Glastonbury or Glyndebourne? The question might be translated appropriately, as we shall see presently, into “wellingtons or beef wellington?”, fitting for the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, although no less an expert than Clarissa Dickson Wright has argued that the name of the dish has nothing to do with the Iron Duke but derives from its having been served at a civic reception in the New Zealand city of Wellington.

Definitely Glyndebourne for me, though thus far this year my visits have been restricted – hardly the mot juste – to the other big Gs of country house opera, Garsington and Grange Park, and to wonderful Longborough, near Moreton-in-Marsh, where performances take place in a converted cattle barn adorned with life-size statues of Wagner, Verdi and Mozart.

In glorious sunshine last Saturday my destination was Grange Park, Northington, approached through leafy lanes deep in the heart of Hampshire.

Operas here are given in a sylvan estate belonging to Lord Ashburton and boasting what has been called “the most impressive and beautiful garden ornament in England”.

This is The Grange itself, a modest property dating from the 17th century which was utterly transformed early in the 19th century by the architect William Wilkins into a neoclassical Ancient Greek temple.

The massive Doric portico is a copy of the Theseion in Athens. Beneath its columns, during the property’s Victorian heyday, strolled the likes of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle. Today they supply a backdrop – and a thoroughly painterly one, you might think, observing my photograph above – for the consumption of champagne and canapés before opera performances.

These are given in a handsome 500-seat theatre, fashioned by Studio E Architects in 2002 from a former orangery/picture gallery. This gained a number of prestigious accolades, including the RIBA Award 2004 and the Georgian Group Award for Best New Building in a Georgian context.

It is worth noting that Garsington, too, functions in a multi-award-winning building. Snell Associates’ opera pavilion on the lovely Wormsley estate, nestling at the foot of the Chilterns, was designed to be dismantled and reassembled as required, but after one such proceeding the Getty family, owners of the estate, indicated they were happy for the handsome building to remain in place permanently.

Saturday’s Grange offering was a splendid production of Puccini’s La bohème (my review of which can be found on The Oxford Times’s website).

Before the curtain rose, Rosemarie and I made the acquaintance of the couple in front for whom this was a first experience of country house opera, indeed of opera full stop.

The pair had, in fact, consciously rejected the fare being offered at Worthy Farm. Possessing coveted tickets for Glastonbury, they had allowed themselves to be talked by friends into sampling the rival delights of The Grange. They told me at the end they had enjoyed Bohème.

On my visits to GPO – in the letters confusingly attached to staff badges – dining is usually done in the restaurant atmospherically located in the rooms of the main house, which are steadily being won back from decay (with some way still to go).

This time, though, we decided to take a picnic, which we ate alongside other groups in a gaily decorated marquee set beside the elegant formal parterre. Our closest neighbours were consuming the aforementioned beef wellington, with the rich flavour of the pâté wafting tantalisingly in our direction.

Retaliation from us came in the heady smell of honey-baked duck, bought earlier in the day as part of one of Marks & Spencer’s excellent £10 deals.

This weekend sees journeys to Longborough for performances of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Here, our rule is always to picnic, not least since this can be done – sans hamper-lugging – from the boot of the car. This lends the whole enterprise the happy atmosphere of a point-to-point.