Glyndebourne tours care homes with project about Dame Vera Lynn

Beginning this week, Glyndebourne musicians will be on tour with the project about the We’ll Meet Again singer and longtime Ditchling resident.

They will visit care homes including St Rita's near Ditchling, where the entertainer spent her final years.

Dame Vera’s daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones will attend this session, which takes place on November 20, as will her archivist. 

Glyndebourne’s Good Company initiative takes professional opera singers and orchestral musicians into care facilities for interactive sessions with residents and staff. 

The venture began on Monday, Remembrance Day, and sees a Glyndebourne singer and five instrumentalists from the Glyndebourne Sinfonia undertaking the largest tour to care homes and day centres since the initiative was launched in 2021. 

The musicians will be performing a new work, Sincerely Yours, inspired by the letters sent to Dame Vera, the Forces' Sweetheart, during the period in which she hosted her long-running BBC radio show of the same name.

The Good Company initiative sees professional opera singers and musicians perform to care home residents (Image: Glyndebourne)

The show, which began in 1941, went out on the BBC World Service every Sunday night for the duration of the war and became hugely popular with soldiers overseas, who sent in up to 2,000 song requests every week.

Directed by Fiona Dunn, the piece follows the life of one special listener, Sam, in a series of imagined letters sent in to the Sincerely Yours radio show between 1967 and 2024.

The letters are interspersed with performances of operatic highlights, including Carmen’s Habanera aria, The Drinking Song (Brindisi) from Verdi’s La traviata, Delibes’ Flower Duet and Puccini’s O mio babbino caro. 

The care home sessions will culminate in a rousing performance of some of Dame Vera’s most popular songs, including We’ll Meet Again. Residents will be encouraged to sing along and play instruments alongside the Glyndebourne musicians. 

Dame Vera Lynn was known as the Forces' Sweetheart, having given outdoor concerts for the troops in Egypt, India and Burma during the Second World War (Image: Creative Commons) Composer Lucy Armstrong said: “It’s been a joy to work on this special project. As a composer, it's relatively unusual to be commissioned to craft something specifically for a care home audience. I’m excited to see the response.”

The first performances were at Parris Lawn care home in Ringmer and Lydfords in East Hoathly, near Lewes. 

Virginia Lewis-Jones said: “When I first heard about this project I was really delighted. It's amazing how people with dementia react to music and will remember songs when they literally can't remember anything else. 

“I am so pleased to be able to support this wonderful 'show' and know that it will be a huge success.  I am thrilled that they are performing at St Rita's.  I am looking forward to reconnecting with everyone there."