Glyndebourne Summer

Rumi Varla, a twenty five year old Parsi born in Bombay, charming, idealistic, passionate and philosophical, dreams of international operatic fame, arrives in England during the heady sixties, and is soon engaged to sing at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, in Lewes. An innocent immigrant abroad, nurtured under the embrace of the British Raj, he is confident of acceptance and excited by the prospects of cultural fulfilment and spiritual growth. He finds accommodation with an eccentric sixty year old, Gertrude Earlsfield, and begins to discover the delights of English country living seduced by the Arcadian romanticism of his surroundings, rejoicing in the companionship of fellow artists, immersed in the world of music he so loves. His affection for the mischievous, outspoken Gertrude grows, as she takes the young Rumi to her maternal bosom, and at Glyndebourne he feels the first real pangs of love and lust for a beautiful American soprano, Jasmine Bernstein. Over the course of galas, festival dinners, idyllic summer afternoons sharing poetry and philosophy, rehearsing 'La Boheme' their romance becomes the talk of Glyndebourne, and Rumi is cast adrift in a world of temptations and moral minefields.