Glyndebourne – Opera – “Don Pasquale” by the sea ...

Travel with me to see an Opera in the 21^st century ... broadcast to a big screen near you ... in this instance the art deco de la Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, east of Eastbourne, half way to Hastings ...

 

Pevensey Bay looking east, past Bexhill-on-Sea,
and on across to Hastings

... past William the Conqueror’s bay ... when the sea level was higher and the ‘deep water’ sheltered port at Pevensey was ideal for the Norman landing, which changed the course of British and world history.

 

Pevensey Bay as it would have looked
in 1066 - the flooded inlets shown ... which
explains why the battle was fought at
Battle, which is to the east of Ashburnham

The Pavilion has an auditorium and recently they have been having evenings of cinema, opera and no doubt plays, musicals relayed across ... Billy Budd from Glyndebourne is the next performance, while Lincoln will be shown in the Autumn.

The art deco de la Warr Pavilion

I went to see Les Miserables here and loved the atmosphere that was at once more sedate, more comfortable than a cinema scrum while allowing the all-round sound to involve and absorb us in the production (and without having to dress up to the nines to attend an opera).

Don Pasquale was a great first opera to see at the Pavilion ... a small cast, with some innovative sets, the fact we get subtitles! as we watch on a screen ... yes, we had the odd glitchy technology screech ...

A dramatic stairwell in the Pavilion

... which I heard once again as I listened absorbed to the Opera, while I researched and typed up this post ...

... when the outtakes and opera ring out from the laptop, sadly no vision* ... mind you I was involved enough as it was ... it’s made a fun morning so far – it is not often I listen to opera.  In fact I’m re-listening to it – third time in a week ...

I love the Glyndebourne Opera House ... it is a quite beautiful building and architecturally wonderful inside ... full of gleaming ‘yellow’ wood – and reminds me of the Real Yellowwood, declared the national tree of  South Africa.

Glyndebourne Auditorium

Music and communication has changed so much over the millennia and particularly in the recent centuries ...

African Drums were perhaps the first communication device ... their low bass and repetition made it the perfect music to be heard across the savannah grass lands ...

Once communities started living together ... when churches and cathedrals were built – the drums with their complex rhythms sounded horrible ...

... cathedrals as venues echo – sounds may reverberate around for as long as four seconds ... choirs and organs sounded wonderful in these great echoing buildings ...

 

Glyndebourne, parts of which are 500 years
old, with the new Opera House and 
studio behind

Once again music changed as rich patrons commissioned works that could, shock horror, be danced to in their ballrooms ... in Mozart’s time the key changes, trills and musical extravagances of the new musicians were perfect for the ballrooms full of people with lavish dresses and sound absorbing decorations ...

Before the invention of the humble microphone and radio the popular singers throughout the ages were belters – they had to literally be heard in an opera house, there was no amplification, they had to sing to the back of the house ...

... that is why opera houses are short front to back, but very high ...

 

Eastbourne edge of Downs
looking east across the pier on
a very English summer's day

In the 1930s the microphone allowed a whole new type of singer – the crooners – Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sang in a way that was perfect for the radio ...

... people in the ‘30s heard more music in a year than previous generations had heard in a life time – all thanks to the radio ...

... and now this generation will be able to hear a greater variety of works through the medium of (live) transmission – certainly I’m likely to attend a greater variety of performances at the de la Warr Pavilion.

An opportunity has arisen for both the ordinary human being to hear works either live as we did ... with the odd technical glitch ... or recorded, while the venues can acquire more customers and thus income to maintain their heritage.

 

Danielle de Niese and Alessandro Corbelli in
Don Pasquale at Glyndebourne 2013
photo credit Clive Barda
within the Seen and Heard article

The ‘performance’ included outtakes behind the scenes, meetings with the performers, conductor, director and designer ... led by the leading lady – who is more leading lady than most ...

... Danielle de Niese is married to Gus Christie, the owner of Glyndebourne ... again an interesting history here ... described in the Daily Telegraph article  ... and in this posting in Seen and Heard International – (both links below).

I wrote a post in May 2009 about “Love – a Chapel and an Opera House” ... two buildings built by the husbands for their beloved wives ... and this was before Danielle de Niese married her love.

The de Niese’s are Burghers ... a Eurasian ethnic group, historically from Sri Lanka, consisting for the most part of the male-line descendants of European colonists from the 16^th to 20^th centuries (mostly Portuguese, Dutch, German and British) and local women ...

De Niese’s parents moved first to Australia, and then to the west coast of the States, where she honed her performance and operatic skills ... and as she describes in the Telegraph article:

 

The Organ room in the main house - built for
Mrs Christie in the late 1930s

“There’s a strange bit of history that accompanies our relationship, too, in that Gus’s grandfather also fell in love with and married an opera singer. The role I’m playing at the moment, Norina in Don Pasquale, is exactly the same role as Gus' grandmother played in 1938.  That's a pretty spooky coincidence considering my schedule is always planned about five years in advance." 

I’ve included a few links, more than usual, in case anyone is interested ...

... and once again we seem to have travelled this time the world taking in some new history – I did not know about the existence of the Burghers – but de Niese is an interesting character ... perhaps best expressed in the Telegraph interview – it reads like one of ours ... with the Q and As thrown in!

 

An advert held by Yale Edu -
commons ... advertising
frequent electric and steam trains -
cheap fares by Southern Railway ...
what happened?!

While the “Seen and Heard International” article gives the background to Donizetti and his Don Pasquale opera introducing it thus:

“Donizetti (1797-1848) wrote Don Pasquale towards the end of his life, i.e. during 1842, with its premiere at the Theatre Italien, Paris, on 3rd January 1843.  According to some scholars, it is his comic masterpiece and the last in the golden period of opera buffa, meaning the first half of the 19^th Century.”

Well our prelude to this wonderful evening ... where I wanted to clap at the screen – my hands went out, came back in again ... I suspect others’ did too ... not quite as good as being there in person ...

... but more convenient in a delightful setting – set off by a beautiful sunset across the bay ... smoked salmon sandwiches with salad, strawberries and cream accompanied by a glass of champagne ... I had a sip or two ...

An evening well spent ... a post happily written ... a ‘girl’ with some more history in her ... more scenes under her belt ...

Traditional "Don Pasquale" - Seen and Heard International

The Daily Telegraph's article on Danielle de Niese's Perfect Weekend as mistress of Glyndebourne ... 

"Don Pasquale" at Glyndebourne ... available to watch again (as I now found out*) .. albeit the score was happily ringing out from the computer, I was involved in my posting and was on the details page! 

My 2009 post on "Love - a chapel and an opera house" 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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