Page 379 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

a small opera house built in the grounds to stage a short festival starring his wife, soprano
Audrey Mildmay. Ninety years on, Christie’s grandson, Gus, presides over a state-of-the-art
opera house and this year’s festival features his soprano wife, Danielle de Niese, in a new
production of The Merry Widow.

Given the fun he’s had staging Gilbert and Sullivan at English National Opera, Cal
McCrystal should have a ball directing Lehár’s frothy operetta – a perfect festival showpiece
with all that champagne flowing out on the picnic lawn. The role of Hanna Glawari should
suit the vivacious de Niese like a velvet glove. Performances will be sung in English,
conducted by John Wilson and will feature the veteran baritone and opera legend Sir
Thomas Allen as the Pontevedrian ambassador, Baron Zeta.

Picnicking at Glyndebourne
© Mark Pullinger
I can’t wait to see the other new production: Bizet’s Carmen, directed by Diane Paulus,
celebrated for her work on Broadway, although she has already made her UK opera debut
back in 2008 with Lost Highway for ENO. Unusually for Glyndebourne, they are putting on
two runs of the opera, one to open the festival in May, with mezzo Rihab Chaieb in the title
role, and a completely different cast in August, led by Aigul Akhmetshina, who has been in
demand as Carmen throughout the current season, with an exhausting eight productions
including new stagings at the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden. The production also
heads to the BBC Proms.