I must say I really liked and enjoyed this evocation of the founding years of Glyndebourne written excellently by David Hare. The play moved through a series of flash forwards and backs, telling the story of Christie's determination to host world-class opera in England. He recruited three German exiles to act as maestro, manager and director and we appeared to spend some while being taken through the Nazi persecutions that had brought these people from Germany/Austria. The issue of whether this was just a vanity project for Christie's wife - the Moderate Soprano of the title was confronted head-on, as was her eventually declined health - dealt with in a flash forward.
Christie's zeal for the project and reluctant acceptance that Glyndebourne was better suited to Mozart than Wagner were vividly portrayed and gave some understanding of his motivations.
As one would expect from a writer of Hare's calibre, the play was not simply a history of Glyndebourne, but also contained point to muse upon such as the idea that if only one knew when one was in the best part of something - a musing provoked by Christie's greater enjoyment of getting the project going than living with its fulfillment. Also there were the rather harrowing scenes of his wife wanting to die and be released and his enduring cheering love fore her.
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