The Glyndebourne Tour returns this autumn with a new production of Puccini’s La bohème (The Bohemians, 1896), a revival of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and a concert performance of the same composer’s Requiem (1791).
The tour runs 8 October to 11 December, with all productions playing at Glyndebourne itself, before touring to venues in Canterbury, Norwich, Milton Keynes and Liverpool.
Floris Visser’s new production of La bohème transfers directly from this year’s Glyndebourne Festival with a new cast.
Seamstress Mimì meets the struggling writer Rodolfo and they are instantly drawn together. But while Paris is a magical city of love, it’s also a place of hardship, as the two poverty-stricken young bohemians and their friends soon discover, when jealousy, poverty and sickness tear them apart.
Also transferring from the festival is a revival of Michael Grandage’s 2012 production of The Marriage of Figaro. When a womanising aristocrat tries to seduce his valet’s pretty young fiancée, his wife and servants conspire to teach him a lesson in fidelity he’ll never forget.
Plots are hatched, promises made (and broken) and disguises donned, as Mozart’s ‘mad day’ unfolds. This critically acclaimed version updates the action to the dying days of Spain’s Franco regime.
Both these productions open at Glyndebourne in October, before touring the UK throughout November.
Putting the Glyndebourne Chorus in the spotlight is Mozart’s Requiem. The piece will be performed in a special concert of instrumental and vocal works pairing the composer’s choral masterpiece with music by his contemporary and rival Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The French composer was a celebrated swordsman, virtuoso violinist and the first star classical composer of African ancestry.
The concert opens at Milton Keynes Theatre, Buckinghamshire, and then goes on tour through November. It finally heads to Glyndebourne for two performances in December.
Alongside each of these productions will be a matinee performance of a new work on the theme of loneliness by composer Samantha Fernando and librettist Melanie Wilson. glass human is a newly commissioned chamber opera rooted in three contemporary experiences of loneliness: a young woman finding her identity, a refugee searching for stability and an older man living with grief and cognitive decline.
Starring just three soloists and members of the tour orchestra, three isolated voices find their way towards each other, charting a journey from emotional and social fragmentation to connection and meaning. The work explores the forces that separate us from each other and the threads we follow to join back together again.
With performances scheduled so audiences can see the 45-minute opera before the main production, the premiere will take place in the intimate setting of Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Studio in October. It then heads to each of the tour locations in November.
Also new for 2022 is an exciting programme of community and audience engagement activity to accompany the tour performances at each venue.
Describing his vision for the newly invigorated tour model, Glyndebourne’s artistic director Stephen Langridge commented: “The Glyndebourne Tour, now in its 54th year, remains at the centre of our mission to enrich as many people’s lives as possible through opera, but our approach is evolving.
“Now, as well as taking our world-class opera productions on the road, we are showing smaller-scale new work, our orchestral players are performing in care homes, we are working with university students, and our chorus is singing with hundreds of children around the country.
“Our tour is developing into a series of creative residencies, collaborating with our partners and establishing deeper connections with communities around our touring venues.”
Finally, rounding off its 2022 calendar, the Glyndebourne Tour returns home to Sussex for its popular Christmas concerts in December. Showcasing the talents of the Glyndebourne Chorus and Tour Orchestra, the festive programme will combine operatic highlights with yuletide classics and carols.
“It’s a dynamic musical offering which we hope will open up the world of opera to new audiences, while allowing established opera buffs to relish new talent and fresh thinking,” Langridge added. “Above all, we want to create a festival atmosphere wherever we go.”
Further information, including dates, times and venues, is available on Glyndebourne’s website. Public booking opens on 15 May.
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A revival of Michael Grandage’s 2012 production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro is one of two operas forming this year’s Glyndebourne Tour (Alastair Muir).