Glyndebourne's 2013 Season in full (with casts)

Ariadne auf Naxos
Strauss


A new production for the 2013 Festival
Sung in German with English supertitles

Conductor .................................Vladimir Jurowski
Director.....................................Katharina Thoma
Set Designer..............................Julia Müer
Costume Designer......................Irina Bartels
Lighting Designer .......................Olaf Winter
Movement Director ................... Lucy Burge

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Music Master............................Thomas Allen
Ariadne.....................................Soile Isokoski
Composer..................................Kate Lindsey
Zerbinetta.................................Teodora Gheorghiu
Harlequin..................................Dmitry Vargin
Scaramuccio..............................James Kryshak
Truffaldino................................Torben Jürgens
Brighella ...................................Andrew Stenson
Bacchus ....................................Sergey Skorokhodov
Dancing Master........................Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
                                                 Guy de Mey (June 13, 20 & 23)
Naiad........................................Ana Maria Labin
Dryad........................................Elodie Méchain
Echo .........................................Gabriela Iştoc


Falstaff
Verdi


A revival of the 2009 Festival production.
Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Conductor .................................Mark Elder
Director.....................................Richard Jones
Revival Director ........................Sarah Fahie
Designer....................................Ultz
Lighting Designer ......................Mimi Jordan Sherin

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The Glyndebourne Chorus

cast
Falstaff ..................................... Laurent Naouri
Alice Ford .................................Ailyn Perez
Ford..........................................Roman Burdenko
Meg Page .................................Lucia Cirillo
Mistress Quickly .......................Susanne Resmark
Nannetta ...................................Elena Tsallagova
Fenton.......................................Antonio Poli
Dr Cajus....................................Graham Clark
Bardolfo ....................................Colin Judson
Pistola .......................................Paolo Battaglia



Le Nozze di Figaro
Mozart


A revival of the 2012 Festival production
Co-production with Houston Grand Opera
and the Metropolitan Opera
Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Conductor................................... Jérémie Rohrer
Director....................................... Michael Grandage
Revival Director........................... Ian Rutherford
Designer...................................... Christopher Oram
Lighting Designer .........................Paule Constable
Movement Director .....................Ben Wright

London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Chorus

cast includes
Figaro.......................................... Adam Plachetka
Susanna....................................... Laura Tatulescu
Countess..................................... Amanda Majeski
Count.......................................... Joshua Hopkins
Bartolo........................................ Luciano Di Pasquale
Marcellina .................................. Anne Mason
Cherubino................................... Lydia Teuscher
Don Basilio ................................. Timothy Robinson
Antonio....................................... Nicholas Folwell
Don Curzio.................................. Alasdair Elliott



Hippolyte et Aricie
Rameau


A new production for the 2013 Festival
Sung in French with English supertitles

Conductor................................... William Christie
Director....................................... Jonathan Kent
Designer...................................... Paul Brown
Lighting Designer....................... Mark Henderson
Choreographer............................ Ashley Page

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The Glyndebourne Chorus

cast includes
Hippolyte..................................... Ed Lyon
Aricie .......................................... Christiane Karg
Phèdre......................................... Sarah Connolly
Thésée......................................... Stéphane Degout
Pluton/Jupiter/Neptune.................. François Lis
Diane .......................................... Stéphanie D’Oustrac
Œnone......................................... Julie Pasturaud
Mercure....................................... Samuel Boden
Arcas/Parque 2 ........................... Aimery Lefèvre
Tisiphone...................................... Loïc Felix
L’ Amour/Une Matelote................Ana Quintans
Grande-Prêtresse/Chasseresse......Emmanuelle de Negri
Suivant de L’Amour/Parque 1.......Mathias Vidal
Parque 3 ......................................Callum Thorpe


Don Pasquale
Donizetti


A revival of the 2011 Tour production
Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Conductor................................... Enrique Mazzola
Director....................................... Mariame Clément
Designer...................................... Julia Hansen
Lighting Designer....................... Bernd Purkrabek

London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Chorus

cast includes
Don Pasquale.............................. Alessandro Corbelli
Malatesta ................................... Nikolay Borchev
Ernesto........................................ Alek Shrader
Norina......................................... Danielle de Niese


Billy Budd
Britten


A revival of the 2010 Festival production
Sung in English with English supertitles

Conductor................................... Andrew Davis
Director....................................... Michael Grandage
Designer...................................... Christopher Oram
Lighting Designer......................... Paule Constable

London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Chorus

cast includes
Captain Vere............................... Mark Padmore
Billy Budd ................................... Jacques Imbrailo
Claggart...................................... Brindley Sherratt
Mr Redburn................................. Stephen Gadd
Mr Flint....................................... David Soar
Lieutenant Ratcliffe....................... Christian Van Horn
Red Whiskers.............................. Alasdair Elliott
Donald ........................................ John Moore
Dansker....................................... Jeremy White
The Novice.................................. Peter Gijsbertsen
Squeak ........................................ Colin Judson
Bosun.......................................... Richard Mosley-Evans
Maintop....................................... Dean Power
The Novice’s Friend ................... Duncan Rock






Finally, Glyndebourne return to Strauss after a significant gap, with Ariadne auf Naxos. More lyric voices are always my preference in Strauss, and Ariadne might well be ideal for Isokoski who is not much of a stage animal, but does still possess one of the most glorious Strauss sopranos of the moment. It's not the biggest voice, so Glyndebourne really is the perfect place for her to sing this role. Sergei Skorokhodov I saw at the recent LPO concert and he also does not have the largest voice, but it seems very well produced and ultra steady so it will be interesting to see his Bacchus, famously one of the hardest and least grateful in the tenor repertory. Thomas Allen is always good news, and it'll be interesting to hear the intriguingly named Teodora Gheorghiu - a relation to the more famous one? She sounds great here and here, so I'm quite excited about the musical values of this production. Vladimir Jurowski in the pit too in his final season as artistic director of Glyndebourne - couldn't be bettered as a choice in my opinion (Thielemann or Eschenbach would equal).

Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie is a beauty, astonishingly the composer's first opera. I have to say that it's not my favourite Rameau opera, as it's not quite as harmonically adventurous or ingenious orchestration wise as the later operas, but there are enough moments of searing beauty to call it a Great opera. There's that classic recording with Baker as Phedre but I like the one with William Christie even more - so I'm very pleased that he's been chosen to conduct this time. He had the incomparable Lorraine Hunt as Phedre (hear her here and here), but Glyndebourne have cast Sarah Connolly, who I'm sure will also be magnificent.

Glyndebourne's Don Pasquale is an excellent production, beautifully simple and a delight when it was introduced in the 2011 tour with a decent cast. I was completely surprised and delighted by Danielle de Niese's performance in L'Elisir d'Amor last summer at Glyndebourne, not just a natural actress and charming stage personality, but the voice has come on so much in the past two years or so. So I am very pleased to see that she has been cast as Norina.

I was not all that keen on this years Nozze di Figaro, so may not bother this time, unless one of the cast members starts enthusing me (I haven't heard of any, but will start researching all!).

Billy Budd I missed last time at Glyndebourne and everyone went gaga for it then, so I'm looking forward to that too. Same with Falstaff which didn't get such good reviews, but is such a lovely score that I wouldn't miss an opportunity to see it. Interesting that it's being done with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment too... unless that is a typo in the programme... Apparently the LPO are doing Figaro. Hmm.

Tour wise things look great too - new production Rape of Lucretia, L'Elisir d'Amor, and for me most excitingly a return of Laurent Pelly's wonderful Hansel and Gretel.