An ambitious summer festival, taking place in a 500-seat theatre overlooking a glorious valley in the English Cotswolds. 

Longborough Festival Opera (LFO), a now internationally-recognised summer opera festival with wide-reaching education programmes, has a remarkable story with humble beginnings. Set in the quintessentially English Cotswolds, and sharing the same county as the country residence of HM King Charles III, it was founded by a man who had no formal musical education, who listened to Beethoven while working on a building site. It has grown into an established opera company, with a summer festival in a purpose-built theatre which has its own humble beginnings – as an agricultural chicken shed.

Longborough punches well above its weight, achieving many times over what others have not even attempted:  in 2013, a full-scale production of Wagner's Ring Cycle established the Festival as a destination for Wagnerians in the UK and abroad, becoming the first ever (and as yet the only) UK festival to stage a full Ring Cycle. A new Ring culminated in another full cycle in 2024, thus also racking up the extraordinary achievement of having produced two new productions of this epic work in just over a decade.  

The world’s leading magazine about opera, Opera Magazine, said of the Longborough Ring Cycle (August 2024): "No other "country house" opera company has risen to such a challenge, not even Glyndebourne… the stamina, the superb diction, the focused musicianship: all of these served as a model of the best this daring, innovative Ring cycle could produce."  

Our new strategy to 2030 is heavily influenced by some of the themes that we see in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: learning, love, craftsmanship, community music-making, midsummer feast-days and philosophy of art. We will produce this opera for the first time in 2027, our 30th anniversary year of opera-making in this theatre. It also cements our historic connection with the work of Richard Wagner, taking inspiration from the composer which inspired the Festival in the first place.

Our vision is to be recognised as a bold, audacious company essential to the UK’s opera landscape, rooted in our community and our environment, fostering the best of British Wagnerian talent and the next generation of artists and audiences through its innovative festival and education programmes. 



Strategic Goals: 

1.	To be recognised as a centre of excellence for learning and apprenticeship in all areas of our work and to be renowned as the birthplace of British Wagnerian artists.

2.	To present a bold, varied annual summer festival rooted in the ambitious spirit of its founders, delivering a singular, unique experience for artists and audiences.

3.	To invest in the sustainable development of our theatre and our site for the benefit of future generations of art-lovers.

4.	To be a trusted neighbour and partner, embedded in our local community with wide-reaching local, national and international links, offering valuable and diverse interactions with people of all ages and backgrounds. 

Longborough Festival Opera

1067431123

1435915265

148788709

1675433849

2221664066

2352003526

2535103040

2547000601

2551237796

2595251256

2808155606

2883383521

2970598858

3107677517

316638097

339774024

3868271524

3874769064

3934974605

4083678788

4124487947

4172451122

496574456

698107245

91415239

1287028958

2729980760

3440869557

671754822

87081813

1014384873

1112422858

153399038

2028390811

220342792

2266630408

2456389719

2519810400

2539558839

2826465835

We are a nonprofit, so instead of charging fees we rely on the generosity of donors like you.

Choose a donation for Every.org

2843798242

2898624300

2916352438

3125568929

3259439560

3583328878

3642494300

3902459442

4136002033

4177183036

4250940449

472232120

585491400

641510716

91682487

.css-1wjgqn{display:inline-block;--textSize:1.5rem;--lineHeight:1.7999999999999998rem;line-height:var(--lineHeight);font-size:var(--textSize);width:100%;}Longborough Festival Opera

Longborough Festival Opera