Performances for Schools
Every autumn Glyndebourne enables thousands of young people across the country to experience opera
Since 2006, Glyndebourne’s Performances for Schools have inspired and enriched the lives of over 28,000 students.
These performances are a unique experience – Glyndebourne’s world-famous auditorium filled with students from our local area experiencing all the emotion, spectacle and intensity of a Glyndebourne opera, full-length and fully staged.
As well as heavily subsidised tickets for all students, you can also enjoy a range of free resources to help maximise the impact of the experience for you and your students.
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Performances this autumn at Glyndebourne
Beethoven Fidelio
Tuesday 19 October, 11am
Suitable for age 11+
Tickets: £8
Frederic Wake-Walker directs a striking new production of Beethoven’s only opera.
Fidelio celebrates the power of love, courage and fidelity in music of heart-soaring beauty.
Held prisoner by the despotic Don Pizarro, Florestan faces a slow and inevitable death. Determined to save him, his wife Leonore devises a daring plan – one that puts not only Florestan but herself in gravest danger. Truth and goodness confront corruption and cruelty in an opera that reveals both the heights and the ugly depths of human nature.
Fidelio, with its stirring Prisoners’ Chorus, is a musical shout of fury and an impassioned cry of hope – still as powerful a political statement as it was during the French occupation of Beethoven’s Austria. It’s also a love story, celebrating not the thrill of first love, but the enduring, quiet devotion of marriage in music of transcendent beauty. Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece of moral courage, humanity and musical invention.
Donizetti Don Pasquale
Friday 22 October, 11am
Suitable for age 8+
Tickets: £8
There’s no fool like an old fool in Mariame Clement’s much-loved production of Donizetti’s comedy.
Nimble and breathless, outrageous and exhilarating, Donizetti’s late comic masterpiece pits two generations against one another in a musical battle of wits and wills.
Miserly old bachelor Don Pasquale is fed up with his nephew Ernesto, and vows to get married and produce an heir, so he can cut the feckless young man out of his will. But when Ernesto and his beloved Norina get wind of the plan, they come up with their own scheme to outwit him. The trap is set, and romantic tangles, tussles and intrigue quickly ensue.
Described as ‘the most Mozartean of Donizetti’s comedies’, Don Pasquale is the culmination of a long career in the opera house, an irresistible blend of humour and romance spiced with just enough cruelty to keep things interesting. Wit and lyricism collide in a lively score that’s the engine of this fast-paced, tune-filled drama.
- Use our Fidelio and Don Pasquale Teacher Packs to explore the opera ahead of your visit.
- Use the production-specific activity worksheets in the classroom or as homework. – they can support your pupils in achieving an Arts Award – Glyndebourne will be supporting up to 200 pupils through Arts Award Discover (see below) or you can use the worksheets to support your own existing offer.
- Pupils will each receive a free programme with a synopsis, cast list and lots of useful information on what to watch out for.
- A chance to meet the cast in full costume, up close post-show.
- You will receive a signed poster for your classroom to remember the visit.
- Each of your pupils will be invited to provide feedback – we love to hear their thoughts.
All state-funded schools and colleges that meet the funding criteria are eligible to apply for a grant to help towards the cost of booking transport for a trip to a Glyndebourne Performance for Schools.
The application deadline for the Travel Grant has now passed.
Glyndebourne is dedicated to introducing young people to the arts through opera. As a Trinity Champion Centre for 2021-22, we will be offering up to 200 pupils attending a Performance for Schools at Glyndebourne the chance to complete an Arts Award Discover certificate alongside their visit.
Each student undertaking an Arts Award will have access to specially created worksheets and activities and our trained Arts Award advisors will work with them throughout. There is a small additional cost of £4 per pupil to take part in the Arts Award scheme which covers the administration of each pupil’s work plus postage of certificates. We understand that completing an Arts Award with a whole class may be unrealistic; we are happy to support as many pupils as are interested and there is no obligation for the whole class to complete and submit a portfolio.
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Glyndebourne’s Performances for Schools are supported by The Clore Duffield Foundation, The Helen Wade Charitable Trust, plus additional donations through Glyndebourne’s New Generation Programme.
Glyndebourne’s Learning & Engagement programme is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Image credits: Main image, photo by Sam Stephenson | Underworld (An Escape) and Extravagance and Desperation © Tom Hammick. All rights reserved, DACS 2021