Glyndebourne Opera House

Glyndebourne Opera House stands on an old country estate near Lewes in East Sussex. The house itself dates back to the 15th century, though its present Jacobethan appearance comes from 1870s alterations by William Langham Christie. The opera house was added in 1934 by John Christie, who turned his private music room into a 300-seat theatre. Fritz Busch became the first music director, with Carl Ebert as artistic director, both exiles from Nazi Germany. The festival opened with Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte in May 1934. The house has strong musical roots. John Christie’s grandfather had enlarged the south façade with an 80-foot organ room containing one of the largest organs outside a cathedral. After the Second World War, Christie donated parts of the organ to the rebuilt Guards Chapel in London. His wife, soprano Audrey Mildmay, inspired the move from amateur evenings to professional opera. The first season ran for six weeks, growing quickly from 300 to nearly 900 seats by 1977. Today’s theatre seats 1,200 people and was designed by Michael and Patty Hopkins. The new building replaced a patchwork of outbuildings that once housed restaurants and dressing rooms. The gardens still show traces of the 17th-century façade behind later brickwork. Visitors walk past the driveway where older parts of the house remain visible. The setting combines centuries of history with modern performance space.