Europe is awash with opera festivals. There's the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, where a three-towered island fortress provides a stunning
medieval background. There's Italy's Arena di Verona Festival, set in a wonderfully preserved first-century Roman amphitheatre.
Bregenz, on the Austrian shore of Lake Constance, is famous for its giant floating stage. And the lakeside Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago is just a stone's throw away from the Villa Puccini, where the composer lived from 1900 to 1921. Here in Ireland, a partially covered-in stable yard in Lismore Castle bravely brings a sometimes wet, Irish slant to outdoor opera.
The Drottningholm Festival near Stockholm uses the Royal Theatre, which survived into the 20th century with its 18th-century scenery and stage machinery intact. And the Wexford Festival is of course a place of international pilgrimage for lovers of rare opera.
But in terms of luxury, Glyndebourne is a name that stands apart, conjuring up images not just of opera but of old-style indulgence in long, sun-drenched intervals in the beautiful gardens of an English country house.
In terms of self-sufficiency, you might be surprised to learn that, since its foundation in 1934, the festival has been run without support from the public purse. But it does depend on public money to send its productions on tour in the UK. The touring casts are younger, and the orchestra is different. But as general director David Pickard pointed out to me, among the numerous singers who have graduated from the tour to the festival proper have been stars like Chilean tenor Juan Diego Flórez.
Glyndebourne's second ever visit to Dublin brings Tom Cairns's production of Verdi's La traviata to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre (last performance tonight). If the ticket prices seem high - from €35 to €125 - that's because British arts council money doesn't stretch to Dublin.
The Violetta (Irina Dubrovskaya) and Alfredo (Zach Borichevsky) have been winning high plaudits, with the Guardian's George Hall writing that in some respects the touring production "feels fresher and more involving than it did during the festival". bordgaisenergytheatre.ie
