The film offers a snapshot of the Glyndebourne opera house in the 1950s, including extracts from Le nozze di Figaro, and a fictional first visit to the opera house by an American. According to British musicologist Rodney Milnes the film was "very discreetly aimed at potential American audiences fascinated by British eccentricities".[3]
Synopsis
An American tourist has been persuaded by to visit Alfriston but is bemused by what he witnesses at Victoria Station when people in evening dress join his train. After a confusing journey in a compartment with two men talking about a new countess, he alights at Lewes and is more baffled still when the formally dressed people get on a Southdown bus waiting there. He gets in a taxi and asks the driver to follow the bus. Arriving at the entrance of Glyndebourne, he explains to an upper-class lady he had noticed at Victoria Station, who is with her niece, that he does not have a ticket, at which they ask John Christie who sees that he gets one.
After a private viewing on 25 October 1955, the first public showing was on 24 November at the Gaumont Haymarket cinema, London, on a bill with Simon and Laura (1955).[5]
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This is the simple (and rather thin) story framework adopted by Paul Dehn and Anthony Asquith for their affectionate little impression of Glyndebourne. The handling is smooth and pleasant, the opera extracts excellent, the off-stage glimpses quite intriguing, and a scene of Carl Ebert rehearsing two singers is beautifully filmed. David Knight plays the hick American with charm, and On Such a Night as a whole has a quiet, whimsical appeal."[6]
The Daily Film Renter wrote: "Pleasantness is the word for this one – pleasant scenery, pleasant people, and pleasant music. Its impact, while by no means weighty, satisfies and leaves a happy all's-right-with-the-world after-taste. Anthony Asquith directs it effortlessly and genially and with only a few notes of condescension despite its basic motif, namely how a visiting American (David Knight) discovers for himself the true meaning of the British way of life through a visit to Glyndebourne and chance friendship with a dowager and her niece."[7]
In Sight and Sound James Morgan commented that the “affectionate though whimsical tour of Glyndebourne”, “is handled with lightness and tact, and Asquith's facility with this kind of thing carries it smoothly through”. He also remarked on the “charming glimpse of members of the orchestra playing croquet in the interval, with the sound of their musical instruments synchronised to each swipe of the mallet” and the “beautifully sung” excerpts from rehearsal and performance of the opera.[4]
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