A history of Glyndebourne - in pictures

The audience enjoy the gardens in 1939. John Christie inherited the Glyndebourne estate in 1920. The music lvoer mounted amateur opera productions in the grand house's organ room, but following his marriage to singer Audrey Mildmay, set about creating a small purpose-built theatre to hold 300 people, an orchestra pit and a stage. The first festival was in 1934. Photograph: Felix Man/Getty Images

Singers rehearse Mozart's le Nozze di Figaro in the Organ Room in 1939. This, and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte were the first operas to be performed at the festival in 1934. Photograph: Felix Man/Getty Images

Opera-goers walk in the gardens during an interval, in 1939. From 1941-45 the festival was suspended, and the house became an evacuation centre for East London children. Photograph: Felix Man/Getty Images

Rape of Lucretia librettist Ronald Duncan sits with Benjamin Britten on the lawn at Glyndebourne, in 1946. Their chamber opera was premiered at the festival that year. Photograph: Gerti Deutsch/Getty Images

Picnicking by the parked cars, 1946 Photograph: George Rodger/Getty

Benjamin Britten and Frederick Ashton during a rehearsal of Britten's comic opera Albert Herring. Ashton directed and Britten conducted the first performances of the opera at Glyndebourne in 1947. Photograph: Gerti Deutsch/Getty Images

Glyndebourne Festival founder John Christie (1882-1962) relaxes with his pet pug in 1951. Photograph: Cornell Capa/Getty

Festival-goers in the gardens, 1955 Photograph: Jane Bown for the Observer

Denise Duval and Michel Roux in Pelleas and Melisande, 1963. This production was the last to be directed by Carl Ebert. Photograph: Glyndebourne

David Hockney stands in the set of The Rake's Progress, which he designed in 1975. The celebrated production was last revived in 2010. Photograph: Graham Wood/Getty Images

Jonathan Miller directs a rehearsal of Janeck's Cunning Little Vixen in 1975 Photograph: Alamy

Conductors Simon Rattle and Calvin Simmons, who both worked with Glyndebourne early in their careers in the mid 1970s. Photograph: Roy Jones/ Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

Festival-goers picnic during the interval, 1982 Photograph: Jane Bown for The Observer

Maurice Sendak paints a portrait of Maurice Ravel for the production of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole and L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, 1987, one of five productions he designed for Glyndebourne during the 80s. Photograph: Ira Nowinski/Corbis

Peter Sellars sits in the organ room in 1987. He was there at that time to direct the opera The Electrification of the Soviet Union Photograph: Ira Nowinski/Corbis

Director Trevor Nunn rehearsing Porgy and Bess in 1987 Photograph: Ira Nowinski/Corbis

Willard White and Cynthia Haymon rehearse Porgy and Bess in 1987. The production (directed by Trevor Nunn, conducted by Simon Rattle) was expanded for television broadcast in 1993. Photograph: Ira Nowinski/Corbis

The interior of the new opera house which seats 1,200 and was opened in 1994, 60 years to the day after the old theatre's first performance. Photograph: Mike Hoban/AFP/Getty Images

Festivalgoers picnic in the grounds, 2008 Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty

A view of the grounds, with the wind turbine in the background. The turbine was officially launched in January 2012, making the opera house the UK's first arts organisation to thus generate its own power. Photograph: Andrew Hasson Photograph: Andrew Hasson/Andrew Hasson