Summer Opera
Glyndebourne
When: 21 May – 30 August
Tel: +44 (0)1273 815000
Web: www.glyndebourne.com
The music spools a sombre funereal procession randomly interrupted by the whooshing thud of the guillotine… It’s one of the most chilling climaxes in all opera, and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is a bold choice for a summer season opener. Then again, strong women proliferate at Glyndebourne 2020. Leonora battles to save Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio; Handel’s
Alcina wields dominion over her enchanted island; and in a revival of the classic Hockney-designed staging of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Anne Truelove lives up to her name.
DON’T MISS:
Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites
21 May – 19 July
As with Handel’s Alcina, Poulenc’s opera is a Glyndebourne first. It is entrusted to director Barrie Kosky, whose 2015 production of Handel’s Saul turned heads. Glyndebourne’s music director Robin Ticciati conducts a cast headed by Danielle de Niese as Blanche.
Garsington Opera
When: 28 May – 18 July
Tel: +44 (0)1865 361636
Web: www.garsingtonopera.org
Having dusted down Falstaff in 2018, Garsington turns to Verdi’s other comic opera, Un giorno di regno. Verdi was only 27 when it premiered at La Scala – a pensioner, mind, compared to the 14-year-old Mozart, whose Mitridate follows hot on its heels, accompanied by the English Concert. And there the flirtation with musical youth pauses. Completing the season are a new production of Dvo ák’s Rusalka and, in Beethoven year, a revival of Fidelio.
DON’T MISS:
Beethoven’s Fidelio 25 June – 17 July Director John Cox returns to revive his 2009 staging, which now features South
African soprano Johanni van Oostrum as Leonora and Toby Spence as Florestan. Conducting the Philharmonia, Gérard Korsten makes his Garsington debut.
Longborough Festival Opera
When: 4 June – 4 August
Tel: +44 (0)1451 830292
Web: www.lfo.org.uk
In its near-quarter-century existence, Longborough Festival Opera has developed from an al fresco company with an audience perched on hay bales to the custodian of an intimate theatre and a proud Wagnerian tradition, continued this year by the ongoing forging of its second Ring cycle. Contrast reigns supreme in the Cotswolds, however. Offsetting Wagner, the festival’s Monteverdi odyssey continues apace with The Return of Ulysses in a new production by artistic director Polly Graham; and completing an alluring foursome are Janá ek’s Cunning Little Vixen and Donizetti’s Elixir of Love.
DON’T MISS:
Wagner’s Die Walküre 4-13 June Conductor Anthony Negus and director Amy Lane reunite to take Wagner’s Ring forwards into its second episode. Mark Le Brocq and Sarah Marie Kramer sing Siegmund and Sieglinde, with Paul Carey Jones as Wotan.
OUR FESTIVAL CHOICE
The Grange Festival
When: 5 June – 12 July
Tel: +44 (0)1962 791020
Web: www.thegrangefestival.co.uk
‘Wouldn’t it be loverly’ to find a spot of Lerner and Loewe infiltrating the operatic ambitions of director Michael Chance’s Hampshire Festival. Lo and behold, My Fair Lady adds a touch of Broadway to a quintessential country house experience that embraces contemporary dance, Jonathan Dove’s take on the Minotaur myth and Rossini’s Cinderella. The latter is conducted by David Parry and features mezzo Josè Maria Lo Monaco in the title role.
DON’T MISS:
Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream 6-24 June
Britten’s adaptation of Shakespeare casts spells both literally and metaphorically. To mark the 60th anniversary of its premiere, Anthony Kraus conducts a new production with Patrick Terry as the controlling Oberon and Rhian Lois his consort Tytania.
Other great festivals
Iford Arts 23 May – 19 September
With Handel’s Acis and Galatea as a bucolic postscript, peripatetic Iford lavishes Lehár on Bath and introduces Belcombe Court to the wiles of Bizet’s Carmen.
Tel: +44 (0)1225 463362
Web: www.ifordarts.org.uk
Grange Park Opera 4 June – 19 July
The premiere of Anthony Bolton’s new opera about Alexander Litvinenko complements Puccini’s heart-tugging La bohème and Ponchielli’s seldom-seen La Gioconda.
Tel: +44 (0)1962 737373
Web: www.grangeparkopera.co.uk
Neville Holt Opera 10 June – 1 July Leicestershire’s 2019 Stirling Prize-winning opera theatre sets Verdi’s La traviata and Mozart’s Don Giovanni cheek by jowl.
Tel: +44 (0)115 846 7777
Web: www.nevillholtopera.co.uk
Dorset Opera Festival 21–25 July Bryanston’s operatic summer school crowns Musorgsky’s epic Boris Godunov with a relative Puccini rarity: La rondine.
Tel: +44 (0)1202 499199
Web: www.dorsetopera.com