert Carsen. It's the third in the company's history; the 1962 production is widely credited with rejuvenating the composer's reputation in this country. Baroque specialist Emmanuelle Haďm conducts an outstanding cast including Danielle de Niese as Poppea and Alice Coote as Nerone. De Niese excelled in the part of Cleopatra in the recent David McVicar production of Handel's Giulio Cesare; Coote will be making her Glyndebourne debut in the production, returning to her natural repertoire after apparent unease in ENO's new production of Carmen. Fourteen performances of Poppea continue to 4 July 2008.
Receiving its first-ever Glyndebourne outing, Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel will be directed by Laurent Pelly, the French director responsible for the Royal Opera's recent hit production of La fille du regiment, and conducted by Kazushi Ono, Music Director at La Monnaie. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Holloway will play Hänsel, while Gretel is sung by Slovakian soprano Adriana Kucerova (who will make her Glyndebourne debut this autumn as Adina in the new production of L'elisir d'amore). There will be fifteen performances of the opera between 20 July and 29 August.
The big event of the summer is the world premiere of Peter Eötvös' new opera Love and Other Demons, jointly commissioned by Glyndebourne and the BBC. The Hungarian composer's new piece is based on the novel of the same name by Gabriel García Márquez and is a tragedy set in eighteenth-century Catholic Spanish Columbia against the backdrop of slavery and decaying colonialism. This is the first time that one of Peter Eötvös' operas will be premiered in the UK. Glyndebourne Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducts a cast including Nathan Gunn, Robert Brubaker and Sierva Maria (performances 10 to 30 August).
Tchaikovsky's Yevgeny Onyegin returns in Graham Vick's 1994 production. Jurowski will conduct fifteen performances between 21 May and 11 July, with a cast including Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska and Bratoslavian baritone Ales Jenis.
After a run in the autumn 2007 tour (including a visit to Sadler's Wells in early December), Peter Hall's classic production of Britten's Albert Herring returns to the summer festival on 14 June for ten performances only (until 19 July). Allan Clayton makes his Glyndebourne debut as Albert Herring with Jared Holt (formerly of the Royal Opera's Young Artists programme) as Sid and Louise Poole as Nancy. Gérard Korsten conducts.
Finally, David McVicar's production of Carmen returns for seventeen performances from 6 July to 31 August. Stéphane Denčve conducts Kate Royal as Micaëla and Dutch soprano Tania Kross as Carmen.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra will accompany all the operas save the Monteverdi, which marks the return of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to the pit. Telephone and online booking for the summer festival opens on Monday 14 April 2008, but be warned: tickets are scarce.
Glyndebourne on Tour's autumn 2007 season has just opened and features three productions: L'elisir d'amore, Macbeth (which we reviewed at the Proms) and Albert Herring. Conductors include Robin Ticciati in his first appearance as Music Director of the tour, former conductor on the Royal Opera's Young Artists Programme Rory Macdonald, and Enrique Mazzola. The tour has three weeks at Glyndebourne itself, then goes to Woking, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent and Sadler's Wells.
An important aspect of Glyndebourne's image this year is the use of new media to disseminate the company's work. Three of their productions are being broadcast in Odeon cinemas (the next one takes place at the end of October), and the Tristan und Isolde production from this year's festival is to appear on Opus Arte DVD in December. For more information on the Odeon screenings, see our new feature on Opera on the Big Screen.
A promising future, then, for the Sussex-based opera house, which receives no government funding but manages to balances its books every year, partly through generous sponsorship and partly through being able to attract full houses for almost every production. Why not join in the fun next summer?
For more information, visit Glyndebourne's home page.