| Glyndebourne 2012 - Ravel Double Bill LIVE |
 Sunday 19 August 6.30pm LIVE BROADCAST Glyndebourne Festival 2012 - World Class opera on your doorstep Conductor Kazushi Ono Director Laurent Pelly London Philharmonic Orchestra The Glyndebourne Chorus – L’enfant et les sortilèges Ravel’s two one-act operas will reunite director Laurent Pelly and conductor Kazushi Ono, who made their Glyndebourne debuts in 2008 with Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. While L’enfant et les sortilèges shares with that opera a child’s-eye view of a sometimes threatening world, L’heure espagnole is a thoroughly adult confection. The play on which Ravel based his opéra espagnole is a clever conceit set in the house of a clockmaker. It compares the wound-up mechanism of a clock with the erotic compulsions driving flesh-and-blood humans. Concepción devises a complex sequence of moves and counter-moves to conceal the presence of her various admirers. While directing these activities she becomes increasingly impressed by the physical attributes of her unwitting accomplice, Ramiro. Stéphanie d’Oustrac, who last sang at Glyndebourne as Sesto in Giulio Cesare, will sing Concepción, while Canadian baritone Elliot Madore will make his UK and Glyndebourne debut as Ramiro. In L’enfant et les sortilèges, inanimate objects come to life when a child, fed up with doing his homework, throws a temper tantrum. All the things that have been damaged by him start to voice their objections: a broken cup and teapot, a shepherd and shepherdess from the wallpaper he ripped, a battered armchair and the princess from the torn pages of a story book. When the sums from his homework and the animals and plants in the garden turn on the child as well, Ravel’s music reaches a fierce climax. Only the child’s kindness to an injured squirrel saves him and brings the opera to a touchingly poignant conclusion. A new production for the 2012 Festival Supported by Michael and Dorothy Hintze | Sung in French with English supertitles This production of L’heure espagnole was originally created for Opéra National de Paris The Glyndebourne Festival 2012 Ravel Double Bill is a co-production with the Saito Kinen Festival More about this production on the Glyndebourne website |
