Breaking: Glyndebourne picks an artistic director
mainThe British summer opera festival has chosen Stephen Langridge to be its next artistic director.
Son of the tenor Philip Langridge and a versatile director of opera productions, Stephen has been Director for Opera and Drama at Gothenburg Opera, Sweden, for the past five years.
He joins Gly next spring.
He succeeds Sebastian Schwarz, who departed for unspecified reasons.
Stephen is not only a very fine director but an extremely kind and caring man. They are beyond lucky to have him!
Schwarz specified his reasons quite clearly, as reported by you at the time. He didn’t like working in an unsubsidised organisation.
https://slippedisc.com/2017/12/breaking-glyndebourne-boss-walks-off-the-job/
Is this the first time Glyndebourne has had an Artistic Director? Schwarz, Pickard, Whitworth-Jones etc were all General Managers. Anyone know?
I think you are right, Glerb. The post has been downgraded and is evidently part -time (SL, who is a nice chap, will continue to work elsewhere as well). One reason he may have swung the job is his interest in environmental issues (vide the eco Ring for Gothenburg), which Gus Christie would have found sympathetic..
Peter Hall was Artistic Director in Glyndebourne in the eighties.
Ah yes, you are quite right, of course
An Artistic Director is usually further up the pecking order than a General Manager so I’d argue the job has been up rather than down graded.
Well is his father more important than his mother… Anne Murray, very one sided and indeed sexist.