By DAVID STEPHENSON
20:00, Sat, Jul 27, 2024

The soprano reveals how it was almost curtains for her at the final performance of Merry Widow at Glyndebourne when she fell off a chair while fixing a blind

Tonight Danielle De Niese brings the curtain down on Glyndebourne with a lavish performance of the Merry Widow, writes David Stephenson.

But it was nearly curtains for her own career when she fell off a chair while fixing a broken blind in the run up to the show. She damaged her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL as it is known among footballers who suffer the injury.

“It was a bit of a hiccup in preparations,” she joked. “First I thought, ‘That’s it, I can’t do it’. The first doctor said, ‘Come back in eight weeks’.

“I was due on stage in six! But a second doctor thought he could get me ‘match ready’ in six. And I got there! And the blind remains crooked!”

She describes tonight’s show as a “hum-along”.

“Even though it’s opera, it’s done in the style of musical theatre because it’s practically a musical. In fact, most people who come to The Merry Widow, are pleasantly surprised at how many tunes they already know.”

De Niese is determined to change the way we think about Glyndebourne, a Sussex estate with its own music auditorium.

She explains: “I’ve never found it stuffy or posh. And the creative teams live with us in the house.

“It’s a very troupe atmosphere with all hands on deck. We have dinner together then discuss something about the rehearsal. You can now buy tickets for £30 and go to Glyndebourne. When people think about opera today, they’re holding on to an image of what it was like in the past. Things have moved on.”