An evening in May at Glyndebourne

Every year since 1934 the Sussex country house of the Christie family has played host to an opera festival known the world over simply as Glyndebourne.

On any evening (from May to August) amongst the gentle Sussex hills near the old town of Lewes, people bearing rugs, collapsible chairs, picnic hampers and dressed in evening wear can be spotted. They are opera goers and are taking part in a uniquely British summer season ritual. The picnic is an integral part of the Glyndebourne experience, the consumption of which can be enjoyed during the ‘long interval’ – a performance break of up to 80 minutes.

The intimate setting of house and grounds, complete with grazing sheep, provides the backdrop to productions by composers including Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Stravinksy and Britten. The original theatre was replaced by a new opera house built in1994 with a capacity of over one thousand, and now luxuriates in the sounds produced by the celebrated Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, beloved of singers and musicians alike.

Cosi Fan Tutte is one of Mozart’s greatest works, but also one of his most perplexing. The music is sublime but it tells a story of jealousy, infidelity and cynical manipulation of emotion. The plot is simple enough: two men (Ferrando and Guglielmo) are persuaded by a friend (Don Alfonso) to test the love of their fiancees (Dorabella and Fiordiligi) by playing a trick on them. The men pretend they have been called to the war but disguise themselves in order to tempt each other’s girlfriend as an experiment in fidelity. Aided and abetted by the scheming housemaid Despina, the plan plays out with the two girls ‘falling for’ the two strangers and ends up with the four protagonists realising that they have played a game that has backfired and left them confused. The test has undermined their love, not strengthened it, and they will have to live with the consequences. The title of the opera has been debated ever since Mozart wrote the piece but it gives the general meaning as “they all do it”. It is a brilliant dissection of what men and women do to each other in the comedy and tragedy of life and love.

Hearing access at Glyndebourne is provided by a Sennhauser sound enhancement system which is available on request. It is an innovative, infra-red audio system which technician David Yapp describes as “ a two-channel or a stereo system. It can be run with an audio soundtrack of the show on one of the channels, and then the other channel can have an audio description of what’s happening on stage for blind or partially sighted audience members……... the receivers go under the neck. They’re very discreet, and there are no cables. There are no switches. You turn it on and it’s working “. Exactly as those at Glyndebourne would wish it.