Introducing... The Christmas Concert

When Glyndebourne Tour wraps up, the festive spirit begins here at Glyndebourne. The gardens are striking with tulip and maple trees near the opera house stunning us with their golden colour. Many of the shrubs and trees are still covered in berries, a final feast for birds before we descend deeper into winter. Treat your loved one to a Glyndebourne Shop gift – from a wreath inspired by our gardens to a hand painted bauble to hang in pride of place on the Christmas tree. Enjoy all of this at our final event to top off this fabulous year; the Glyndebourne Christmas Concert.

Glyndebourne’s first ever Christmas concert brings great operatic overtures, choruses and extracts together with classic carols and Christmas music for an evening of festive musical celebration.

The first half takes a whistle-stop tour through 100 years of operatic history in music by Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Offenbach as well – in a Glyndebourne first – as England’s own Gilbert & Sullivan. Enjoy musical highlights from forthcoming Glyndebourne show Die Zauberflöte as well as Nabucco, Die Fledermaus, Les contes d’Hoffmann and The Pirates of Penzance.

The second half is full of seasonal favourites. The audience will have a chance to join in with familiar carols including O little Town of Bethlehem and O Come All Ye Faithful, while the Glyndebourne Chorus and Youth Chorus will perform a broad range of works from medieval carols and renaissance polyphony to music by Berlioz and John Rutter.

Stepping into the spotlight for this concert, the Glyndebourne Chorus take centre-stage, showcasing their skill in everything from thrilling, large-scale opera choruses to intimate, unaccompanied carols. They will be joined by the Glyndebourne Tour Orchestra as well as the talented musicians of Glyndebourne’s Youth Chorus. The concert will be conducted by Jack Ridley.

In 2019 The Glyndebourne Festival debuts its first new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in over 15 years. You can get a sneak preview of things to come here, as the orchestra performs the vivacious Overture, which may or may not be filled with secret Masonic musical symbolism. You can also hear the stirring chorus ‘O Isis und Osiris’ performed by the men of the Glyndebourne Chorus – an exquisite musical representation of Enlightenment order and balance.

Also looking ahead to 2019 is Berlioz’s enchanting ‘The Shepherd’s Farewell’ from his oratorio L’Enfance du Christ. The intimate delicacy of this little carol may be worlds away from the widescreen musical epic of La damnation de Faust, but gives some sense of the composer’s instinct for drama and musical colour.