Video recording of book launch: The Glyndebourne ÉmigrésOperatic Mobilities in Southern England, 1934-1940

We are pleased to announce the publication by Clemson University Press (USA) and Liverpool University Press of The Glyndebourne Émigrés: Operatic Mobilities in Southern England, 1934-1940, edited by Nils Grosch and Beth Snyder.

The book is a major output from the Music, Migration and Mobility team, with additional contributions from Jürgen Scharwächter (Busch brothers archive Karlsruhe) and young researchers from Salzburg University.

The book is the first to explore in depth the important but hitherto under-examined role played by the emigrés in the early years of Glyndebourne Opera. It remains a little-known fact that despite the popular perception of Glyndebourne as representing the quintessence of Englishness, it would almost certainly never have come into existence had it not been for the involvement of refugees from Nazi Europe – most notably Artistic Directors Fritz Busch and Carl Ebert, and General Manager, Rudolph Bing, but also conductor Hans Oppenheim, singers Irene Eisinger and Ina Souez, and répétiteur Jani Strasser, among others. In its first years of existence, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera set out to internationalise English opera culture, both by attracting international artists and leading proponents of a new concept of opera production and by giving émigrés the chance to further hone skills developed in Central Europe and beyond.

The book takes a bird’s eye view of Glyndebourne’s early history and celebrates its internationalism. It considers the company’s extensive and complex networks and ambitions, the transfer of cultural capital that came with its artists, and the high degree of excellence achieved via the embrace, rather than the rejection, of cultural difference.

You are warmly invited to watch the video recording of the online book launch with editor Nils Grosch, Daniel Snowman, Monica Bohm-Duchen (Insiders Outsiders Festival), Phil Booth (Glyndebourne archivist) as well as Alison Mero and Eric Saylor from Clemson University Press.

Content:

Foreword Stephen Langridge

Introduction Norbert Meyn

1. Opera Uprooted: The Glyndebourne Festival and Operatic Mobilities Nils Grosch

2. “Where Music Flows Like Money”: Choreographing Mobility, Migration, and Place at Glyndebourne Peter Adey and Michael Holden

3. The English Salzburg: Casting Glyndebourne Soloists Jürgen Schaarwächter

A Brief Encyclopaedia of Glyndebourne Soloists, 1933–1940 Jürgen Schaarwächter

1. Ebert’s Travels: The Internationalization of a Modern Concept of Opera Staging Natalie Stadler

2. The Mobile Fritz Busch: Oscillations of Artistic Practice around Glyndebourne Nils Grosch, Johann Michael Kreutzer, and Susanne Steinbichl

3. Nationalization and Glyndebourne in Times of War: The Beggar’s Opera Tour of 1940 Miriam Lisa Ljubijankic

4. Situating Glyndebourne: (Story)Mapping the Festival Archives Michael Holden

5. Mobilizing Glyndebourne in the Late 1930s: Heading for the New York World’s Fair Nils Grosch

6. “Mozart Himself was a Cosmopolitan”: Women Singers at Glyndebourne and Debates about Cosmopolitan Utopia Beth Snyder