The 5 best country house opera festivals — an expert's guide

As much of a summer fixture as Ascot or Wimbledon — but with grunting tennis players and whinnying horses swapped for more melodious sounds — Britain's country house opera festivals are in full swing. Taking place in and among some of the most beautiful estates and grounds in England, the specifics may change but some things are constant: quality performers, bucolic spots to have a picnic in a dinner interval, and the strong allure of something fizzy to drink, whether it's champagne or sparkling elderflower.
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I've been lucky enough to be able to visit most of these festivals. But what are the differences between them — and how do you get the best from your experience? Read my last-minute guide, and do contribute in the comments with your favourite recommendations and tips.
Centered on a Tudorbethan pile that has been in the hands of the Christie family since the 1830s, the Glyndebourne Festival is (gently) steered today by the present ruling Christie, Gus, who is the executive chairman. History repeated itself when he married the soprano Danielle de Niese — his grandfather, John, who founded the festival, was also married to a soprano, Audrey Mildmay — and the chatelaine usually headlines an opera production every other year. (Their elder child, Bacchus, has already appeared on stage in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.) There are three restaurants, a ha-ha and sheep frolicking on nearby fields — it's the motherlode of English summer opera.
Perhaps surprisingly, value: the Glyndebourne theatre has a wider range of ticket prices than the other festivals, but you need to be logging on when booking opens in the spring to get a sniff at the cheaper ones.
In for a penny … this year the company put on its first production of Parsifal, Wagner's mystical swansong, winning particular acclaim for the conducting of its (increasingly mystical himself) music director Robin Ticciati.
Don't expect to be able to get a taxi from Lewes station without booking it — things can get brutal in that queue as black tie-wearing opera buffs slug it out for the few remaining cars. The smart choice is to reserve a seat on Glyndebourne's coach. To Aug 24; glyndebourne.com
• Sathnam Sanghera: Can a trip to Glyndebourne make me like opera?
Confusingly, not in Garsington, Oxfordshire, although the festival started there. Since 2011 it has been a few miles down the road, across the Buckinghamshire border, in the Wormsley estate of Mark Getty (yes, of those Gettys). The glass-paned theatre has won awards and rightly so, fitting in snugly into the Chilterns landscape. The festival has scored some great artistic successes in the past year — helped by a fertile relationship co-producing shows with the Santa Fe festival in New Mexico — and recently opened new studios for rehearsal and education work. If you recognise the picturesque cricket ground, it's most likely from scenes filmed for Downton Abbey.
Friendliness. More intimate than Glyndebourne but still with huge grounds to explore, it's the sort of place where you can have odd chats with strangers while dodging froglets by the lake, and the artistic director, the conductor Douglas Boyd, makes it his business to be a cheery public ambassador for the company.
The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky's thriller-cum-ghost story, is hard to stage well, but Jack Furness has done an excellent job, as has Boyd in the pit.
Don't leave your sandwiches, or even any small children, unattended for a minute — they will get carried off by the increasingly feral, ever more gigantic and completely unafraid red kites. To Jul 22; garsingtonopera.org
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Wasfi Kani's opera festival began life in Hampshire — at the Grange, near Alresford, which now has its own festival, see below — before decamping to the Surrey estate inherited by Bamber Gascoigne from an eccentric reclusive aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe. Inside the crumbling, mostly Jacobean mansion Kani salvaged treasures that included the liveries of the duchess's servants; in the grounds she raised enough money to build a new theatre from scratch, which happened in less than a year. Visitors can now choose between eating in the restaurant — in some of the less dilapidated rooms of the house — or picnicking in the walled gardens.
Big names. Bryn Terfel is a regular visitor; this year it's Simon Keenlyside, playing his namesake Simon Boccanegra in Verdi's dark drama.
All respect to Keenlyside, but the hidden gem of the season is Tchaikovsky's timely Mazeppa, rarely performed in the west, and set in a pivotal era of Ukrainian history. The Times awarded it five stars.
This might be a bit infra dig, but you can actually slope off to the pub in the dinner interval (if you don't fancy an M&S quiche in a freezing marquee). The very agreeable Duke of Wellington is only a 15-minute walk away. To July 13; grangeparkopera.co.uk
This was the home of Grange Park Opera, which pitched its tents by an idyllic Greek revivalist estate that had been saved from destruction by its owners, the Barings, by English Heritage (who now run it on their behalf, an arrangement I'm not sure anyone understands). Then when GPO went north to Surrey, a new regime took over and they have put on a more varied range of entertainment in the bijou theatre, converted from the house's old orangery. Expect to find more dance and jazz than at other opera festivals; this year — clutch your pearls — there's even a night devoted to the music of Queen and Freddie Mercury.
The most remote and rural-feeling of the main festivals, this one has some dazzling views, whether of unbroken Hampshire countryside or the neoclassical mansion set against fields and meadows.
Imported from France comes a new version of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes, with hip-hop-inspired choreography.
Whatever it costs to get one of the elite Ivanhoe-style tents surely must be worth it. Be a princess for the day. To Jul 6; thegrangefestival.co.uk
The invention of Martin Graham, who turned his barn into a 500-seat auditorium, this Gloucestershire redoubt has a truly splendid view over the Cotswolds countryside and a theatre topped by statues of Wagner, Verdi and Mozart. Yes, it's the apogee of English eccentricity, but artistic standards have been rising every year and the company's 2024 Ring cycle was a seriously impressive achievement.
Normally Wagner, although this year they have swapped the composer's epic dramas for a contemporary work about the Wagner family, Wahnfried.
The new production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas will be expanded with other Purcellian numbers, provided by the virtuosic yet earthy players of Barokksolistene.
Inexplicably, some patrons have been seen having their quiches in the car park, even though there's one of the best views in England from the picnic lawn just round the corner.To Aug 2; lfo.org.uk
Nevill Holt in Leicestershire no longer puts opera at the forefront of its festival, though it did team up with Opera North for a well received Così fan tutte this summer. Waterperry, near Oxford, has a rising reputation for bringing on young artists, and this year's forthcoming production of Handel's Semele also comes to Holland Park in west London. Dorset Opera Festival sets its stall at Bryanston, usually offering an interesting rarity (though this year it's populist Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni). Finally, Wild Arts has its cake and eats it — the Essex-based company packs its bags and heads from idyllic spot to spot, venues including Elveden Hall in Norfolk and Childerley Hall in Cambridgeshire.

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