Glyndebourne 2017 Festival

[Bax-of-Delights]

Open booking for Glyndebourne 2017 begins 6p.m. tomorrow (Sunday).

Less enthusiastic about the offerings this year. The Strauss "Ariadne" production received very mixed reviews on its first outing. The Donizetti "Don Pasquale" is bright and breezy and a fairly safe bet but the Cavalli? Anyone have opinions on that and the Brett Dean "Hamlet"? I've not heard any of Dean's music so am open minded.
Feedback appreciated.

[Nick Armstrong]

The Strauss "Ariadne" production received very mixed reviews on its first outing.

I was unconvinced by the "Foyle's War" RAF hospital setting....

Ditto by Soile Isokowski as Ariadne. Haven't heard of any of the lead women in the new production.

In any event, I shan't be troubling the box office this year.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Joyce El-Khoury was an absolute delight as Violetta in the recent ROH revival of Traviata**. I'm not sure a stellar career is assured but she acted well and sang even better and is definitely one to watch. As La Trav is Mrs CS' favourite opera, we are tempted to make the trek down for her August appearances at Glyndebourne.

**I'd got the (cheap) tickets with a view to passing on to my daughter. But that didn't happen and we were delighted to experience a memorable evening at Covent Garden(Alfredo and Germont were strong performances as well) instead of the anticipated run of the mill revival scheduled (entirely understandably) to bring the paying audience in....

[Prommer]

Very dull season. First in years where I have not asked for any tickets.

[Dave2002]

Waiting Room

Waiting Room.

I really hate these blankety blank on-line booking opening days. Why (deleted) can't they at least do something like the Prom Planner, which I heard worked quite well last year.

[Cockney Sparrow]

16 minutes after start time and I'm being asked to return at 6pm. Wins my award for most frustrating booking experience - previously held by the Royal Albert Hall.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Well, I logged in on the dot of 6.pm having been told by Glyndebourne that one couldn't log in before and hey presto I was still 706th in the queue. At 6.34 I am now 314th...

[Dave2002]

When you get to the front you may find that seat reservation doesn't work properly. Things might not go into your basket. Things you thought weren't in may appear later, so you need to double check when you checkout.

I'm currently 1275 in the queue on one machine, my iPad was about 600 further on - round 650, but then "crashed", while on another machine we've just about completed an order.

If we want our friends to come as well I think we'll have to go back for returns in a while, or perhpas wait until my laptop gets me into the queue to pick up a couple more Mozart tickets - though I doubt at a price they'll want to pay.

In fact we've done OK with returns in previous years.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Hello Dave2002,

Just got through the system for 4 x Don Pasquale although being 706 at the start. Just checking through the others on offer it looks as if La Traviata is the one in demand. Few takers for Cavalli on the nights I checked.

Yes, in previous years I've always picked up returns quite easily - including Die Meistersinger.

[Colonel Danby]

Quite agree with you Bax of Delights, not the most compelling season at Gyndebourne for many years, and I bet you that they will bring 'Ariadne' to the Proms , so I shall save on all the hassel of getting into my glad drags and beetling down to the southcoast, when I can easily turn up in my tee-shirt and jeans and watch it for 6 pounds in the Royal Albert Hall. I do love Glyndebourne an awful lot, and have been a few times, clutching my picnic hamper and spreading my belongings on the lawn beforehand (and remember, it is Gus Christie's back garden after all, so there are no bins) but I will probably give it a miss this year.

As for Brett Dean, I know him from Berlin where he has been an orchestral player in the Philharmonie, where Rattle thinks highly of him, and he has quite a lot of stuff played there. But I feel that Dean is just a little overreaching himself in 'Hamlet' as Tom Ades did in his Covent Garden world premiere production of 'The Tempest'. Calm down boys...

Open booking for Glyndebourne 2017 begins 6p.m. tomorrow (Sunday).

Less enthusiastic about the offerings this year. The Strauss "Ariadne" production received very mixed reviews on its first outing. The Donizetti "Don Pasquale" is bright and breezy and a fairly safe bet but the Cavalli? Anyone have opinions on that and the Brett Dean "Hamlet"? I've not heard any of Dean's music so am open minded.
Feedback appreciated.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Thank you for your response Colonel. It would appear from checking the Glyndebourne site today that many others have taken a rain check on the Festival this year with all productions available to book - some with an embarrassing number of seats available still. The Cavalli and Dean would appear to be the least popular and although I applaud Glyndebourne's wide-ranging repertoire and bringing to stage forgotten or new operas I feel that this year may see a dip in the good company's 95+% attendance.
Maybe - and I hope - I will be proved wrong but being local to Lewes I can up sticks and don the DJ fairly readily if I am interested in seeing a production and there are returns (and sufficient funds in the wallet!). I am not sure I would be bothered to make the effort this year apart from the Donizetti which is good fun and we are taking some first-timers along.