The storm brings winds of up to 65 mph. Now on bbc news, take me to the opera the power of glyndebourne. Ive been an opera fan for decades, and i want to share my passion with you. So im on a mission to find out how opera is reinventing itself for the 21st century. This time i go to glyndebourne in the english countryside to find out why its a unique place that offers more than opera. Weve got beautiful grounds and gardens and lakes, a wonderful visual art gallery and then a wonderful opera. Glyndebourne may be a historic venue, but it is also trying to make Opera Fit For The Future by being a pioneer in sustainability. We were the first Arts Organisation to put up a wind turbine. Were running on wind. Glyndebourne, as an icon in operatic sustainability, has really got a very strong place. And glyndebourne is embracing a drive towards greater diversity. Its about making sure that Diverse Communities have access to opera. If we keep opening the door, more people will come into it. But does innovation, sustainability and diversity matter, or do audiences really only care about great Opera Performances . Let me take you to the opera. Glyndebourne in sussex, about 150 kilometres south of london, is a popular destination for thousands of opera lovers every year. They sing operatically. As well as opera, audiences can take a stroll, have a picnic in the beautiful grounds, they can visit a magnificent stately home and admire Contemporary Art at the sites gallery, which this season features the Award Winning artist Lubaina Himid with six of her paintings inspired by opera. Glyndebourne Summer Festival is a highlight of the opera calendar. The quality of the music isjust phenomenal. I love the setting and the fact that you can sit out here and sort of dress up and drink champagne. A day of coming together and enjoying not only world class opera, but alsojust being in this lovely setting in the countryside. For nearly a century, glyndebourne has been proving how opera can be enjoyed in a rural setting away from grand theatres in city centres. A lot of people find crossing the threshold of an opera house quite difficult because it does seem rather daunting. So to have opera in these amazing different spaces gives you a lot more flexibility as to how you engage and experience with things. Glyndebourne grew out of a family passion. The first Summer Festival In 193a was the brainchild of Local Landownerjohn Christie and his wife audrey mildmay, the english Born Canadian soprano. The Family Tradition was continued by their son, george, and now their grandson, gus, who runs glyndebourne, lives on the grounds with his wife, the celebrated Australian American soprano danielle de niese. My dad turned it from being a sort of a Country House homespun festival into a world Renowned International festival. He knocked down the theatre that his dad had built and he rebuilt the current theatre, which is a 1,200 seater, in the early 905. And do you have any plans for its evolution . Well, you have to have an eye for tradition on the past, but you have to keep relevant. Its about putting on fantastic world class, transformative operas. Its about nurturing young talent. That is the same, but if you want to attract the next generation of audiences in, you cannot keep performing in the same way with traditional sets and costumes. We update shows, we challenge and provoke. So, were trying to kind of keep pace with the changing world, but maintaining our traditions. The Second World War put a temporary stop to performances, and the house itself played a part in the war effort. Glyndebourne opened its doors to Evacuee Children. So, we had over 300 Evacuee Children staying with us. As archivists here, you get to see all sorts of historical pictures. I mean, does that give you a bit of a buzz . It really does. Weve got incredible photos of audience members. The amazing thing about glyndebourne is you look at these photos and not much has changed. I think art, opera, nature has always been like a core trinity for glyndebourne. And what about singers whove performed here . I suppose the biggest singer is pavarotti himself, who performed here in idomeneo. One notable glyndebourne performer is danielle de niese. Sweeping strings. Dani de niese is a phenomenal talent, as we all know. She brings this incredible stage personality, which is full of fizz and charisma, and she brings a wonderful voice, of course, shes a Great Communicator on stage and she acts really well. And its that combination that people really love when they see her on stage. Danielle was born in australia to sri lankan parents of partial european descent. At the age of nine, she was the youngest winner of a National Tv Talent competition. When you look at my career, because i started so young, it looks like everything happened quite fast. But given that i already knew from eight i wanted to be an opera singer and i was doing piano and theory from seven and Voice Lessons from eight, in some way, i was, like, being steadily prepared for being able to accomplish my dreams already, just kind of ahead of everybody else. The family moved to los angeles in america when she was about ten and she started singing professionally as a teenager. I was very fortunate that my parents made lots of sacrifices over the years to be able to get me the best training that would allow me to fulfill this dream. I can talk about performing at glyndebourne in a non biased way because i was here for two whole seasons before gus and i became a couple, so. Its a beautifully seamless transition between the Rehearsal Room and the stage because the theatre has such an incredible acoustic. We are set in this incredibly idyllic Countryside Setting and you are just breathing in so much inspiration. It puts you in a different mindset, i think. Performers are getting ready for this years Summer Festival at glyndebourne and ive been invited to rehearsals for a much loved and well known classic that is very suited to this venue. Percussive music plays. The summer 2023 festival features a midsummer nights dream by the british composer benjamin britten. It was first performed here at glyndebourne in 1981, and theres a strong theme of nature in the production. Hail, mortal this bewitching opera is a dark interpretation of shakespeares comic play, in which four athenian lovers are lost in an Enchanted Forest ruled by malicious fairies. Piano chords play. Hail, mortal this is one of the trees that our tree actors will stand in. They have a black catsuit thats covered in vines, and they have these amazing tree boots, which are very heavy. Very heavy. And they slide very slowly across the floor. Singing the role of titania, queen of the fairies, is the american soprano leave redpath. Soprano ms redpath. Its her first time performing at glyndebourne. Im a little bit nervous, but only out of respect for how great this place is. I feel lucky to have titania be my debut here. Its such a perfect role in terms of personality and diversity of kind of the character itself. One of the most loved roles in a midsummer nights dream bottom, whose head is titanias love interest, the comic character bottom, whose head is transformed into that of a donkey. This year, its being performed by American Bass Baritone brandon seidel. The first time you put on the donkey head, its a little, its hot first and foremost, and its a little overwhelming. But then theres plenty of time to adjust. Rehearsing is a joy and its so exciting to kind of bear witness to what everyone does here. And something that glyndebourne does that i think is fantastic is that every part of the house operates on the highest level. So you feel the energy that the costume designers and the set designers and the Wig Department and makeup department, Everyone Wants to do their best. Executive chairman gus christie and his team at glyndebourne want to deliver the best. But to do so with an eye to the environment. They believe they are trailblazers for sustainability in the opera world. At the turn of the century, really, it became apparent to me we were facing a problem with Climate Change and global warming. Were fortunate that we have a hill nearby us where we could put a turbine and theres a cable that runs down to our Energy Centre and it powers the whole place. Were running on wind. This year we saved ourselves £1,000,000 in electricity bills. Do you absolutely power glyndebourne totally with that . Totally. With one wind turbine. Even your home on the grounds . Even my home on the grounds, yeah. The wind turbine was really the catalyst of setting us off down the Sustainability Route and it went up in 2012. And since then we have created an environmental Champions Group around the company. So everyone is invested into how to reduce our carbon emissions. We are zero waste to landfill now. So any, any waste we have goes down to this local incinerator which provides power for local homes. We compost all our garden waste. We recycle as much of our stage set material, costumes, props. We have about 32 electric vehicle charging points, which are all charged from the wind turbine. Just down this little route here, which is rather spectacular, we have put in a wild beehive. Glyndebourne is also making costumes in a more environmentally friendly way by using dye from plants grown in their gardens. We have leaves, we have roots, we have flowers, weve got pine bark here. We soak them, we boil them, and we use a mordant to fix it into the fabric. And then you get this selection of colours. Yeah, weve got a lovely selection and we can use them quite often in choruses. Often in choruses in opera. Were trying this season especially to really bring it into every production. Id like to reach for these before i reach for a chemical product. Itsjust better for the environment. The rivers around the world are polluted by dyes a lot. This way everything goes back into the ground. Our Carbon Footprint is much smaller because people are bringing it straight from the gardens to us here. I think its very important that that we have this Sustainability Drive for the next generation of opera goers. Opera is a 400 year old art form, and we cant sit on our laurels and hope that people will come. So how does glyndebourne� s environmental record measure up in the Performing Arts . Alison tickell runs a london based charity working on Climate Action across the culture sector. It is a hard industry because it is associated with lavish productions, with really big opera houses and with an audience that has expectations of very high production values. So the challenges are quite big in opera. It was a slow starter, but were now seeing some really fantastic action. I think glyndebourne� s reputation in terms of being innovative, in terms of sustainable practice is warranted because it has done a huge range of practical on site issues, to the point where it can genuinely say that the Environmental Sustainability Environmental Sustainability and action on the Climate Crisis is a core value. But i think it also has that Fantastic Totemic wind turbine, which is this beacon of both beauty and also hope. And i know that many opera companies, many cultural organisations dont have the luxury of the space, but it still remains a beacon for us all and has done for well over a decade now, that Climate Action really matters. I would love to think that audiences really care about the Climate Crisis. I suspect that, just like in most other areas, theres a generational difference. Young people really mind because its their futures, its their world. As well as sustainability, glyndebourne is committed to widening the operatic talent pool. Danielle de niese is patron of Pegasus Opera Company in london, which provides opportunities for diverse artists. They make great efforts to open up their Casting Process to a wide range of great artists who happen to be of colour or any kind of mixed race background. Glyndebourne runs an annual Mentorship Programme with pegasus. The Artistic Director of pegasus is soprano alison buchanan, the only black woman to hold such a post at an Opera Company in the uk. The glyndebourne Pegasus Mentorship Scheme is a wonderful thing because Pegasus Opera Advocates for and represent singers advocates for and represents singers of colour who dont get opportunities in this opera industry. I find that a lot of these Young Artists and even more seasoned artists who are not getting the opportunities to hone their craft need a way to do that. Its getting better, but its still challenging. Were opening up our minds as a society to the idea of there being barriers to people because of their ethnicity or their background or their upbringing. I carry that with great pride, obviously, that im sitting here today, being a diverse person. We need to stretch our reach a lot further. Its very, very important that we expose our young talent to the best that the business has to offer. Its a really Bespoke Programme of coaching opportunities, Mentoring Opportunities and access to a wide variety of highly skilled professionals that will only add to the young skillsets of these artists. These two young singers performing with pegasus have applied for a place on the Mentorship Programme with glyndebourne and are eagerly awaiting to find out if theyve been successful. Itd be great to get a position on the programme because it would be a brilliant opportunity to work with so many different people in the industry and to learn and work on my own craft as well. I think i would just go there and just learn as much as i can and i think it would be very beneficial for my career. Its performance evening for a midsummer nights dream, and the audience are starting to arrive to enjoy the full glyndebourne experience. Amongst them are carlos and jasmine, who are among four lucky singers chosen for the glyndebourne Mentorship Programme. Hello. Afternoon. Its very nice to meet you. Im danielle. Imjasmine. Hi, jasmine. Lovely to meet you. Welcome to glyndebourne. What has it meant to you to be involved in a programme like this . It has been amazing to be part of how everything works and getting to know everyone. Its like an Honour Tojust see how much work goes into all of it and really exciting to know i can be a part of that someday. I think its so important that young singers like you guys have access to that, that you can like raise your skillsets and become even better artists. Shall we head over to the theatre . Yes. Come with me. Orchestra tunes up. Ive been so mesmerized by the costumes, the set, the lighting, the singing. Has it made you both more excited about getting on a stage like here at glyndebourne . Definitely. Im sat there just, like, mentally taking notes. Right, this is the next thing i need to learn. Ive always looked up to glyndebourne as one of the worlds leading opera houses and festivals, and itsjust amazing that i can be part of what happens here. Cheering and applause. My time here at glyndebourne has really made me see how opera can be so much more than wonderful music, singing and staging. It can be a whole experience to enjoy the english countryside, gourmet food and great art and all in a historic venue that offers solutions to the challenges of the 21st century, such as diversity and sustainability. And i really hope that audiences here appreciate that opera can both entertain and be a positive force for good. Friday brought us a line of slow moving thunderstorms across Eastern England and they brought some very heavy rain. This was suffolk. Further south in essex, they saw nine millimetres of rainfall in just the space of one hour. So the rain was really quite intense. And talking about rain, weve got more of that to come on saturday thanks to this area of low pressure which has been named by the met office as storm antoni. Now, antoni will have a number of hazards. The first heavy, persistent rain for Northern Ireland, 20410 millimetres here, maybe more than that over the high ground in the morns, could be enough to bring some Flooding Issues here. But as the rain extends into england and wales, the winds really pick up for wales and south west england. Were talking about gusts reaching 50 65 miles an hour in places could be Strong Enough to bring down one or two trees. So there is a risk of seeing some transport disruption. The wet and windy weather will continue to extend its way eastwards. It will be brighter for scotland, a mixture of sunshine and a few showers here and brighter through the afternoon for Northern Ireland as well, with winds slowly calming down. For some it will be really quite a cold day for august with temperatures potentially just around 11; or 15 degrees for some. Now, as we go through saturday night, the winds will continue to calm down. The rain tending to become confined to eastern areas of england. The weather drier across western portions of the uk. Temperatures overnight saturday night, ranging from around 7 12 degrees in our larger towns and cities. Sunday is the better of the two days of the weekend, a day of sunshine and showers. The greatest chance of seeing showers across scotland and eastern areas of england, where some of them will turn heavy and thundery, probably largely dry across wales and south west england. But wherever you are, our temperatures continue to be a little bit below average for the time of year. Now monday looks like being a cheerier day for many of us. Not completely rain free, mind you. After a sunny start in Northern Ireland, could see some rain arriving late in the day and therell be some showers working into north west scotland, england and wales, largely dry with some sunny spells and our temperatures still around about the high teens to low 20s. So not a bad kind of day overall. But then tuesday, not a good day. Weve got a weak area of low pressure crossing the country and that means, yes, more rain, although things will probably brighten up in the west as we go through the day. So Northern Ireland cheering up through the afternoon with sunshine and maybe an odd shower. Temperatures still high teens to low 20s, so still not particularly warm for august. But we will see changes in the Weather Pattern beyond that because later in the week were going to see our first area of High Pressure across the uk for some seven weeks and thats going to be dragging in some warmer air. Now with that, we should see temperatures climb at least into the mid 20s, maybe the high 20s in the warmest spots in the best of the days sunshine on thursday. Now, the reason we get a big change in the Weather Pattern is down to the jet stream. This was quite typical injuly, very large waves. We have big ridge in the mid atlantic, big troughs near the uk that kept developing low pressures that fired across the uk. That big scale pattern tends not to move the jet stream blocks. It was very unsettled, whereas looking at the weather later in the week, the jet stream taking these smaller meanders and this kind of pattern does tend to move through. So well still be reduced where we get High Pressure. There will still be some troughs around where we get low pressure, but nothings blocked. The jet stream is going to continue to move those Weather Systems through. And so overall, a better spell of weather with some longer, drier, warmer spells, especially towards the south and east of the uk. Still some rain around, especially across the north west of the uk across the north west of the uk. Thats your latest weather. Live from london. This is bbc news. Pakistans former Prime Minister imran khan has been given a three year Jail Sentence over corruption allegations. Mr khan was found guilty of not declaring money from selling gifts he received while in office and denies any wrongdoing. Trial by a Kangaroo Type Court and you can simply say that we have never witnessed a trail where someone was not given the opportunity to defend themselves. Ukraine has damaged a russian fuel tanker in its second Sea Drone Attack in two days. And a danger to life warning has been issued, as storm antoni hits parts of the uk, bringing heavy rain and strong winds
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