Glyndebourne Festival Opera is among the most prestigious music festivals in the world, presenting opera productions of the highest quality in an intimate, gracious setting. In 1931, wealthy, opera-loving businessman John Christie (1882-1962) married Audrey Mildmay (1900 - 1953), a soprano, and built a 311-seat opera theater at Glyndebourne, his elegant country estate in Sussex, south England. Audrey convinced him to focus on Mozart operas. Christie was willing to pay for the highest standards. He hired the great conductor Fritz Busch and music director. He allowed unlimited rehearsals. The park-like, rural surroundings, free of distractions, allowed the artists to focus on their work. As a result the performances were exemplary. Glyndebourne soon added to its repertory the additional Mozart operas Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, and Don Giovanni, in addition to Verdi's Macbeth (its first British production), and Donizetti's Don Pasquale. War in 1939 ended the Festival for the duration. Financial and social conditions after the War were different, making it impossible for Christie to continue spending his own money on the Festival. (He had lost over 100,000 pre-War pounds in Glyndebourne's first years). However, he was able to subsidize an outside group, the English Opera Group, to premiere Benjamin Britten's new chamber opera, The Rape of Lucretia, and Glyndebourne in 1946, reviving at least the appearance of the Glyndebourne tradition. The next year, a similar arrangement allowed the premiere of Britten's next chamber opera, Albert Herring, and Glyndebourne itself produced a second opera, Gluck's Orfeo, with the country's favorite new operatic star Kathleen Ferrier, and started an additional revenue-producing activity by taking the production on tour to the Edinburgh Festival, which they continued to do through 1951. Spedan Lewis of the John Lewis Partnership put up a financial guarantee allowing Glyndebourne to put on a regular festival season in 1950, which also marked Fritz Busch's return. In 1951 Glyndebourne received a government grant to allow it to continue as a participant in the Festival of Britain. Busch again conducted four Mozart productions, including the British professional premiere of Idomeneo. This was Busch's last year. He died in 1951 and was succeeded as chief conductor by Vittorio Gui, an Italian Mozart specialist. In 1953 the theater was enlarged to 700 seats. In that year Glyndebourne mounted its own first production of a contemporary opera, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, (the Britten operas having been produced by the English Opera Group). Since then the Festival has introduced a new opera nearly every year. In 1954 the Glyndebourne Arts Trust was founded, assuming all financial responsibility for the Festival. In 1958 Christie's son George (b. 1934) assumed control of the Glyndebourne Productions Ltd., which actually runs the Festival. During the post-war years the orchestra was provided by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1948 to 1963, and by the London Philharmonic from 1965 onwards. (In fact, the LPO played in 1964 as well, but billed as the "Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra.") The "Glyndebourne Festival Chorus" is generally one or another choral group engaged or formed for each season. In 1969 John Pritchard became the music director, succeeded by Bernard Haitink in 1977 and then by Sir Andrew Davis. The Glyndebourne experience includes its manor-house setting, its upper-class tone, and such traditions as a pre-opera picnic on the lawn. Although the opera house was later enlarged to 800 seats, in 1994 George Christie opened a new, larger theater. The new setting proved popular with Festival audiences. After the summer season, the Glyndebourne Touring Opera takes the year's productions to various smaller theaters throughout Britain for an autumn season.