Agreed, Glyndebourne, review: A daring and magical new opera

Seventy-five local singers including students from Bede’s Senior School, East Sussex College, Heathfield Community College and Uckfield College, took to the stage at Glyndebourne last weekend for a triumphal performance of a new opera, which tackled issues highly relevant today.

Agreed had a multi-genre score by British composer and conductor Howard Moody that included elements of classical, world and jazz – some performed by musicians on stage, some by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Glyndebourne Youth Orchestra.

Its theme is summed up in the phrase, ‘Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,’ with relevant echoes of the Brexit debate. Worryingly, this did not end well for the principals, separated by edict and doomed to live and die apart.