At Glyndebourne Opera

I got up early as I wanted to finish preparing the food for today at Glyndebourne. On closer inspection the kitchen was not cleaned as well as we thought after the chef's meal last night, so while I was busy with the food Gavin got stuck in and washed the floor and all the kitchen tops again. They had a bit of a greasy film on them as I suppose the chef last night is not as ‘neat’ cook as I am! I started preparing food, I cooked some cocktail sausages, and made a Spanish tortilla, prepared crudité to go with hummus and baked the quiche. I finished late morning and then we took Xena for a walk.

We left in good time and got to Glyndebourne by 2pm when the gardens open. The gardens are magnificent at this time of year with lovely flowers.  There are extensive lawns in front of the original house and theatre where people sit and picnic, and next to the lawn area are fields filled with sheep and bleating lambs, it’s all quite idyllic and charming. We were so lucky with the weather, earlier in the week rain was forecast but instead was warm and sunny all day. I wore long sleeves this year as I did not want to get cold when the sun went down. This is us all scrubbed up - yes I took a tripod so I could get a photo of all eight of us! In extras the young adults were fooling around when I was taking photos of them.

We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch in the grounds and then went in for the performance of Carmen which started at 4pm. It was written by Bizet in 1875 but Glyndebourne productions often set these old operas in modern times, and this production was no exception, being set in modern Spain. It was one of the best operas we have seen there, the sets, singing, music were all excellent.

There is a long interval of 90 minutes between acts when you can eat supper and enjoy strolling around the gardens. Then back in for the final act before the performance finished by 8.30pm. Everybody really enjoyed the performance.

Fiona came and took Xena out in our absence and so she was fine when we got home by 10pm. There was quite a bit of unpacking and washing up of all the picnic dishes and plates. It was such a lovely day and very special to all be together. Sadly it probably is the last one Adam will attend for a few years now.