Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne Festival 2025

My final visit to Glyndebourne Festival 2025 was to see Le nozze di Figaro. I had seen it at Glyndebourne four times since 2016 and so it was not an automatic choice to see it again but it is a lovely opera and this was a new production so that was enough to tempt me.

I went for the usual price band and got seat Blue Upper Circle A8 for £145. Happy with that.

Again travel did not quite work to Plan A but Plan B was fine, too late in Lewes to visit The Depository for lunch so I tried the coffee shop by the station entrance and that did the job. Several other Glyndebourne goers had the same idea.

The rest of the new routine worked and the first coach was early enough to claim a seat in the Veg Patch Stretch Tent. The weather was good so many people had opted for the grass leaving space in the marquees.

Any doubts about seeing Le nozze di Figaro were lifted as soon as the overture started, the music really is lovely.

The set made an immediate good impression too. Superficially simple with little decoration it rotated along several arcs creating multiple spaces with nonchalance.

The production made great use of the set and its movement creating busy but not fussy scenes.

The actors built on this by playing the comedy to the full with exaggerated, but not false, gestures and movements.

The combination of the set and performers and, yes, the sur titles, made this complex story easy to follow.

If this was a play then it would have been excellent but, of course it is an opera so there is the singing to consider too and this was excellent too. This was the most that I have ever enjoyed  Le nozze di Figaro and in the likely event that Glyndebourne revives it in a few years then I will eagerly see it again.