Glyndebourne has announced the final two opera titles in its virtual festival, Glyndebourne Open House – Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (pictured).
Since it launched on 24 May, Glyndebourne Open House has broadcast over 2,500 hours of world-class opera, for free, attracting more than 750,000 views. The online season featured 15 different operas as Glyndebourne threw open its doors and invited everyone, everywhere to enjoy its productions during lockdown and throughout the summer.
Coming up on Sunday 23rd August is Jonathan Kent’s production of The Fairy Queen, before the season is brought to a close on 30th August with David McVicar’s staging of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Both operas will be available to watch on Glyndebourne’s website and YouTube channel.
Visit glyndebourne.com/OpenHouse
Glyndebourne Open House listings
AUGUST
23 AUGUST – THE FAIRY QUEEN
From 5pm on 23 August and on demand for one week
Watch on the Glyndebourne website or YouTube channel.
Taking us from rowdiest, raunchiest comedy to bewitching beauty and pathos, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen is a theatrical fantasy unlike any other. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream finds itself at the centre of a sequence of musical apparitions and conjurings – fairies romp and play, animals dance and mortals are manipulated by the gods. Through it all, love and desire weave their irresistible spell.
Purcell’s score brings everything from English choral writing to Italian laments and French dances together in a rich musical tapestry. There’s comedy from lusty shepherds and tenderness from separated lovers – a musical story that winds around Shakespeare’s play and characters to create an exhilarating fusion of theatre, music and dance.
Jonathan Kent’s ‘delectable’ production opens up a 17th-century cabinet of curiosities to reveal the contemporary magic within, working with conductor William Christie and a cast including Lucy Crowe, Carolyn Sampson and Ed Lyon to find the anarchic energy at the heart of this unusual work.
30 AUGUST – DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG
From 5pm on 30 August and on demand for one week
Watch on the Glyndebourne website or YouTube channel.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg stands apart among Wagner’s operas. This wise and warm-hearted comedy rejects the composer’s usual gods and goddesses, magical potions and faraway lands to tell a simpler story about everyday life and people. The result is a work of tremendous humanity and truth – a musical celebration of art itself.
When a young knight arrives in the city of Nuremberg he falls immediately in love with Eva. But her hand has been promised to the winner of a singing competition, and so, with the help of the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, he sets out to win both the contest and the girl.
Described by the composer himself as ‘a grand comic opera’, Die Meistersinger combines lyrical arias and ensembles with vast choral statements to create a work of scope and intimacy, a piece that celebrates tradition while anticipating change and innovation.
Filmed in 2011, Vladimir Jurowski conducts Glyndebourne’s first ever staging of this opera, starring Gerald Finley in his role debut as the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs.