More performances announced for 2024
Including an extra Giulio Cesare this August
A record number of bookers helped Glyndebourne achieve record-breaking sales revenue during the first week of public booking for Festival 2024, showing growth in demand for opera at Glyndebourne.
Glyndebourne has responded by adding an extra performance of Handel’s Giulio Cesare to the schedule for Festival 2024 on Tuesday 13 August. Many of the extra tickets will be available to people signed up to the Under 30s programme, which offers heavily subsidised tickets to 16 – 29 year olds to support the next generation of opera-goers.
Richard Davidson-Houston, Managing Director of Glyndebourne, said: ‘In 2023 Glyndebourne had its highest level of paid attendance in over a decade. We’ve followed that up with a record-breaking start to public booking for this year’s Glyndebourne Festival. We want as many people as possible to experience opera, so we’re working hard to respond to, and grow, demand. Even before we added an extra performance of Giulio Cesare to the schedule, capacity at this year’s Festival was higher than in 2023, and our new approach to pricing has enabled us to offer more tickets at lower prices while maintaining our box office potential, which is vital given that the Festival receives no public subsidy. For people who can’t visit Glyndebourne this summer, we are working in partnership with the BBC to broadcast our highly-anticipated new production of The Merry Widow and share it with audiences all across the UK.’
Further opportunities to experience opera at Glyndebourne follow this autumn…
A new performance of Giulio Cesare has been added on 13 August.
Photo: Bill Cooper
Our extra performance of Giulio Cesare (13 August) goes on sale to Members on Friday 15 March and public on Monday 18 March. Under 30s tickets go on sale on Sunday 24 March.
Glyndebourne’s Autumn season begins in October with mainstage performances of Verdi’s La traviata and Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. The Glyndebourne production of La traviata was originally directed by Tom Cairns and premiered in 2014. This autumn’s performances will be conducted by Adam Hickox as he takes up the role of Principal Conductor of the Glyndebourne Sinfonia. Leading the orchestra for the first revival of Mariame Clément’s 2021 production of Il turco in Italia is Olivia Clarke.
Alongside mainstage opera, a concert programme runs from October to December including an event that pairs Beethoven’s Symphony No 4 with Michael Tippett’s secular oratorio, A Child of Our Time, a choral celebration of Baroque classics and the return of the Glyndebourne Christmas Concert. Plus, there’ll be the chance to take part in two choral Masterclasses.
Stephen Langridge, Artistic Director of Glyndebourne, said: ‘For more than fifty years, Glyndebourne’s focus during the autumn has been to shine a spotlight on emerging talent and to provide affordable access to exceptional opera and music. To meet the increasing audience appetite for opera, we are happy this year to be able to offer a third more tickets for mainstage performances than in 2023, including over 14,000 tickets at under £50 – a more than 50% increase on last year. Our commitment to working with local communities remains firm, and this autumn we are giving hundreds of people opportunities to participate in opera and singing projects alongside Glyndebourne musicians and artists. It’s exciting to think that by the end of the year, around 3,000 young people will have seen a performance at Glyndebourne or participated in one of our creative projects in schools. Opera’s future has already begun.’
La traviata, Il turco in Italia and Christmas Concerts. Photos: Robert Workman, Bill Cooper & Richard Hubert Smith
Il turco in Italia will receive two Performances for Schools during the season. Since 2006, Glyndebourne’s Performances for Schools initiative has enabled more than 42,000 school pupils to experience the exhilaration of watching fully-staged opera in one of the world’s great opera houses. Tickets are heavily subsidised with additional grants, supported by Glyndebourne donors, to help schools cover the travel costs of a visit to the opera house.
In December, the opera house will also once again play host to the One Voice Festival of Singing. Run in partnership with Glyndebourne’s local music hub, Create Music, it gives hundreds of local schoolchildren the thrilling experience of singing on stage with the Glyndebourne Chorus and members of the orchestra in front of family and friends. Ahead of those events, singers from the Glyndebourne Chorus visit schools to rehearse with the young people, growing their skills and confidence ahead of the performances.
Prior to 2023, Glyndebourne took its opera on tour around England during the autumn months. Following a cut to its Arts Council England funding that left it unable to continue that work, Glyndebourne has refocused and expanded its Autumn season to ensure the company can keep delivering on its mission to enrich the lives of as many people as possible through opera.
Glyndebourne’s Autumn programme runs from 10 October – 15 December 2024 and public booking opens on 28 April. Members have priority booking for our Autumn performances – find out more.
