John Christie of Glyndebourne / by Wilfrid Blunt.
| Author/creator | Blunt, Wilfrid |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : Theatre Arts Books, [1968] |
| Description | xiii, 303 pages : illustrations, genealogical table, portraits ; 23 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Preface -- Family tree -- Part I. Prelude -- Parents and childhood -- Eton boy -- Woolwich, Cambridge and cars -- Eton master -- Part II. Active service -- Glyndebourne manor -- Augustus Christie -- Glyndebourne host -- Organs and big business -- Part III. The genesis of opera -- Christie v. Oerton and Nicholson -- Marriage -- The first season -- The mid thirties -- Interlude: John Christie v. Giacomo Agati -- 1939 and 1940 -- The Glyndebourne team -- Part IV. The years of separation -- Planning a better world -- Glyndebourne reopens its doors -- Edinburgh and after -- The last decade. |
| Abstract | John Christie was best known as the founder of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera House. His life was a full one. An only child, he was sent to Eton, where later he returned as a member of the Science staff. His sixteen years as a schoolmaster were interrupted by two years of active service in the First World War, when he won the Military Cross. After the death of his grandfather his father gave him the use of Glyndebourne, an ancient but much renovated country house in the Sussex downs, which soon became an absorbing interest to him. In 1930 his father, who had always been mentally unstable, died leaving his Devonshire properties away from the family; this caused a celebrated lawsuit in which John Christie and his mother were successful. A year later John married Audrey Mildmay, the opera singer, with whose help he created the Opera Festival which, in spite of some initial scepticism, has triumphantly succeeded and is now an accepted institution in the pattern of English life. The author has given in this book a lively picture of a man who was often considered an eccentric, yet who epitomized something really worth while in his generation. |
| LCCN | 68026547 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML429.C53 B6 1968 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |