Glyndebourne Opera Bleu

Print description

This print depicts Glyndebourne Opera Auditorium, The House and gardens with the backdrop of The Lawns.

Print details

Panoramic format. Print size 124 x 30.5 cm approx. Signed print from a limited edition of 100. From original ink drawing to which I apply colour digitally. Printed on fine art paper using archival inks.

Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne is an English country house possibly six hundred years old. From 1934 operas have been staged within the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. You can find Glyndebourne House near the historic town of Lewes in East Sussex. The opera performances have long intervals so you can enjoy a picnic in the gardens and lawns. The settings are particularly beautiful. My favourite spot is by the ha-ha where you can look out into the South Downs National Park.

I am an opera enthusiast and in the summer of 2019 I went to Glyndebourne to see the performance of Handel’s ‘Rinaldo’.  It was then that during the picnic interval I came up with the idea and determination to produce this print of this place that is so close to my heart.

Importantly, the inspiration for the creation of this chromatically vibrant print follows the concept of bringing the magic out of the auditorium and outside around Glyndebourne gardens. In my print, Glyndebourne falls in a state of half dream where it gets transformed as an opera set, suddenly the proscenium lights bathe the building facades like they were made of gold and precious stones like in a fairy tale. And the moon, made of paper mache, hangs from the sky whilst trees and shrubs burn with ancient eternal flames.

To better illustrate this I just need to remember Glyndebourne operas like Rusalka and Cendrillon I have been to.

Fair Ground Exhibition Gallery 94 Glyndebourne

This print has been selected to be part of an exhibition called Fair Ground at Gallery 94 in Glyndebourne in 2019.

Finally, without opera there would be no Glyndebourne Festival. So why not add some opera excerpts from Handel’s Aria ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from the Opera Rinaldo. One of my favourites productions of Glyndebourne.

‘Let me weep
My cruel fate,
And that I
should have freedom.

The duel infringes
within these twisted places,
in my sufferings
I pray for mercy.’

‘Lascia ch’io pianga
Mia cruda sorte,
E che sospiri
La libertà.

Il duolo infranga
Queste ritorte,
De’ miei martiri
Sol per pietà.’