Le nozze di Figaro’, Glyndebourne, 1937 (2021) Limited Edition Print by Ilse Bing

Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne, 1937 (2021)

Ilse Bing Limited Edition Print 

Gelatin silver print

Size: 19.3 x 28cm

Stamped, dated and signed by Gus Christie

Edition of 10 + 1 Gallery Proof

©The Estate of Ilse Bing

Presented in a black Glyndebourne branded clamshell box

Ilse Bing was one of Europe’s leading avant-garde and commercial photographers of the interwar period, whose photographic works are nuanced by everyday observations, yet amplify our daily perceptions with a dreamlike and surrealist nature. Her photographs at Glyndebourne, taken in 1937, capture the escapism of opera and record the vivacity of live performance.

This print, reproduced from the original Le nozze di Figaro, depicts John Brownlee and Aulikki Rautawaara as Count and Countess Almaviva (far left), Irene Eisinger as Susanna and Willi Domgraf-Fassbander as Figaro (holding hands as they descend the staircase) in the 1937 revival of Glyndebourne’s first ever production of Mozart’s opera, which premiered in 1934. Conducted by Fritz Busch and produced by Carl Ebert, with set designs by Hamish Wilson and costume designs by Ann Litherland. The photographs Bing took at Glyndebourne, using her trademark Leica camera, mark the slow beginning of the end of a period in her career summarised by experimental dreamscapes and distorted perspectives. Bing’s life and work would change dramatically due to the outbreak of the Second World War, followed by exile in New York.

Printed by Robin Bell, one of Britain’s leading photographic printers, this 2021 print is one of a strictly limited edition of 10 and replicates the specifications of the original held in the Glyndebourne Archive, from the printing method to the size. This edition, along with the original photographs, serve as a lasting legacy to the individuals at Glyndebourne who had the artistic foresight to invite, commission and befriend artists, such as Ilse Bing, to capture the magic that makes Glyndebourne unique.