Fritz Busch
Two refugees from Nazi Germany, the conductor Fritz Busch and director Carl Ebert, were appointed to lead the first season, and Rudolf Bing joined them, at first as a jack-of-all-trades but in later seasons as director. The inaugural Glyndebourne Festival opened on 28 May 1934 with Mildmay, who was two months pregnant with her second child, singing Susanna in "The Marriage of Figaro". The conductor, Fritz Busch, insisted Mildmay audition for him before giving her the role, and she accepted the condition willingly. Busch wrote in his notes about the quality of her voice, and stated that he would have engaged her for the Semperoper in Dresden. She sang Zerlina in 1936 and Norina in "Don Pasquale" in 1939 to critical acclaim.