Opera at Glyndebourne
with Peter Medhurst

Day 1 - Chartwell

Our Glyndebourne odyssey begins in London where we meet our executive coach Victoria Coach Station and make our way to the 4* Spa Hotel in Royal Tunbridge Wells for a four night stay. However, en route, we visit the National Trust’s Chartwell, the country house of Sir Winston Churchill, which he and his wife, Clementine, bought in 1922. With the rooms of Chartwell largely untouched, and displaying pictures, books and personal mementoes of the stateman, the visitor experiences the life of this remarkable man in all its dimensions - politician, statesman, husband, father, writer, painter, and even garden planner. We follow our visit with an included lunch before travelling on to our hotel. A private drinks reception this evening at the hotel will be followed by dinner in the restaurant.

Day 2 - Charleston Farmhouse & Puccini’s La Bohème

The morning begins after breakfast with a lecture by Peter on Puccini’s La Bohème - the opera that is being performed at Glyndebourne this evening. Later, we visit Charleston Farmhouse, in Firle, famous for being the country meeting place of the Bloomsbury Group. The story begins in 1916 when Virginia Woolf suggested that the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant make the farmhouse their country home. ‘It will be an odd life’ she wrote ‘but . . . it ought to be a good one for painting.’ Charleston is an example of Bell’s and Grant’s decorative style within a domestic context, and represents the culmination of 60 or more years of artistic creativity. Time permitting, we also visit nearby Berwick Church. After an included lunch, we transfer to Glyndebourne for this afternoon’s performance of La Bohème. Following the opera, we can relax over an included dinner in one of the excellent restaurants in the Glyndebourne complex.

Day 3 - Brighton Pavilion & guided tour of Brighton Pier

After breakfast, Peter will present a lecture on the history of Glyndebourne and its associations with composers, performers, designers, directors and architects. Once done, we make our way down to Brighton to visit the Royal Pavilion, built for the Prince Regent (later King George IV) between 1787 and 1823. The Pavilion is remarkable for its unexpected, exotic oriental appearance, both inside and out, and is now the subject of a four million pound restoration programme. This magnificent, royal, pleasure palace was revered by fashionable Regency society, and to this day, is still a distinctive landmark for Brighton. After an included lunch, we are treated to a private guided tour of Brighton’s famous pier. We return to our hotel in the later afternoon with time for relaxation before dinner in the hotel.

Day 4 – Guided tour of Michelham Priory & Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This morning’s lecture focuses on Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which we will hear at Glyndebourne later in the day. However, by way of contrast, we make our way to Michelham Priory for a guided tour of the beautiful Sussex house, founded in 1229 as an Augustinian priory. Set on a moated island, and reached through an imposing 14th century gatehouse, the Priory fell victim to the mass dissolution of monasteries in the late 1530s, at which point the church was demolished and the remaining buildings transformed into a Tudor gentleman's residence. In 1958 Mrs RH Hotblack (Stella Hotblack) bought the property with the aim of preserving it for posterity, and today it is in trust to the Sussex Archaeological Society. After an included light lunch at the Priory, we make our way to Glyndebourne to hear Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is followed once more by dinner at the opera house.

Day 5 - Bateman’s & All Saints Church, Tudeley

After checking out of our hotel, we return once more to Sussex to visit the National Trust’s Bateman’s, a 17th century country house located in Burwash, and home to the writer Rudyard Kipling from 1902 until his death in 1936. The magnificent 1634 manor house retains much Kipling memorabilia, with most of the rooms - including his book lined study - left as Kipling knew them. Following our included light lunch, our final visit of the tour is to All Saints Church, in Tudeley, where we view the famous and magnificent twelve windows designed by the Russian and French artist, Marc Chagall. We then journey back to London and end our travels in the late afternoon at our original meeting place, Victoria Coach Station.

We stay four nights at the 4* Spa Hotel on the outskirts of Royal Tunbridge Wells (www.spahotel.co.uk). The hotel has an indoor heated pool along with sauna, steam room and a spa (extra costs apply). Dinner in the hotel is included on our first and third evenings, with post-opera dinners at one of Glyndebourne’s restaurants on the other two nights. All the bedrooms have private en suite facilities, WiFi, satellite television and tea and coffee making facilities.

Insurance £36

Double room for sole use supplement £149

Entrance fees to National Trust properties (free to NT members)

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