Covent Garden's Royal Opera House was transformed into one of the finest performance venues in the world between 1996 and 1999. Photo / Supplied

Covent Garden's Royal Opera House was transformed into one of the finest performance venues in the world between 1996 and 1999. Photo / Supplied

You are passionate about great music. You love it all: opera, symphonies, concertos, chamber music and recitals. Where should you go to indulge your passions, and have a great holiday at the same time?

Try London, one of the greatest of the world's great music cities, alive with classical tunes all year round.

It has an astonishing 20 professional orchestras, the more famous ones being the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

There are also 45 amateur orchestras in the Greater London area, perhaps the most interesting of which are the London Gay Symphony Orchestra and the Lawyers' Music Orchestra and Choir.

The numbers for chamber music ensembles are equally impressive, and there are many dozens of professional soloists, both instrumental and vocal.

Not all who perform in London are English, of course. Far from it. World-class artists, orchestras and ensembles from the rest of the UK, Europe and just about everywhere else appear there frequently.

In any given month, people like superstar sopranos Renee Fleming and Cecilia Bartoli, violin prodigies Jonathan Bell and Gil Shaham, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, tenor Jose Cura and others equally revered are likely to be performing in London.

Several famous New Zealand artists are among them, including tenor Simon O'Neill, bass Jonathan Lemalu, and of course Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Venue is critical to the enjoyment of great music, and London boasts a variety of halls and other buildings ideal for musical appreciation.

Pride of place must go to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where you are likely to find the highlight of any music tour - whether by the Royal Opera or Royal Ballet. It can be expensive, though. Ticket prices can reach £200 ($437) for the best seats, especially when world-famous stars are performing, which is often.

However, you can get into the "upper slips" for just £4 if you are happy to just hear the music and get access to the champagne bar. Queuing for returns can also be fruitful, as wealthy patrons sometimes give spare tickets away.

The champagne bar itself is a gorgeous room where the sleek and the sophisticated, the well-known and the well-dressed, mingle with opera aficionados to eat overpriced sandwiches and drink excellent champagne before the performance starts. The atmosphere is congenial and redolent with excited anticipation.