Martin and Lizzie Graham started promoting opera in the grounds of their home in 1991 as Banks Fee Opera. Longborough Festival Opera has since grown into an established opera company, situated in the heart of the Cotswolds, with an annual season taking place in a purpose-built opera house seating 500.
Longborough Festival Opera remains a family affair: Martin and Lizzie's daughter, the acclaimed opera director Polly Graham, was appointed as Artistic Director in 2018.
Now the company is an independent charity that continues Martin Graham's legacy in the theatre he built in the grounds of the family home. It is not in receipt of public grant funding nor any revenue from the Graham family, and relies on ticket sales and the generosity of members and audiences.
Throughout Longborough's history, Martin and Lizzie achieved what some might have said to be impossible: in 2013 they presented a full-length production of Wagner's Ring Cycle with minimal budgets but to great critical acclaim, establishing the Festival as a destination for Wagnerians in the UK and abroad. In 2019 the company embarked on a new Ring, culminating in another new full cycle in 2024.
