Glyndebourne Festival 2022
Glyndebourne was determined to proceed with its 2021 Festival and chose to invest in a significantly loss-making event in order to provide vital work for staff and freelancers and to stay connected to audiences. This necessitated changes to its original programme and normal working practices in order to accommodate social distancing measures. Among the adaptations were reduced orchestrations and choruses, performing company bubbles and regular testing of performers and staff.
Despite the challenges, the company successfully presented five operas, including three new socially distanced productions from international creative teams – Káťa Kabanová, Il turco in Italia and Luisa Miller – a semin-staging of Tristan und Isolde and a concert series featuring the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (read reviews on Seen and Heard).
More than 41,000 people visited the event between May and August, with audiences for the first part of the season capped at 50% of capacity. A series of online operas broadcast via Glyndebourne Open House during the same period reached a further 115,000 people.
Gus Christie, Executive Chairman of Glyndebourne, said: ‘This year’s Festival really was a season like no other. We were determined to go ahead to provide work to staff and freelancers but also because we believe art and culture is more important now than ever, in order to support society’s recovery from the pandemic crisis. It required all of our determination, agility and nerve to pull it off and I’d like to thank the whole company for displaying such resilience and positivity throughout.
‘Despite the considerable challenges, we successfully mounted three fantastic new productions, as well as a revival of Nicholas Hytner’s classic production of Cosi fan tutte, a powerful concert staging of Tristan und Isolde and our first-ever concert series. A really proud achievement. We are looking forward with great excitement to next year’s Festival which will be equally ambitious, featuring four new productions, including the first staging of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers by a major opera house since 1939.’
The 2022 Glyndebourne Festival will open with The Wreckers, directed by Melly Still and conducted by Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati. French mezzo soprano Clémentine Margaine stars as Thirza with German baritone Markus Brück in the role of her husband Pascoe and Mexican tenor Rodrigo Porras Garulo as her lover Mark. The Australian soprano Lauren Fagan takes the role of Avis with British bass-baritone James Rutherford as the lighthouse keeper Lawrence.
The production will lead the way towards making opera in a sustainable way. All of the new productions at the 2022 Glyndebourne Festival will embrace the baseline principles set out in the Theatre Green Book initiative, led by the Theatres Trust and supported by Glyndebourne.
Other new productions next summer include La bohème, which will be created by the Dutch director Floris Visser and rising star conductor Jordan de Souza. The cast is headed by Chinese tenor Long Long and Chilean soprano Yaritza Véliz as the lovers Rodolfo and Mimì respectively, with South African soprano Vuvu Mpofu returning to Glyndebourne in the role of Musetta.
The third new production in the season is Francesco Micheli’s sumptuous new staging of Handel’s Alcina, originally scheduled for the 2020 Glyndebourne Festival. Jonathan Cohen conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a cast that includes Canadian coloratura soprano Jane Archibald as the sorceress Alcina and Chinese soprano Ying Fang as her sister Morgana. The 2018 Glyndebourne Opera Cup winner Samantha Hankey makes her first Festival appearance as the knight Ruggerio, alongside American contralto Avery Amereau as his betrothed, Bradamante, and British tenor Stuart Jackson as Oronte.
Following his Ravel Double Bill for Glyndebourne in 2012, French director Laurent Pelly takes on two more contrasting French masterpieces with a double bill of operas by Poulenc, conducted by Robin Ticciati. Glyndebourne favourite Stéphanie d’Oustrac takes on the role of Elle in La voix humaine, while the largely French cast for Les mamelles de Tirésias includes soprano Elsa Benoit (Thérèse), baritone Régis Mengus (The Husband), baritone Christophe Gay (Monsieur Presto), mezzo soprano Julie Pasturaud (The Newspaper Woman) and tenor Loïc Félix (The Pairisian Journalist), along with Belgian baritone Lionel Lhote (Theatre Director / Gendarme) and Swiss tenor François Piolino (Monseiur Lacouf).
The Festival lineup also includes two revivals. Mariame Clément’s mischievous 2011 production of Don Pasquale is conducted by Ben Glassberg and stars Portuguese baritone José Fardilha as the Don alongside American soprano Erin Morley as Norina, British baritone Huw Montague Rendall as Malatesta and Canadian tenor Josh Lovell as Ernesto.
Michael Grandage’s seventies-inspired Le nozze di Figaro also makes a return, conducted by Giancarlo Andretta and Nicholas Carter. American baritone Brandon Cedel stars as Figaro with South Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park as Susanna, Mexican baritone Germán Olvera as the Count and American soprano Amanda Woodbury as the Countess. American mezzo-soprano Emily Pogorelc, who won the Ginette Theano Prize for Most Promising Talent at the 2018 Glyndebourne Opera Cup, takes the role of Cherubino.
For full casting and to see the performance schedule for the 2022 Glyndebourne Festival, click here.
Glyndebourne Festival 2022 runs from 21 May – 28 August 2022
Public booking opens in March 2022
A full performance schedule is available at glyndebourne.com
Glyndebourne members enjoy priority access to tickets – to join the family click here