The festival opera published next season’s plans this morning.
1 Puccini’s Tosca, directed by Ted Huffman
2 Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo
3 Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos
along with revivals of Rossini’s Il turco in Italia, Britten’s Billy Budd and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
07 May 2025
Billy Budd (Glyndebourne Festival 2010). Photo: Alastair Muir
Glyndebourne to stage its first ever productions of Tosca and L’Orfeo in 2026
Glyndebourne announces a bold programme for Festival 2026: the company’s first productions of Tosca and L’Orfeo, including a major collaboration with South African director and visual artist William Kentridge.
A summer of firsts begins with Puccini’s Tosca, directed by Ted Huffman who makes his Glyndebourne debut. Tosca is the first Puccini opera for Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati, who will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of two performance runs. The opening cast for Tosca includes Caitlin Gotimer as Floria Tosca, Matteo Lippi as Mario Cavaradossi and Vladislav Sulimsky as Baron Scarpia. The second cast will be conducted by Canadian Jordan de Souza and will feature Natalya Romaniw as Floria Tosca, Atalla Ayan as Mario Cavaradossi and Alfred Walker as Baron Scarpia.
The distinct visual style of William Kentridge will be showcased in his Glyndebourne debut production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, an opera never seen at Glyndebourne before. Jonathan Cohen will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with a cast of period specialists including Krystian Adam as Orfeo, Francesca Aspromonte as La Musica/Euridice, Leia Lensing as Proserpina, Callum Thorpe as Caronte and Davide Giangregorio as Plutone.
The third new production at Festival 2026 will see Glyndebourne favourite Laurent Pelly direct Richard Strauss’ deftly interwoven story of love and art: Ariadne auf Naxos. The cast includes Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Ariadne, David Butt Philip as Bacchus and Alina Wunderlin performing another key coloratura role as Zerbinetta, after impressing as the Queen of the Night in Festival 2024. Robin Ticciati will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Stephen Langridge, Artistic Director of Glyndebourne, said: ‘Festival 2026 presents masterpieces from three-and-a-half centuries of opera, ranging from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in 1607 (arguably the first masterpiece of the form) to Britten’s Billy Budd in 1951. Our new L’Orfeo brings William Kentridge, Jonathan Cohen and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment together, while Billy Budd unleashes the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicolas Carter, and Allan Clayton singing his first Captain Vere in Michael Grandage’s extraordinary production’.
Cast details on the website.
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