Glyndebourne Reveals 2024 Season Lineup

As the 2023 Festival draws to a close, Glyndebourne has announced the programme for 2024, when the company marks its 90th anniversary year.

Stephen Langridge, artistic director of Glyndebourne, said: ‘Since 1934, Glyndebourne has built its success on a commitment to the highest artistic standards. By offering long and detailed rehearsal periods our artists can undertake highly focused ensemble work to create truly exceptional opera. Our unique working environment is a huge draw and, coupled with our keen eye for talent, has seen Glyndebourne play a key role in launching the careers of leading artists including Janet Baker, Thomas Allen, Felicity Lott, Jakub Hrůša, Edward Gardner, Robin Ticciati, Gerald Finley and Allan Clayton. Ninety years on, we continue to be guided by the same principles, as can be seen in our plans for next summer’s anniversary season.’ 

The 2024 Glyndebourne Festival will open with a deeply human new production of Bizet’s Carmen, directed by Diane Paulus, a giant of American theatre, making her Glyndebourne directorial debut. Featuring choreography by Jasmin Vardimon, the opera will have 21 performances taking place across the summer – 11 at the start of the season (opening 16 May), and a further 10 in August. 

The initial performance run will be conducted by Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati with German conductor Anja Bihlmaier taking over in August, making her Glyndebourne debut. Casting for the first performance run sees mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb in the role of Carmen and tenor Dmytro Popov as Don José. In August, those roles will be performed by Aigul Akhmetshina and Evan LeRoy Johnson.

The second new production of the season will be Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow, a work that has never been fully staged at Glyndebourne before. Presented in a new English-language version by Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy, it will be directed by the award-winning comedy director Cal McCrystal and conducted by John Wilson. Among the cast is Danielle De Niese as Hanna Glawari, Germán Olvera as Count Danilo, Thomas Allen as Baron Mirko Zeta and Soraya Mafi as Valencienne.

The 2024 season also features revivals of three popular Glyndebourne productions, including David McVicar’s groundbreaking staging of Handel’s most popular opera, Giulio Cesare. Premiered in 2005, the production was an immediate hit, winning praise for its witty fusion of imperial history, Bollywood and political psychodrama. Laurence Cummings will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a cast that includes countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen in the title role and soprano Louise Alder as Cleopatra. 

Also returning to the Festival is Barbe & Doucet’s playful reimagining of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Premiered in 2019, the dazzling production features hand-drawn illustrations and elaborate puppetry that showcases the extraordinary levels of craftsmanship at Glyndebourne. The revival will be conducted by Constantin Trinks leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a cast that includes tenor Paul Appleby as Tamino, soprano Lauren Snouffer as Pamina, soprano Aleksandra Olczyk as Queen of the Night and baritone Rodion Pogossov as Papageno.

Completing the Festival lineup is a revival of Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s 2003 production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. In its first full theatrical staging at Glyndebourne since 2009, the opera will be conducted by Robin Ticciati and features some of the world’s leading Wagnerian singers, including tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä in the title roles and bass baritone Shenyang as Kurwenal.

Away from the stage, visitors to the Festival can enjoy an exhibition of new work by leading British artist Conrad Shawcross RA. The works will be on view across Glyndebourne's gardens and gallery spaces, featuring large-scale sculptures in a never before seen field array, small-scale sculptures and drawings that explore the connections between materiality, maths and music.

Before all that, 2023 at Glyndebourne continues with an autumn season that includes revivals of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore along with concert performances of Haydn’s The Creation and Handel’s Messiah before a series of Christmas Concerts in December. 

Glyndebourne’s autumn season offers exceptional opera at affordable prices and provides vital talent development opportunities for singers, conductors and musicians. Alongside main stage performances, Glyndebourne will be taking opera into the community with hundreds of school children taking part in singing workshops in schools, music recitals in local care homes, family-friendly open days and a chance for audiences to sing with the Glyndebourne Chorus in a participatory Messiah masterclass.

Glyndebourne Festival 2024 repertoire

New productions

Georges Bizet – Carmen
Twenty-one performances split across two performance runs with 11 performances between 16 May – 17 June 2024 and 10 performances between 1 – 24 August 2024

• A new production for the 2024 Festival directed by Diane Paulus 
• Robin Ticciati conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the first 11 performances with German conductor Anja Bihlmaier leading the August performances
• Casting for the first performance run features Rihab Chaieb as Carmen and Dmytro Popov as Don José. For the August performances those roles will be performed by Aigul Akhmetshina and Evan LeRoy Johnson.

Franz Lehár – The Merry Widow
Seventeen performances between 9 June – 28 July 2024

• A new production for the 2024 Festival directed by Cal McCrystal 
• John Wilson conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra 
• Danielle De Niese stars as Hanna Glawari alongside Germán Olvera as Count Danilo, Thomas Allen as Baron Mirko Zeta and Soraya Mafi as Valencienne

Revivals

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Die Zauberflöte
Sixteen performances between 18 May – 21 July 2024

• A revival of Barbe & Doucet’s Glyndebourne Festival 2019 production
• Constantin Trinks conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
• Cast includes Paul Appleby as Tamino, Lauren Snouffer as Pamina, Aleksandra Olczyk as Queen of the Night and Rodion Pogossov as Papageno

George Frideric Handel – Giulio Cesare
Fourteen performances between 23 June – 23 August 2024

• A revival of David McVicar’s 2005 Festival production 
• Laurence Cummings conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
• Cast includes Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen in the title role and Louise Alder as Cleopatra

Richard Wagner – Tristan und Isolde 
Seven performances between 2 – 25 August 2024

• A revival of Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s Glyndebourne Festival 2003 production
• Robin Ticciati conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Cast includes tenor Stuart Skelton as Tristan, soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä as Isolde and bass baritone Shenyang as Kurwenal

Glyndebourne Festival 2024 will run from 16 May – 25 August 2024. 

Photo Credit: Leigh Simpson

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