T

here’s no place in the world like Glyndebourne for experiencing opera. The quintessentially English opera house sits in the rolling green hills of East Sussex, surrounded by luscious gardens and a lily pad-topped lake.

Between May and July – when the annual Glyndebourne Festival is held – you can catch more than 70 spellbinding performances. With an eclectic programme that boasts everything from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to contemporary productions of Hansel and Gretel, the world-renowned festival brings the three-tier auditorium to life with the robust sounds of sopranos and tenors singing their hearts and lungs out.

Every year, around 85,000 visitors dress up to the nines in their finest evening wear and swarm to the festival, eager to see world-class opera talent, often bedecked in extravagant costumes, grace the deliciously eccentric stage.

And when the masks and opera binoculars are packed away for another year, the company takes to the road, touring several locations around England with three different opera productions from October to December.