Page 14 - Charles Wycherley

Glyndebourne
Opera House
Organ inside Glyndebourne House Photo by Wolfiewolf.
Glyndebourne is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Initially, operas were presented within the house
but there is now a free-standing opera house in
its grounds. The house itself, located near Lewes, is thought to be about six hundred years old and listed at Grade II.
By the late 1980s the theatre's expansion, which had proceeded in a somewhat piecemeal fashion, included an agglomeration of outbuildings which housed restaurants, dressing rooms, storage and other facilities.
It became clear to George Christie that a completely new theatre - and not just an enlargement of the old one - was necessary.
Having chosen the architect Michael and Patty Hopkins of Hopkins Architects in a design competition, Christie announced in 1990 that a new theatre, capable of seating 1,200 people, would be constructed in 1992.
The old theatre hosted its last festival in 1992, and construction of a brand-new theatre was under way. It was completed at a cost of £34 million, 90 per cent of which was raised through donations, which gave the donors control of 28% of the seats.
The inaugural performance in the new theatre on 28 May 1994, given sixty years to the day after the old theatre's first performance, was Le Nozze di Figaro.
Glyndebourne Interior. Photo by ExpressingYourself.
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