New blood at Glyndebourne
Louise Flind asks her father, George Christie, about his retirement
he other day I went with some trepidation to interview my father, George Christie, chairman of Glyndebourne Festival Opera for the past 40 years. He is going over the hill. Bearing in mind he's a spry 67-year-old, this is of course a green hill which lies adjacent to Glyndebourne. His retirement, he feels, will be beneficial for the opera house.
My father has given the place various injections of 'fresh fertilisation' (as his mother, the soprano Audrey Mildmay, called for) and has resolutely `repolished and improved his parents' original idea, thereby doing, as his father said, 'not the best we can do but the best that can be done anywhere'. My father's improvements included the introduction of the touring company in 1968 and the rebuild of the Glyndebourne theatre in the early 1990s.
So, having run Glyndebourne for the past 40 years, what does it feel like to be retiring and handing over to his son Gus (with whom he is also swapping houses)? With a glint in his eye he replies, 'Demob happy ... ' And proud? 'More relieved than proud that Glyndebourne has survived the last 40 years, and with increasing success. But I think it's terribly important that the organisation takes precedence over any particular person. The important thing is Glyndebourne and its future. My father was extremely good at handing over stuff to me. He did continue to live at Glyndebourne but he was incredibly good at standing back and letting me make my mistakes and grow up with the organisation. He didn't interfere or criticise but gave me helpful advice, and I think that's exactly what should happen when a father hands over to a son. Gus is now in his prime and he's quite greedy to get on, which is an extremely good sign.
'I'm rather tired and a bit washed-up, so it's probably as well for a younger person to be taking over. My retirement coincides, of course, with the appointment of a new music director aged 29 [Vladimir Jurowski]; a new general director aged 40 or 41 [David Pickard]; Gus, who is 37 pushing 38; and new trustees and members of the board coming in. There's a fresh wind blowing through the place and this is the ideal moment for Gus to take over the reins from me. I represent the has-beens and he is the future.'
Gus Christie is the third generation of Christies to run Glyndebourne. John Christie valued the Glyndebourne connection with the Christie name and Dad in turn believes 'it does count for a bit it's rather like the Wagner thing'. Which is why he gleefully replied when I asked him why I had never been considered for the chairmanship, 'You've got the wrong name, Mrs Flind; I'm afraid that won't do at all,' George Christie is determinedly modest, even though the sum of £.35 million was raised chiefly by him for the rebuilding of the theatre. Understandably, contributors at that sort of level demand to see only the top man. The house opened on schedule, within budget and to high praise in May 1994. When asked about the future of the organisation, my father admits: 'Naturally I hope it has a long life associated with the Christie family, in the way that it has in the past. But I also see it as being very much in with a chance now that we've got the new theatre. This bought us into the 20th/21st century whereas the old house was actually creaking and really hadn't got much life left in it.
'I think its future is, compared with a lot of other opera houses, remarkably secure. It's got — forgive the awful expression — a brand name which is strong, and we do now, I would have thought, compete with Bayreuth and Salzburg, which I regard as the two leading European festivals.'
It's a tantalising prospect, being a mere ten minutes walk from Glyndebourne. Will the hill be enough to prevent my father from breathing down my brother's neck and becoming a meddler? Officially he will be on the board, tut I will be lurking in the shadows here because, living over the hill, the temptation to come to see what's happening will persist; but I'll do it in a way that I hope won't interfere or make people embarrassed ... There are new people coming in and they may want to do things differently. That's why I've got to stand back and bite my tongue.'
What of George Christie's retirement? Will he go cruising? 'Certainly not,' he smiles. '1 might buy myself a dog that likes going for walks [the legendary Glyndebourne pugs are not an athletic breed]. And I'm particularly keen on paintings — 18th-, 17thand 16th-century ones — and I love just pottering around, going to galleries and reading up a bit.'
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