Glyndebourne: The Untold History Page #4

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belong to each other.

He was in himself a natural actor,

so he could show very clearly

to the artists what he wanted.

He always had great respect

for the musical requirements

and Busch made sure he did.

They'd speak in German together.

Carl was as good as gold.

Like all producers,

he'd try and get away with it,

but Busch was very firm about it.

Is it possible if I say

we can come in a little earlier to

establish the mood before

we actually start singing?

Excellent idea.

And suddenly going with your cue.

Before the war, this wasn't really

an operatic country.

When we had opera, it was brought in

to the Royal Opera House,

Covent Garden, very short seasons.

There was a wonderful small company,

the Carl Rosa,

which went around the "provinces",

but there wasn't an operatic

tradition.

It was Glyndebourne really

with the tutelage,

with the direction of Carl Ebert

and Fritz Busch.

Glyndebourne created truly

professional opera in this country.

This was Ebert's creation.

Carl Ebert and Fritz Busch basically

set the tone for everything that

Glyndebourne was to become, which

was not the best that we can do,

but the best that can be done

anywhere, and that was John

and Audrey's motto for Glyndebourne.

Out of the initial meeting

between Fritz Busch

and John Christie in Amsterdam,

they confirmed a two-week season to

start on 28 May 1934, with six

performances of Le Nozze di Figaro

and six performances

of Cosi Fan Tutte.

Rudolf Bing was contacted -

he had worked with both Busch

and Ebert previously.

He was asked to hunt out

the European continental singers

while Busch himself came

over to this country

and auditioned all of the British

singers, including Audrey Mildmay.

There was no assumption that

because she was the boss's wife,

she was automatically

going to get a role.

She had to go through the same

process as everyone else.

And that's how it all began,

in 1934, and she sang

the role of Susanna in The Marriage

of Figaro on May 28, 1934.

The first night was sold out, pretty

much, which, considering they were

charging 2 a seat, which was a lot

of money in anyone's terms -

almost overnight they achieved

exactly what they had set out to do.

They had timed their performance

so that people had an hour

and a half interval in the middle,

they could have their dinner,

stroll in the gardens, look at

the views, soak up the atmosphere

and enjoy absolute

international class opera.

And the critics of the time,

they went away absolutely

bemused by what they had seen.

But they all, to a man, appreciated

that they had seen something

completely new and different

and special.

The second night...which was

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