john christie's fondness for music led him to hold regular amateur opera evenings in this room. at one of these evenings in 1931, he met his future wife, the sussex-born canadian soprano audrey mildmay, a singer with the carl rosa opera company who had been engaged to add a touch of professionalism to the proceedings. they were married on 4 june 1931. during their honeymoon, they attended the salzburg and bayreuth festivals, which gave them the idea of bringing professional opera to glyndebourne, although christie's original concept was for it to be similar to the bayreuth festival. as their ideas evolved, the concept changed to focus on smaller-scale productions of operas by mozart more suited to the intimate scale of the planned theatre.