World’s best opera festivals

As far as logistics are concerned, Mary Lou Falcone, the festival’s U.S. spokesperson, says, "It's as easy as flying non-stop to Zurich, boarding a train right in the airport, and finding yourself in Lucerne in less than one hour.” Once there, she adds, “the beauty of the setting takes your breath away.”

England’s Glyndebourne Festival is considered by many to be hands-down the world’s top summer opera festival. It is certainly the most elegant: “The atmosphere is incredible,” says Marisol Montalvo, the American soprano who has the leading role in a world premiere, "Love and Other Demons" (based on the novella by Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

“You go to the opera dressed to the nines, in tuxedos and long gowns, and then you go watch the first half of the opera, then you break for dinner, you go out to the green, where the sheep and the cows are, you lay your picnic blanket down and you eat dinner for an hour or so, then you pack it all up and go back into the theater for the rest of the show.”

Glyndebourne is about an hour outside of London and 10 minutes from Brighton. “Hotels are booked up and tickets sell out fast because the quality is so high,” says Montalvo. “It’s so first-class, everything they [the festival organizers] touch and do, and they do it with a sense of humility, out of a love for music.”

And then there is France. The main event at the Chorégies d'Orange, France’s oldest festival (Bastille Day notwithstanding) is a series of opera performances with the best international talent in a ravishing, perfectly preserved Roman theater that holds 9,000 spectators. Just remember to buy a cushion before sitting down to your three-hour extravaganza; those ancient seats are hewn from solid rock. At the justly renowned Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, music spills out of Baroque buildings such as the Theatre de l'Archeveche, Chateau de Saint-Jean-de-la-Salle, and Theatre du Jeu de Paume (Louis XIV' s former tennis court).

The more established opera festivals may have the highest glamour quotient and pull the biggest names, but don’t overlook some of the smaller festivals around the world. Oftentimes lesser known works are performed—in fact, that’s a hallmark of Wexford. Lécroart, the French baritone, sang there in Auber’s version of Manon Lescaut, not the better-known one by Puccini. And even if a festival like Wexford’s isn’t strictly speaking outdoors, there are often charming quirks: “The theater we sang in was like an old Parisian movie house, with a parterre and a balcony—the kind that doesn’t exist in Paris anymore,” Lécroart recalls.

In Bregenz, Austria, elaborate staging on an artificial island moored in Lake Constance means each production has a two-year run, and the Seepromenade, Bregenz’s little lakeside shoreline, is always hopping as a result. Montalvo, the soprano, played Maria in "West Side Story" at Bregenz in 2003 and 2004, singing on what she describes as a sort of rotating railroad track. “Bregenz is one of those experiences you can never forget in your life,” she says. “It’s one of those special places. It’s just amazing how people build that stuff.”

And though Montalvo, who is already gearing up for the world premiere of "Love and Other Demons" on August 10, says she has “lots of high notes” in the eagerly anticipated opera, the highest note of all may be one she reserves for the Glyndebourne Festival: “It’s something everyone should experience,” she says. “There’s nothing like it.”

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