Glyndebourne will be the focus of a new documentary broadcast on Sky Arts later this month, telling the story of how it overcame the pressures of lockdown to open up again this summer, becoming the first UK opera house to stage a full-length opera to a live audience since the start of the pandemic.
Glyndebourne: No Ordinary Summer, broadcast on Sunday 20 December on Sky Arts, goes behind the scenes at the Glyndebourne Festival when it gave the premiere of a new translation of Offenbach's Mesdames de la Halle earlier this summer. The story was reimagined to take place at the time of the pandemic, and was set in the Glyndebourne gardens in August 2020. As well as being broadcast on Sky Arts, Glyndebourne: No Ordinary Summer will also be available to view on the festival's YouTube channel.
The documentary follows the various challenges of the production process, from weather problems to choreographing socially distanced fight scenes.
Glyndebourne: No Ordinary Summer will be broadcast at 6pm on Sunday 20 December on Sky Arts, which is free to watch in the UK and Ireland. The documentary will also be available to watch on the Glyndebourne YouTube channel from 6pm on Sunday 27 December until midday on Monday 4 January.
