Glyndebourne: Building a Vision

The Glyndebourne Opera Festival is one of the highlights of the musical year. Since its single-handed creation in the 1930s by John Christie, a determined music lover with the means and resolve to make his own country home and grounds the venue for a summer opera season of superior quality, Glyndebourne has been a landmark enterprise, setting a standard which is the envy of the world. Glyndebourne's spectacular success and the ever-increasing demand for tickets has long overburdened the opera house itself, built to adjoin the Christie family home and originally intended to provide an intimate, modest setting for performances. Christie's successor as director of the Festival, his son George, duly proposed a completely new opera house on the same site, one appropriate to an internationally famous festival. "Glyndebourne Anew" commemorates the fulfilment of that vision, after years of planning, fund-raising and construction. Colin Amery and Rosy Runciman present a history of the house, the Christie family and the festival they made possible, as well as an appreciation of the new opera house and what it means for the future. The illustrations range from historical material to up-to-the-minute photographs of work in progress, culminating in the final result.