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Above (from left): Duncan Rock and Louise Alder, both performing in Don Giovanni; Annilese Miskimmon, Director of Madama Butterfl yGLYNDEBOURNE TOUR 2016 VENUES AND DATES• Glyndebourne (October 14–November 4)• Milton Keynes, Milton Keynes Theatre (November 8–12)• Canterbury, The Marlowe Theatre (November 15–19)• Norwich, Theatre Royal (November 22–26)• Woking, New Victoria Theatre (November 29–December 3)• Plymouth, Theatre Royal (December 6–10)opera singer wife, Audrey Mildmay, founded the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934. In 1968 the Glyndebourne Tour was established to bring opera to new audiences across the country and create opportunities for talented young singers.Glyndebourne is also actively involved in education, with a widely respected programme that is active year-round, staging new work and delivering projects to enhance the understanding and enjoyment of opera. With this in mind, Tour 2016’s third live performance is an exclusive event that will offer a unique insight into how an opera is created.Don Giovanni: Behind the Curtain is a fully staged theatrical production going behind the scenes. Using extended live excerpts from Don Giovanni, it will examine the elements that make up an opera to demonstrate how music, movement, drama and design unite to deliver a theatrical experience so much greater than the sum of its parts.Presenter Paul Rissmann comments: “It is a completely unique operatic experience that explores how the world of classical music combines with all the magic of theatre for a special performance that that not only features some of the highlights of Don Giovanni, but also uncovers some of the secrets of the opera.”• Ticket prices for Glyndebourne Tour performances at Glyndebourne range from £5 to £70. For details see www.glyndebourne.com/tour2016 or see the advert on the inside front cover. Dates and further venues are listed below. ■the Don’s former conquest Donna Elvira. Mozart’s dramatic score will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.The comedy and tragedy of the story are enhanced by Paul Brown’s innovative set design, a box of tricks that endlessly reorganises itself into new vistas, complete with fl ames and crashing set pieces as the chilling conclusion is reached. Stylish 1950s-style costumes add both an air of gangster menace and a dash of panache, with the coquettish Zerlina dressed Marilyn Monroe-style.Louise Alder is the soprano who plays her. Described as ‘a radiant performer’ by the Financial Times, she comments: “Zerlina is an impulsive young woman who thinks she knows her own mind and can wrap any man around her little fi nger. “Instead, she gets swept off her feet by this impressive and imposing stranger, who seduces her with promises of luxuries and passion, the like of which she hasn’t before experienced with [her impoverished fi ancé] Masetto,” she says. “My challenge is not to paint her as one-dimensional, but instead to make her likeable, strong and accountable; a person who makes a mistake, but then recognises her error and her true love for Masetto, and chooses to stay with the man who will ultimately treat her better and love her wholeheartedly.”Don Giovanni joins Puccini’s Madama Butterfl y on this season’s Glyndebourne Tour. Directing this new production is Annilese Miskimmon, Director of Danish National Opera, while British conductor John Wilson, founder of the John Wilson Orchestra, will conduct the Glyndebourne Tour Orchestra. Leading the cast are the South Korean soprano Karah Son and Italian tenor Matteo Lippi. Claudia Huckle, who performed the title role in Glyndebourne’s The Rape of Lucretia in 2013, is Suzuki. It will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.Glyndebourne is recognised internationally as one of the great opera houses; a reputation that stems from a passion for artistic excellence encapsulated in founder John Christie’s insistence on doing “not the best we can do, but the best that can be done anywhere”. John and his GLYNDEBOURNE www.nadfas.org.uk NADFAS REVIEW / AUTUMN 2016 45 images: Bill Cooper.