Artist William Kentridge is directing Monteverdi's opera *L'Orfeo* at the Glyndebourne Festival in Sussex, running from 14 June to 25 July. Kentridge, known primarily as a visual artist, describes staging an opera as working in the fourth dimension—adding time to the three-dimensional canvas of the stage. His production follows his earlier Monteverdi staging, *The Return of Ulysses* at Lincoln Center in 2016, which featured puppets and diagnostic-imaging video, and was praised as "absolutely thrilling" by *The New Yorker*.
This matters because Kentridge bridges the visual art and opera worlds, bringing his distinctive drawing-based, sensory-overload aesthetic to a centuries-old work. His approach challenges conventional opera staging, emphasizing Gesamtkunstwerk—the total work of art—and expanding how contemporary visual artists engage with live performance. The production also highlights Glyndebourne's commitment to innovative, artist-driven programming.