At our Riverstone Kensington residence we recently hosted ‘An evening with Glyndebourne’, one of the finest and most celebrated opera houses in the world, inviting Glyndebourne guests, prospective residents and current residents from both Riverstone Kensington and Riverstone Fulham to enjoy this very special, one night only performance.

Glyndebourne is one of Riverstone’s partners, enriching the cultural engagement and enjoyment of residents and guests. Riverstone is proud to sponsor Glyndebourne’s Cover Artist Programme, ensuring over 40 talented signers and musicians can rehearse as understudies, ensuring the entire main cast are supported should someone need to step into their shoes.

The evening commenced with Riverstone’s CEO, Martin Earp opening proceedings saying: “We are delighted to host Glyndebourne for a special ‘one night only’ recital, where they have travelled from the Sussex countryside, especially for Riverstone and our guests. Arts and culture are important to many of our residents, (and I’m delighted to see many of them have joined us), who have a long appreciation as part of their everyday lives. We’re seeing a distinct shift in behaviour towards retirement from the baby boomer generation to that of their parents.  In many ways, they are reinventing the retirement rulebook and looking for later living solutions that enable them to stay active and independent for as long as possible.”

Martin followed by introducing Glyndebourne’s Artistic Director, Stephen Langridge who stated “It is an absolute pleasure to partner with Riverstone who are supporting with our Cover Artists Programme. It is such an important programme as when somebody’s sick, and it happens now and again, we don’t want to cancel the show. We want to continue. All the roles operate with six understudies and we’ll spend five weeks really looking into the detail so they’re ready to go. It’s genuinely important and an exciting potential moment for somebody jumping in which there will be a costume ready for them.”

The performance itself, accompanied by food and drink, treated over 60 of our guests to a one night only recital, with performers from this year’s festival, Claire Lees and Jamie Wollard, showcasing the incredible talents of Glyndebourne’s cast with Matthew Fletcher on the piano.

More food and drink were offered to guests from Maria G’s, our destination restaurant and bar at Riverstone Kensington, where they mingled conferring on the beautiful opera they have just heard, and being taken on tours to experience even more of what Riverstone Kensington has to offer.

Offering a retirement lifestyle that is less about retirement and more about living, experiences such as this one, form part of a very diverse series of in-house and external events, speakers and classes organised throughout the year at Riverstone.

We’re incredibly grateful to the cast for travelling from the Sussex countryside to Riverstone Kensington, to entertain our guests and share with us the most beautiful operatic recital. Our guests were in awe of the talents of the opera singers and musicians, many watching as opera enthusiasts, and some being introduced to this style of music for the first time.

To understand the endless benefits of the incredible retirement living lifestyle that Riverstone provides, contact our teams today to arrange a tour. Riverstone Kensington can be reached on 020 8189 7244 or Riverstone Fulham on 020 7349 1911. This event is just one example of the many wonderful activities and opportunities that residents can enjoy, ensuring our focus remains on creating a vibrant community, enhanced by our many carefully selected partnerships.