Alexander Chancellor

How the Germans made Glyndebourne

It may be quintessentially English but John Christie’s opera festival was the creation of Germanic immigrants

issue 21 November 2015

This is hardly the time of year for picnics on the lawn, but I have nevertheless had a week dominated by Glyndebourne. First I went to London to see David Hare’s play The Moderate Soprano, about the creation of the Glyndebourne opera festival by John Christie in 1934; and then to a Glyndebourne production in Milton Keynes of Mozart’s opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

John Christie was an extraordinary man. A rich country landowner, who served bravely in the first world war, he returned home to his house in Sussex to pursue his interest in music. He purchased a colossal organ, perhaps the biggest in England outside a cathedral. He put on little opera performances in the organ room. And then, at the age of 48, having reputedly been celibate until then, he married a Canadian opera singer called Audrey Mildmay, the ‘moderate soprano’ of the play’s title.

With her, and for her, he built a small, 300-seat theatre as an annexe to the organ room and opened an opera festival with The Marriage of Figaro.

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