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Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Guardian to broadcast six operas from Glyndebourne this summer. No Wagner but Mozart & Ravel at least.

The Guardian is to broadcast six operas from the Glyndebourne festival in Sussex this summer.
Following a successful experiment last year, guardian.co.uk will stream Leoš Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaroand Ravel's double bill of L'Heure Espagnole and L'Enfant et les Sortilèges live from the festival, held from 20 May until 26 August.
Two more operas in the season will be filmed and broadcast on the site:The Fairy Queen by Purcell and Rossini's La Cenerentola. Each operawill be made available to view again and accompanied by additional multimedia commentary from Guardian critics, who will be online to discuss the operas as they are broadcast.
Last June, the Guardian became the first news organisation to livestream an entire opera when it broadcast and liveblogged all six hours of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from Glyndebourne.
This year's partnership kicks off a summer music season, more details of which will be confirmed over the coming weeks, and is one of several new collaborations between the Guardian and leading arts organisations.
On Friday, guardian.co.uk joined with YouTube to show a day of rehearsals at the Royal Ballet, culminating in a recorded performance ofWayne McGregor's Chroma.
In January, the website began streaming live performances by artists including Laurie Anderson and composer Heiner Goebbels from A Room For London, the temporary structure on top of London's Southbank Centre, in partnership with art event producers Artangel.
The Guardian is also working with the Young Vic theatre to develop a short film called Epithet starring Patrick Stewart, and next month will broadcast a performance from London's Roundhouse by Swedish circus company Cirkus Cirkör.
David Pickard, general director at Glyndebourne, said: "In 2007 Glyndebourne was the first UK opera house to screen its productions into cinemas and in 2011 we were the first UK opera company to stream opera live online with the Guardian.
"I am delighted that the 2012 festival will see both these innovations develop to ensure that Glyndebourne's work is open to opera lovers at any time, anywhere in the world."