Offers more than opera. Weve got beautiful grounds and gardens and lakes, a wonderful visual art gallery and then a wonderful opera. Glyndebourne may be a historic venue, but it is also trying to make Opera Fit For The Future by being a pioneer in sustainability. We were the first Arts Organisation to put up a wind turbine. Were running on wind. Glyndebourne, as an icon in operatic sustainability, has really got a very strong place. And glyndebourne is embracing a drive towards greater diversity. Its about making sure that Diverse Communities have access to opera. If we keep opening the door, more people will come into it. But does innovation, sustainability and diversity matter, or do audiences really only care about great Opera Performances . Let me take you to the opera. Glyndebourne in sussex, about 150 kilometres south of london, is a popular destination for thousands of opera lovers every year. They sing operatically. As well as opera, audiences can take a stroll, have a picnic in the beautiful grounds, they can visit a magnificent stately home and admire Contemporary Art at the sites gallery, which this season features the Award Winning artist lubaina himid, with six of her paintings inspired by opera. Glyndebourne Summer Festival is a highlight of the opera calendar. The quality of the music isjust phenomenal. I love the setting and the fact that you can sit out here and sort of dress up and drink champagne. A day of coming together and enjoying not only world class opera, but alsojust being in this lovely setting in the countryside. For nearly a century, glyndebourne has been proving how opera can be enjoyed in a rural setting away from grand theatres in city centres. A lot of people find crossing the threshold of an opera house quite difficult because it does seem rather daunting. So to have opera in these amazing different spaces gives you a lot more flexibility as to how you engage and experience with things. Glyndebourne grew out of a family passion. The first Summer Festival In 193a was the brainchild of Local Landownerjohn Christie and his wife audrey mildmay, the english Born Canadian soprano. The Family Tradition was continued by their son, george, and now their grandson, gus, who runs glyndebourne, lives on the grounds with his wife, the celebrated Australian American soprano danielle de niese. My dad turned it from being a sort of a Country House homespun festival into a world Renowned International festival. He knocked down the theatre that his dad had built and he rebuilt the current theatre, which is a 1,200 seater, in the early 90s. And do you have any plans for its evolution . Well, you have to have an eye for tradition on the past, but you have to keep relevant. Its about putting on fantastic world class, transformative operas. Its about nurturing young talent. That is the same, but if you want to attract the next generation of audiences in, you cannot keep performing in the same way with traditional sets and costumes. We update shows, we challenge and provoke. So, were trying to kind of keep pace with the changing world, but maintaining our traditions. The Second World War put a temporary stop to performances, and the house itself played a part in the war effort. Glyndebourne opened its doors to Evacuee Children. So, we had over 300 Evacuee Children staying with us. As archivists here, you get to see all sorts of historical pictures. I mean, does that give you a bit of a buzz . It really does. Weve got incredible photos of audience members. The amazing thing about glyndebourne is you look at these photos and not much has changed. I think art, opera, nature has always been like a core trinity for glyndebourne. And what about singers whove performed here . I suppose the biggest singer is pavarotti himself, who performed here in idomeneo. Sings operatically. One notable glyndebourne performer is danielle de niese. Sweeping strings. Sings operatically. Dani de niese is a phenomenal talent, as we all know. She brings this incredible stage personality, which is full of fizz and charisma, and she brings a wonderful voice, of course, shes a Great Communicator on stage and she acts really well. And its that combination that people really love when they see her on stage. Danielle was born in australia to sri lankan parents of partial european descent. At the age of nine, she was the youngest winner of a National Tv Talent competition. When you look at my career, because i started so young, it looks like everything happened quite fast. But given that i already knew from eight i wanted to be an opera singer and i was doing piano and theory from seven and Voice Lessons from eight, in some way, i was, like, being steadily prepared for being able to accomplish my dreams already, just kind of ahead of everybody else. The family moved to los angeles in america when she was about ten and she started singing professionally as a teenager. I was very fortunate that my parents made lots of sacrifices over the years to be able to get me the best training that would allow me to fulfill this dream. Rapid strings play. I can talk about performing at glyndebourne in a non biased way because i was here for two whole seasons before gus and i became a couple, so. Its a beautifully seamless transition between the Rehearsal Room and the stage because the theatre has such an incredible acoustic. We are set in this incredibly idyllic Countryside Setting and you are just breathing in so much inspiration. It puts you in a different mindset, i think. Performers are getting ready for this years Summer Festival at glyndebourne and ive been invited to rehearsals for a much loved and well known classic that is very suited to this venue. Percussive music plays. The summer 2023 festival features a midsummer nights dream by the british composer benjamin britten. It was first performed here at glyndebourne in 1981, and theres a strong theme of nature in the production. This bewitching opera is a dark interpretation of shakespeares comic play, in which four athenian lovers are lost in an Enchanted Forest ruled by malicious fairies. Piano chords play. Hail, mortal this is one of the trees that our tree actors will stand in. They have a black catsuit thats covered in vines, and they have these amazing tree boots, which are very heavy. Very heavy. And they slide very slowly across the floor. Singing the role of titania, queen of the fairies, is the american soprano, leave redpath. Its her first time performing at glyndebourne. Im a little bit nervous, but only out of respect for how great this place is. I feel lucky to have titania be my debut here. Its such a perfect role in terms of personality and diversity of kind of the character itself. One of the most loved roles in a midsummer nights dream is titanias love interest, the comic character bottom, whose head is transformed into that of a donkey. This year, its being performed by American Bass Baritone brandon seidel. The first time you put on the donkey head, its a little, its hot first and foremost, and its a little overwhelming. But then theres plenty of time to adjust. Rehearsing is a joy and its so exciting to kind of bear witness to what everyone does here. And something that glyndebourne does that i think is fantastic is that every part of the house operates on the highest level. So you feel the energy that the costume designers and the set designers and the Wig Department and makeup department, Everyone Wants to do their best. Executive chairman gus christie and his team at glyndebourne want to deliver the best. But to do so with an eye to the environment. They believe they are trailblazers for sustainability in the opera world. At the turn of the century, really, it became apparent to me we were facing a problem with Climate Change and global warming. Were fortunate that we have a hill nearby us where we could put a turbine and theres a cable that runs down to our Energy Centre and it powers the whole place. Were running on wind. This year we saved ourselves £1,000,000 in electricity bills. Do you absolutely power glyndebourne totally with that . Totally. With one wind turbine. Even your home on the grounds . Even my home on the grounds, yeah. The wind turbine was really the catalyst of setting us off down the Sustainability Route and it went up in 2012. And since then we have created an environmental Champions Group around the company. So everyone is invested into how to reduce our carbon emissions. We are zero waste to landfill now. So any, any waste we have goes down to this local incinerator which provides power for local homes. We compost all our garden waste. We recycle as much of our stage set material, costumes, props. We have about 32 electric vehicle charging points, which are all charged from the wind turbine. Just down this little route here, which is rather spectacular, we have put in a wild beehive. Glyndebourne is also making costumes in a more environmentally friendly way by using dye from plants grown in their gardens. We have leaves, we have roots, we have flowers, weve got pine bark here. We soak them, we boil them, and we use a mordant to fix it into the fabric. And then you get this selection of colours. Yeah, weve got a lovely selection and we can use them quite often in choruses in opera. Were trying this season especially to really bring it into every production. Id like to reach for these before i reach for a chemical product. Itsjust better for the environment. The rivers around the world are polluted by dyes a lot. This way everything goes back into the ground. 0ur Carbon Footprint is much smaller because people are bringing it straight from the gardens to us here. I think its very important that that we have this Sustainability Drive for the next generation of opera goers. Opera is a 400 year old art form, and we cant sit on our laurels and hope that people will come. So how does glyndebournes environmental record measure up in the Performing Arts . Alison tickell runs a london based charity working on Climate Action across the culture sector. It is a hard industry because it is associated with lavish productions, with really big opera houses and with an audience that has expectations of very high production values. So the challenges are quite big in opera. It was a slow starter, but were now seeing some really fantastic action. I think glyndebournes reputation in terms of being innovative, in terms of sustainable practice is warranted because it has done a huge range of practical on site issues, to the point where it can genuinely say that environmental sustainability and action on the Climate Crisis is a core value. But i think it also has that Fantastic Totemic wind turbine, which is this beacon of both beauty and also hope. And i know that many opera companies, many cultural organisations dont have the luxury of the space, but it still remains a beacon for us all and has done for well over a decade now, that Climate Action really matters. I would love to think that audiences really care about the Climate Crisis. I suspect that, just like in most other areas, theres a generational difference. Young people really mind because its their futures, its their world. As well as sustainability, glyndebourne is committed to widening the operatic talent pool. Danielle de niese is patron of Pegasus Opera Company in london, which provides opportunities for diverse artists. They make great efforts to open up their Casting Process to a wide range of great artists who happen to be of colour or any kind of mixed race background. Glyndebourne runs an annual Mentorship Programme with pegasus. The Artistic Director of pegasus is soprano alison buchanan, the only black woman to hold such a post at an Opera Company in the uk. The glyndebourne Pegasus Mentorship Scheme is a wonderful thing because Pegasus 0pera advocates for and represents singers of colour who dont get opportunities in this opera industry. I find that a lot of these Young Artists and even more seasoned artists who are not getting the opportunities to hone their craft need a way to do that. Its getting better, but its still challenging. Were opening up our minds as a society to the idea of there being barriers to people because of their ethnicity or their background or their upbringing. I carry that with great pride, obviously, that im sitting here today, being a diverse person. We need to stretch our reach a lot further. Its very, very important that we expose our young talent to the best that the business has to offer. Its a really Bespoke Programme of coaching opportunities, Mentoring Opportunities and access to a wide variety of highly skilled professionals that will only add to the young skillsets of these artists. These two young singers performing with pegasus have applied for a place on the Mentorship Programme with glyndebourne and are eagerly awaiting to find out if theyve been successful. Itd be great to get a position on the programme because it would be a brilliant opportunity to work with so many different people in the industry and to learn and work on my own craft as well. I think i would just go there and just learn as much as i can and i think it would be very beneficial for my career. Its performance evening for a midsummer nights dream, and the audience are starting to arrive to enjoy the full glyndebourne experience. Amongst them are carlos and jasmine, who are among four lucky singers chosen for the glyndebourne Mentorship Programme. Hello. Afternoon. Its very nice to meet you. Im danielle. Imjasmine. Hi, jasmine. Lovely to meet you. Welcome to glyndebourne. What has it meant to you to be involved in a programme like this . It has been amazing to be part of how everything works and getting to know everyone. Its like an Honour Tojust see how much work goes into all of it and really exciting to know i can be a part of that someday. I think its so important that young singers like you guys have access to that, that you can like raise your skillsets and become even better artists. Shall we head over to the theatre . Yes. Come with me. Orchestra tunes up. Ive been so mesmerized by the costumes, the set, the lighting, the singing. Has it made you both more excited about getting on a stage like here at glyndebourne . Definitely. Im sat there just, like, mentally taking notes. Right, this is the next thing i need to learn. Ive always looked up to glyndebourne as one of the worlds leading opera houses and festivals, and itsjust amazing that i can be part of what happens here. Cheering and applause. My time here at glyndebourne has really made me see how opera can be so much more than wonderful music, singing and staging. It can be a whole experience to enjoy the english countryside, gourmet food and great art and all in a historic venue that offers solutions to the challenges of the 21st century, such as diversity and sustainability. And i really hope that audiences here appreciate that opera can both entertain and be a positive force for good. Is set to turn very windy as we head into the weekend, we have a deep weather moving up in the south. This is been named Storm Kathleen. The biggest impact in the northern ireland. North and western parts of uk could see disruption, guilt is severe gale force winds. Showing up very clearly on the pressure chart, moving to the west of ireland northwards, bringing isobars and strong winds in the country. We start off with while they are in place, but sunshine as well. If few showers or rattle eastwards, some of the not making at easter in england and staying sunny all day. 60, 70 miles an hour gusts and exposure. A0 or 50 further inland and east. Largely sunny, and very warm. Temperatures in the low 20s in the warmer spots across eastern england, perhaps the mid to high teens across scotland. Something much warmer here than we had of late. Through saturday night, it stays very windy. Further gales and showers rattling from west to east. Something slightly cooler working its way from northern and Western Areas as we start on sunday morning. Still fairly mild across the south east. For sunday, Storm Kathleen sits to the north west of the uk, a real squeeze in the isobars, and again because hes severe gales across the hebrides, but a windy day right across the board. Some of those could be heavy with hail and thunder some good sunny spells particular it was eastern and south eastern england. Again mild, but not as warm as we expect things to be on saturday. So thats the weekend out of the way. As we head out of sunday into monday, we look to the south, too, another area of low pressure developing as it heads in towards the southwest. This one could be quite potent, but if a Question Mark on, you have to stay tuned to the forecast. At the moment, it looks Like Northern and eastern parts of the country will start dry with some sunshine. It turns wetter and Windier Out West as this area of low pressure encroaches in from the south west. Again, it may scoop up some mild air. So probably the high teens again across eastern england, something closer to average further north and west. During monday night, that area of low pressure could cross the country and bring a swathe of gales to southern and southWestern Areas again. There is some uncertainty on this at the moment. Tuesday looks pretty unsettled, very windy, particularly in the south. Outbreaks of Rain Pushing Northwards and eastwards. And yes, there will be perhaps a little bit of winter us over the Higher Ground towards the north and the west as we start to tap into something chillierfor a while. So 9 to 11 degrees in the north, 11 to 13 further south. So a cooler feel. But still temperatures are close to the seasonal average. As we move through the week, then we see further unsettled spells of weather. But then theres a sign this area of High Pressure could park itself across biscay and settle things down, certainly across the southern half of the country, with lower pressure always affecting more northern and western parts of the uk. And so with the area of High Pressure towards the south of the uk bringing west south westerly winds, then we should generally stay on the mild side. But towards the end of the period we could start to see some chillier air edging in from the northwest. So yes, an unsettled outlook, but things look like they could be settling down across the south of the country thanks to that area of High Pressure and then just hints of it turning perhaps a bit cooler from the north and the west towards the end of the period. But stay tuned. Take care. Live from london, this is bbc news. The Israel Military confirms its recovered the body of a hostage from khan younis nearly six months after he was abducted in the October The 7th attacks. Israels strategy is under renewed pressure from washington, as President Biden faces growing pressure from within his own party to halt Arms Transfers to the israelis. Six people die in a drone attack on kharkiv. The childrens nursery was struck. And in australia, more than 150 people are rescued from floods in sydney, as others prepare to leave their homes. Hello, im rajini vaidyanathan. Israel says its recovered the body of a hostage whod been held in gaza by hamas. A7 year old elad katzir was kidnapped from a kibbutz during the hamas Attacks On Southern Israel on October The 7th. It said its mission to search for hostages and return them to israel would continue. Allison Kaplan Sommer is a journalist at israeli newspaper
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