‘Here comes another high five for David Hare.’

‘What a year Hare’s had in his native Sussex landscape: a delightful memoir of childhood and schooldays, the game-changing Chekhovs and now this beautiful account of the inception of Glyndebourne before the war, a tapestry of intrigue and pragmatism, artistic endeavour as a form of patriotism, musicians on the run, dictatorship, idealism, patronage, Mozart and love.’

‘Jeremy Herrin’s elegant production – designed on an angle by Rae Smith as an unstuffy version of the Glyndebourne organ room, without the organ, but with two vast Persian carpets, a bisecting hint of a theatrical proscenium and lush swagging – lays out the story with precision, wry charm and lots of good jokes (“The people of Tunbridge Wells seemed strangely indifferent to Parsifal,” and so on).

‘The play darts back and forward in time, and the fourth wall is broken down in rotation by the characters: Christie laying down the law, Bing (the first director of the Edinburgh Festival in 1947) commenting on his style and character, while Audrey languishes and Christie meets Busch for the first time in Amsterdam. It’s an artfully compiled mosaic, and it glints and ripples with exquisite acting.’

‘It’s one of the most poignant, theatrical scenes Hare’s ever written.’

“Hare’s play unravels the multiple paradoxes behind the creation of this Sussex Xanadu.”

“Roger Allam delivers this with spine-tingling magnificence and throughout captures Christie’s extraordinary mix of obduracy, uxoriousness and visionary zeal.”

“Nancy Carroll artfully suggests that Audrey’s gentleness of voice and manner concealed a determination that matched her husband’s, and Paul Jesson as Busch, Nick Sampsonas Ebert and George Taylor as Rudolf Bing remind us that this most English of opera houses would have been inconceivable without refugee talent.”

“Beautifully directed by Jeremy Herrin, the play is a testament to artistic vision and amatory passion.”

“Roger Allam delivers a stunning performance – killingly funny and achingly sad – as the founder of this Sussex country house Mozartian Mecca.”

“Immaculately directed by Jeremy Herrin on an elegant composite set by Rae Smith that combines moneyed domesticity with motifs from the sets of Glyndebourne triumphs”

“Nancy Carroll is pitch-perfect as the finally wheelchair-bound Audrey Mildmay, who ruled with a rod of graciousness.”

“Fervently recommended.”

Sir David Hare, always more than just a Left-wing playwright, has written a short, defiant, moving play about that hotbed of elitism, Glyndebourne opera house.

It focuses on Glyndebourne’s eccentric founder, John Christie, who recruited German talent to launch this most English of venues. He is played by Roger Allam, while his singer wife, Audrey Mildmay, is the marvellous Nancy Carroll. Her fading protestations of love to Christie had me on the verge of tears.

The absence of hair transforms this always watchable actor. For the first time in years, I felt I was seeing him do something new.

Sir David uses the story to make a strong argument about the seriousness of art, which, as he is good enough to admit, is the most inegalitarian of human elements.

There is honour in art. He wants to tell his rich customers: ‘Gentlemen, your lives are the sideshow — art’s the thing. It matters, dammit.’ Well said!