Latest news with #GlyndebourneFestival
Telegraph
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Glyndebourne abandons show after wind turbine fails to keep lights on
Power cuts compelled Glyndebourne to abandon a performance as the opera house's wind turbine offered little back-up in the still summer air. The production of Handel's Saul on Saturday was plagued by power outages before organisers pulled the plug on the whole show. Organisers said the production had been hit by six blackouts while the audience was present, each requiring a 15-minute pause to restart the stage technology. A spokesman for Glyndebourne told The Telegraph: 'Three of the power cuts happened during the long interval, which meant we were able to minimise the impact. However, the continued instability of power after the interval made it impractical to continue. 'Our teams, on and off stage, are working at their peak. Repeated stops and restarts become untenable and even unsafe, and compromise the performance we are able to deliver.' The performance of Saul was abandoned minutes before the final curtain. 'As we left, I gazed up at Glyndebourne's solitary but enormous wind turbine, magnificently motionless in the still and balmy evening air,' an attendee told Slipped Disc, a classical music publication. Glyndebourne was dependent on electricity from the grid at the time, as its turbine was not meeting the needs of demand and its short-term back-up generators were unable to cope with the length of the disruption. The spokesman said: 'Glyndebourne's wind turbine generates electricity equivalent to almost 100 per cent of our annual usage. While in the windier winter months it generates an excess to our needs, daily supply does not meet demand at the height of summer. 'We aspire to be energy self-sufficient in the future and are already reviewing the investments and infrastructure needed to make this possible. This is now a heightened priority. We are now working to increase our resilience in this area.' 'Wind power can never provide for all our wants' Technical difficulties also delayed the final scene of Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) at Glyndebourne on Sunday evening. The organisers said Sunday's problem was still under investigation. The country house's 230ft Enercon wind turbine, on a hill overlooking the opera house in the heart of the South Downs National Park, was launched by Sir David Attenborough in January 2012. 'Wind power can never provide for all our wants but every bit of power generated by wind must be welcomed,' he said at the time, adding: 'Even if we only generate a fraction of what our country needs in this way, then we must.' Between 2012 and 2023, the turbine is said to have generated the equivalent of 102 per cent of electricity used by the company in the same period, resulting in a 50 per cent cut in carbon emissions. Prof Tony Parker, a retired engineer, led protests against the wind turbine before its installation, claiming the 900KW unit would be one of the most inefficient in the country, only generating power 17 per cent of the time.
San Francisco Chronicle
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Nina Stemme says farewell to Isolde after 126 performances
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nina Stemme tilted back her head after the final notes of her 126th and last Isolde performance, and her eyes filled with tears. She was hugged by tenor Stuart Skelton and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill as the audience in Marian Anderson Hall stood and applauded Sunday evening. A few days earlier, Stemme thought back to April 2000, when Glyndebourne Festival general director Nicholas Snowman and opera director Nikolaus Lehnhoff walked into her dressing room in Antwerp, Belgium, asking her to sing in the English company's first-ever performance of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." 'I really did think they were joking,' she recalled. 'My colleague, Christopher Ventris, said, 'No. No. They're not joking. You have to be careful.'" Stemme went home to Sweden, considered the offer with vocal coach Richard Trimborn and made her Isolde debut on May 19, 2003, at the Glyndebourne Festival with Robert Gambill as Tristan and Jiří Bělohlávek conducting. She chose to sing her final two Isoldes 22 years later with the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who conducted the opera for the first time on June 1 and coaxed a luminous rendition from a premier orchestra at its peak. 'I'm 62 now. I gave it to my 60s to sing these big roles and now I've dropped Elektra and Brünnhilde, and Isolde is the last daughter on stage that I'm singing," Stemme said. "I decided this years ago. This is how it works and every year that I was able to sing Isolde feels like a bonus and a privilege.' Stemme was friends with Birgit Nilsson, one of the greatest Isoldes and Brünnhildes, who died in 2005 at age 87. 'I was on the verge to go down to her in south Sweden to study Isolde but of course me as a young singer with little kids at home, I never felt ready," Stemme said. 'At that time when we got to know each other, I was singing mostly a lyric repertoire.' Skelton sang with Stemme in Wagner's 'Der Fliegende Holländer' at the Vienna State Opera in 2004 and his Tristan was paired with Stemme's Isolde in New York, Munich and Naples, Italy. 'It's as radiant now as it was when I first heard her sing it in Glyndebourne way back in the day,' he said. 'No one knew really who Nina Stemme was to a certain extent. Certainly I don't think anyone was ready for what she brought to Isolde even then.' A conductor learning from the singer Nézet-Séguin first worked with Stemme in a performance of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007, didn't collaborate again until performances of Strauss' 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' at the Met last fall. 'The breadth of her experience with the role is just guiding all of us, me, but also the orchestra, who is playing it for the first time in understanding the flow of the piece, understanding their shades and the colors, and that is invaluable," Nézet-Séguin said of Stemme's Isolde. "It was wonderful for me to benefit from it." Singers were on a platform above and behind the orchestra, with LED lights below setting a mood: red in the first act, dark blue in the second and light blue in the third. Stemme wore a dark gown in the first and third acts and a shimmering silver dress in the second, while Skelton, baritone Brian Mulligan (Kurwenal), bass Tareq Nazmi (King Marke) and tenor Freddie Ballentine (Melot) were largely in black, and Cargill (Brangäne) in a lighter-colored costume. Showing sets and complicated directions weren't necessary, she conveyed Isolde's emptions with her eyes, smiles and nods. During the great second-act love duet, Stemme and Skelton clinked water canisters. 'Twenty-two years ago I could act the young princess that was in love or hated her love for Tristan,' she said. 'I have other colors to my voice now and I'm older so of course this interpretation will change. I feel more at home in the middle range and with age, of course, the top notes are not as gleaming as they used to be, but I can make up for that in other ways hopefully — on a good day.' Stemme's future schedule includes less-taxing roles, such as Klytämnestra in Strauss' 'Elektra' and Waltraute in Wagner's 'Götterdämmerung.' She leaves behind an outstanding recording of her Isolde, made from November 2004 through January 2005 at London's Abbey Road Studios with tenor Plácido Domingo and conductor Antonio Pappano. Lise Davidsen makes her Isolde debut next year Anticipation is building for the next great Isolde. Lise Davidsen is scheduled to make her role debut on Jan. 12 at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu and then open a new production at New York's Metropolitan Opera on March 9 with Nézet-Séguin. 'She said how happy she is to in a way symbolically pass this role, pass it on to her, in a way through me,' Nézet-Séguin said of Stemme. 'That is almost like a torch that has been carried.' 'At heart," she said, "I'm still Madama Butterfly or Mimì.'
Winnipeg Free Press
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Nina Stemme says farewell to Isolde after 126 performances
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nina Stemme tilted back her head after the final notes of her 126th and last Isolde performance, and her eyes filled with tears. She was hugged by tenor Stuart Skelton and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill as the audience in Marian Anderson Hall stood and applauded Sunday evening. A few days earlier, Stemme thought back to April 2000, when Glyndebourne Festival general director Nicholas Snowman and opera director Nikolaus Lehnhoff walked into her dressing room in Antwerp, Belgium, asking her to sing in the English company's first-ever performance of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde.' 'I really did think they were joking,' she recalled. 'My colleague, Christopher Ventris, said, 'No. No. They're not joking. You have to be careful.'' Stemme went home to Sweden, considered the offer with vocal coach Richard Trimborn and made her Isolde debut on May 19, 2003, at the Glyndebourne Festival with Robert Gambill as Tristan and Jiří Bělohlávek conducting. She chose to sing her final two Isoldes 22 years later with the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who conducted the opera for the first time on June 1 and coaxed a luminous rendition from a premier orchestra at its peak. 'I'm 62 now. I gave it to my 60s to sing these big roles and now I've dropped Elektra and Brünnhilde, and Isolde is the last daughter on stage that I'm singing,' Stemme said. 'I decided this years ago. This is how it works and every year that I was able to sing Isolde feels like a bonus and a privilege.' Connection to Birgit Nilsson Stemme was friends with Birgit Nilsson, one of the greatest Isoldes and Brünnhildes, who died in 2005 at age 87. 'I was on the verge to go down to her in south Sweden to study Isolde but of course me as a young singer with little kids at home, I never felt ready,' Stemme said. 'At that time when we got to know each other, I was singing mostly a lyric repertoire.' Skelton sang with Stemme in Wagner's 'Der Fliegende Holländer' at the Vienna State Opera in 2004 and his Tristan was paired with Stemme's Isolde in New York, Munich and Naples, Italy. 'It's as radiant now as it was when I first heard her sing it in Glyndebourne way back in the day,' he said. 'No one knew really who Nina Stemme was to a certain extent. Certainly I don't think anyone was ready for what she brought to Isolde even then.' A conductor learning from the singer Nézet-Séguin first worked with Stemme in a performance of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007, didn't collaborate again until performances of Strauss' 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' at the Met last fall. 'The breadth of her experience with the role is just guiding all of us, me, but also the orchestra, who is playing it for the first time in understanding the flow of the piece, understanding their shades and the colors, and that is invaluable,' Nézet-Séguin said of Stemme's Isolde. 'It was wonderful for me to benefit from it.' Singers were on a platform above and behind the orchestra, with LED lights below setting a mood: red in the first act, dark blue in the second and light blue in the third. Stemme wore a dark gown in the first and third acts and a shimmering silver dress in the second, while Skelton, baritone Brian Mulligan (Kurwenal), bass Tareq Nazmi (King Marke) and tenor Freddie Ballentine (Melot) were largely in black, and Cargill (Brangäne) in a lighter-colored costume. Showing sets and complicated directions weren't necessary, she conveyed Isolde's emptions with her eyes, smiles and nods. During the great second-act love duet, Stemme and Skelton clinked water canisters. 'Twenty-two years ago I could act the young princess that was in love or hated her love for Tristan,' she said. 'I have other colors to my voice now and I'm older so of course this interpretation will change. I feel more at home in the middle range and with age, of course, the top notes are not as gleaming as they used to be, but I can make up for that in other ways hopefully — on a good day.' Stemme's future schedule includes less-taxing roles, such as Klytämnestra in Strauss' 'Elektra' and Waltraute in Wagner's 'Götterdämmerung.' She leaves behind an outstanding recording of her Isolde, made from November 2004 through January 2005 at London's Abbey Road Studios with tenor Plácido Domingo and conductor Antonio Pappano. Lise Davidsen makes her Isolde debut next year Anticipation is building for the next great Isolde. Lise Davidsen is scheduled to make her role debut on Jan. 12 at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu and then open a new production at New York's Metropolitan Opera on March 9 with Nézet-Séguin. 'She said how happy she is to in a way symbolically pass this role, pass it on to her, in a way through me,' Nézet-Séguin said of Stemme. 'That is almost like a torch that has been carried.' After all those Isoldes, Stemme feels more a Puccini heroine than a Wagnerian star. 'At heart,' she said, 'I'm still Madama Butterfly or Mimì.'
Business Mayor
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
The hottest ticket in Britain's corporate calendar might surprise you
King Charles III, patron of the Royal Horticultural Society, walks through the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden during a visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show at Royal Hospital Chelsea on May 20, 2025 in London, England. Wpa Pool | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images This week saw one of the most important — and perhaps surprising — events in corporate Britain's annual calendar: the gala night of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show. This traditionally marks the beginning of what, in English high society, is referred to as 'the season.' Coined as such by Debrett's, the publisher and authority on society and etiquette, the summer social whirl was framed around the British royal family, which traditionally remained in London from April to July and from October until Christmas. This meant that Britain's ruling classes and key movers and shakers did the same — participating in balls, parties and court presentations. These have largely now faded away, but what remains is a series of sporting and cultural events where the great and good continue to get together. Highlights include opera at the Glyndebourne Festival; flat racing at the Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood meetings; rowing at the Henley Royal Regatta; yachting at Cowes and, of course, tennis at Wimbledon. All these events see gatherings of corporate chieftains, their bankers, lawyers and other advisors, but none brings together quite as many key figures, in a short space of time, as the Chelsea gala night: two hours of champagne (this year's bubbles were supplied by Pommery), canapes and networking over displays carefully cultivated by hundreds of professional gardeners and landscape architects. Tickets for the gala, which runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (the King, who is patron of the RHS, visits earlier in the afternoon), cost £620 ($827) while those for the gala dinner which follows on site go for £885. Seeds are sown Many of the City's top bankers can be spotted there: recent attendees have included Anthony Gutman, co-chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International; Russell Chambers, the former head of investment banking at Credit Suisse and Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group. Leading business figures also regularly attend, including the likes of John Browne, the former chief executive of BP; Martin Sorrell, the advertising kingpin and Nigel Wilson, the former chief executive of Legal & General. Top politicians and policymakers can also be spotted at the event: George Osborne was a regular attendee when he was chancellor of the exchequer, while last year both Jeremy Hunt, then the chancellor, and Rachel Reeves, then his shadow, were guests of one of the U.K.'s major lenders. While the cultivation of plants is central to Chelsea, the cultivation of client relationships is also paramount. Headline sponsors of the event have included Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now part of BlackRock) and asset manager M&G Investments. The seeds sown, too, are not necessarily of the horticultural kind. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show on May 19, 2025 in London, England. Ben Montgomery | Getty Images News | Getty Images For example, the 2018 sale of data provider Refinitiv (since acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group) by Thomson Reuters to Blackstone is said to have had its origins in a meeting between David Craig, the Refinitiv chief executive, and Joseph Baratta, Blackstone's head of private equity, at the 2013 gala night. Long-time attendees grumble that the event does not have quite the pull it used to. There are arguably fewer bankers present than there were 15 years ago which, according to some, reflects caps on the value of corporate hospitality some business people are now allowed to accept. There is also a school of thought that modern CEOs are more likely to be seen competing in triathlons and, when they do accept invitations, it is likely to be for a more egalitarian and less elitist event such as, say, a Premier League football match. This year's gala suggested there may be some truth to that. From the C-suite, there were certainly more FTSE 100 chairs than CEOs in attendance, although several individuals who have in the last year stepped down from such roles were spotted among the blooms. Among the main talking points, a few common themes emerged. One was the uncertainty that continues to stalk businesses in the United States due to a combination of factors, chiefly President Donald Trump's tariffs, which several attendees suggested may benefit the U.K. if it drives capital and business investment elsewhere. Another is the impact that continues to be felt by Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to abolish the so-called 'non-dom' rules which enabled U.K. residents who declared their permanent home as being overseas to avoid U.K. tax on their foreign income and gains. It is credited with having driven hundreds of wealthy individuals out of the U.K. and harmed entrepreneurship in the process. The third theme, though, was altogether more surprising. The mood music surrounding the U.K. economy during the last 12 months has been unremittingly bleak. Yet there were, on Monday evening, an unexpectedly high number of corporate chiefs who, when questioned how their business was faring, answered along the lines of: 'I probably shouldn't say this, given the backdrop, but we're actually doing better than I expected so far this year.' The U.K. economy still faces headwinds, not least Reeves's recent increase in employer's national insurance contributions, which makes it more expensive to hire people. There is also a sense that the GDP figures for the first quarter of the year were flattered by stockpiling of goods and strong export figures ahead of Trump's tariffs kicking in. However, leaving the show on Monday evening, there was a strong sense that these surprisingly strong figures may not have been a flash in the pan.
CNBC
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
The hottest ticket in Britain's corporate calendar might surprise you
This week saw one of the most important — and perhaps surprising — events in corporate Britain's annual calendar: the gala night of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show. This traditionally marks the beginning of what, in English high society, is referred to as 'the season.' Coined as such by Debrett's, the publisher and authority on society and etiquette, the summer social whirl was framed around the British royal family, which traditionally remained in London from April to July and from October until Christmas. This meant that Britain's ruling classes and key movers and shakers did the same — participating in balls, parties and court presentations. These have largely now faded away, but what remains is a series of sporting and cultural events where the great and good continue to get together. Highlights include opera at the Glyndebourne Festival; flat racing at the Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood meetings; rowing at the Henley Royal Regatta; yachting at Cowes and, of course, tennis at Wimbledon. All these events see gatherings of corporate chieftains, their bankers, lawyers and other advisors, but none brings together quite as many key figures, in a short space of time, as the Chelsea gala night: two hours of champagne (this year's bubbles were supplied by Pommery), canapes and networking over displays carefully cultivated by hundreds of professional gardeners and landscape architects. Tickets for the gala, which runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (the King, who is patron of the RHS, visits earlier in the afternoon), cost £620 ($827) while those for the gala dinner which follows on site go for £885. Many of the City's top bankers can be spotted there: recent attendees have included Anthony Gutman, co-chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International; Russell Chambers, the former head of investment banking at Credit Suisse and Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group. Leading business figures also regularly attend, including the likes of John Browne, the former chief executive of BP; Martin Sorrell, the advertising kingpin and Nigel Wilson, the former chief executive of Legal & General. Top politicians and policymakers can also be spotted at the event: George Osborne was a regular attendee when he was chancellor of the exchequer, while last year both Jeremy Hunt, then the chancellor, and Rachel Reeves, then his shadow, were guests of one of the U.K.'s major lenders. While the cultivation of plants is central to Chelsea, the cultivation of client relationships is also paramount. Headline sponsors of the event have included Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now part of BlackRock) and asset manager M&G Investments. The seeds sown, too, are not necessarily of the horticultural kind. For example, the 2018 sale of data provider Refinitiv (since acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group) by Thomson Reuters to Blackstone is said to have had its origins in a meeting between David Craig, the Refinitiv chief executive, and Joseph Baratta, Blackstone's head of private equity, at the 2013 gala night. Long-time attendees grumble that the event does not have quite the pull it used to. There are arguably fewer bankers present than there were 15 years ago which, according to some, reflects caps on the value of corporate hospitality some business people are now allowed to accept. There is also a school of thought that modern CEOs are more likely to be seen competing in triathlons and, when they do accept invitations, it is likely to be for a more egalitarian and less elitist event such as, say, a Premier League football match. This year's gala suggested there may be some truth to that. From the C-suite, there were certainly more FTSE 100 chairs than CEOs in attendance, although several individuals who have in the last year stepped down from such roles were spotted among the blooms. Among the main talking points, a few common themes emerged. One was the uncertainty that continues to stalk businesses in the United States due to a combination of factors, chiefly President Donald Trump's tariffs, which several attendees suggested may benefit the U.K. if it drives capital and business investment elsewhere. Another is the impact that continues to be felt by Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to abolish the so-called 'non-dom' rules which enabled U.K. residents who declared their permanent home as being overseas to avoid U.K. tax on their foreign income and gains. It is credited with having driven hundreds of wealthy individuals out of the U.K. and harmed entrepreneurship in the process. The third theme, though, was altogether more surprising. The mood music surrounding the U.K. economy during the last 12 months has been unremittingly bleak. Yet there were, on Monday evening, an unexpectedly high number of corporate chiefs who, when questioned how their business was faring, answered along the lines of: 'I probably shouldn't say this, given the backdrop, but we're actually doing better than I expected so far this year.' The U.K. economy still faces headwinds, not least Reeves's recent increase in employer's national insurance contributions, which makes it more expensive to hire people. There is also a sense that the GDP figures for the first quarter of the year were flattered by stockpiling of goods and strong export figures ahead of Trump's tariffs kicking in. However, leaving the show on Monday evening, there was a strong sense that these surprisingly strong figures may not have been a flash in the pan.
