LA TRAVIATA (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)*****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcIwYTkaB0M

Available until: Sunday 29^th August 2021, 5pm

Glyndebourne Festival Opera is going ahead this year which is brilliant but they are still very kindly putting some of their previous productions on their YouTube channel for us to enjoy. Or get very sad about in this case.

La traviata is one of the best-known operas with really gorgeous, emotional music and a story which is easy to follow and which actually makes sense most of the time. (There are subtitles if you don’t speak Italian.) It is based on Alexandre Dumas fils’ novel La Dame aux Camélias. The opera is set in the past world of courtesans and consumption but I think it is very relatable to the present day. A lot of people know what it’s like to be separated from someone you love and I think the whole world knows how cruel illness can be.

LA CLEMENZA DI TITO (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nH4CpSLsDc&t=1s

Available until: Saturday 18^th July 2021

Glyndebourne have been very generous with their free offerings during lockdown and their latest is their 2017 production of La clemenza di Tito.

La clemenza di Tito is generally not considered to be ‘up there’ with some of Mozart’s better-known operas, but I think it has an absolutely beautiful score and perhaps even my favourite Mozart finale. It doesn’t have the sense of fun of Le nozze di Figaro, the raw sex of parts of Don Giovanni or the magic of Die Zauberflöte, but perhaps this is the one with the potential to play the biggest amount of havoc with your emotions. It shows what love can drive you to, whether that’s love for a person, power or a friend.

LA CENERENTOLA (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1rBwnDN7m8

Available until: Monday 4^th January 12pm

La Cenerentola is Glyndebourne’s free Christmas offering on youtube and as it shares its story with one of the most famous pantomimes (Cinderella), I’m not sure there’s a better choice.

When I first started listening to opera (mainly because I couldn’t stuff my fingers far enough into my ears to block it out), I found the unfamiliar music and the foreign languages confusing. But once I did finally decide it actually didn’t sound that bad (especially not when my very talented sisters sang it) and decided to give it a proper go, it definitely helped to find out the story beforehand.

RUSALKA (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)****

By Dave

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyrGRoa7FuI&feature=emb_logo

Available until: Friday 4^th December, 6pm

I possibly shouldn’t be posting this as the opera is Unlisted on youtube and I only found out because I’m subscribed to the ATG Tickets emails and one contained this link. So if anyone wants this taken down, we’re very happy to do that but in the meantime it seems a shame that only ATG tickets supporters can see it. It’s not like we actually pay ATG Tickets anything. Not unless we attend their shows.

But anyway, this is a video of Glyndebourne’s production of Antonín Dvořák’s opera Rusalka which I think is from 2019.