Just back from dress rehearsal of Prokofiev's 'Betrothal in a Monastery' at Glyndebourne. If it isn't the hottest ticket in the country by this time next week, I will eat every hat in Sussex.
Grab a ticket while you can, if you can. Bust every gut to get there. And if you know anybody in the highest echelons of the BBC or Channel 4, twist their arms until they send in the cameras.
Seriously, where has this thing been hiding all these decades? I don't know for certain, but this may be the first time it's been performed in this country. So what other treasure-troves stayed hidden behind the Iron Curtain?
I will write about it more fully once the show has opened.
9 comments:
It's a pretty cool opera except for the anti-Semitism - fine music and strong libretto. I saw it in SF in the 90s.
Sounds WONDERFUL, Jessica! (ps is it being done in English or in Russian?)
It is as Russian as can be, with about 70% of the cast being top-flight Russian singers!
As for the anti-Semitism, I think they have managed to get around the problem quite neatly. We can guess what the implications must have been, but the translations are relatively sensitive and Mendoza, who looks like Rasputin, a) half-crosses himself inside the monastery, b) lives happily ever after, c) got the biggest ovation at the end. Incidentally, the libretto is based on an English play - Sheridan's 'The Duenna' - and the partner with whom Prokofiev collaborated was his much-younger girlfriend Mira Mendelson.
.... but have you seen the ticket prices? Only £160 tickets left, with the train to Glyndebourne and a spot of dinner and a nice bottle of Champagne (as one would at Glyndebourne) not forgetting the hire of a tuxedo .... you might as well say "good bye" to nigh on ... £300.(That is 557.304 US$- a very hot price for a hot ticket)
HOW TO GET ROUND THE PROBLEMS RAISED ABOVE:
1. Cheaper seats/standing room do exist in Glyndebourne. Phone for returns the evening before or morning of the day you want to go. Keep holding on til you get through.
2. Spot of dinner? Bring a picnic. Nobody will mind if you eat sarnies from Sainsburys.
3. Champagne isn't obligatory. (But if you want bubbly at a lower price, may I suggest Lindauer Brut, which is pretty palatable).
4. Hire a dinner suit? Ask around & borrow one.
5. Glyndebourne's ticket prices aren't unusual in the operatic world. I think you'll find comparable situations in many leading opera houses across western Europe & America.
And it helps if your hubby is in the LPO...ah fond memories!
Naturally. But which memories, Keith? Enlighten us?
Sorry Jessica, I didn't have time to expand...was just getting on a plane. I suppose you made me feel nostalgic about the early 80s Glyndebourne when I was in the LPO, just after college. I remember an enjoyable Rosenkavalier and Ariadne with Rattle and a Fidelio with Haitink and Janet Baker's farewell Orfeo, but not really much else. Glyndebourne used not to book star quality singers as a rule but booked young singers at bargain price when they were unknown. I have a 1964 programme when a young tenor called Luciano Pavarotti sang. Maybe things have changed since then. The last time I went as a listener was about ten years ago to hear a fine Jenufa. As a player I remember during those long tedious intervals watching all those hideous punters who were so drunk they thought they were at Ascot. My favorite overheard one-liner from one audient was: "Oh, I hear the Polo is orrrf in Jerusalem this year". Nuff said...
Marvellous! I don't usually get to do much punter-watching as I go to the dress rehearsals. But over the years I have caught the occasional 'real' performance & I'm particularly fascinated by the difference in dress sense in the audiences for different operas. Italian works always attract the best fashion; Mozart (and Beethoven) usually the worst, though I haven't yet ventured into anything by Handel.
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