Country House Opera

Since the Nazis took control of Austria's music, leaving the future of Austria's famed Salzburg Festival in doubt, the air from Hollywood to Paris has resounded with projects for new "Salzburgs" outside Greater Germany. While most of these projects have been evaporating in talk, certain features of the Salzburg idea have quietly come into being at Glyndebourne, an old Tudor manor in the midst of England's hilly South Downs, 60 miles from London. Glyndebourne, content to remain in character, has not proclaimed itself the "Salzburg of England." But responsible critics have acclaimed the Mozart opera performances given there each year as the finest in the world today.

Last week, as Glyndebourne opened its fifth season of opera (eight weeks), fashionable Londoners piled into trains and automobiles for their annual pilgrimage. The 600 seats in Glyndebourne's diminutive opera house cost between $7.50 and $10 apiece, and dinner at Glyndebourne served between the acts adds another $2 to the visitor's bill.

The man behind Glyndebourne is Capt. John Christie, wealthy ex-science teacher at England's swagger Eton College, and present owner of Glyndebourne Manor. A lifetime lover and patron of music, a constant attender at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals, Captain Christie long had an ambition to establish an operatic festival of similar quality in England. In 1933 at Copenhagen he unfolded his scheme to round-faced Conductor Fritz Busch, German political exile and famed former conductor of the Dresden Opera. Enthusiastic Maestro Busch called in the help of his expatriated countryman, Stage Director Carl Ebert. With Austrian Impresario Rudolf Bing as General Manager, the first Glyndebourne opera season was launched. It lasted two weeks; the audience for the opening performance numbered twelve. But Christie, Busch, Ebert and Bing were undiscouraged. The press gave them a big hand. In 1936 they enlarged their auditorium, planned a bigger season for the following year. By the end of the 1936 season they were playing to full houses. Last year, all of Glyndebourne's seats were sold before its seven-week season had begun.

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