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M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R A V E LART • AR CHITECTURE • GASTR
ONOMY • AR CHAEOLOGY • HISTORY • MUSIC • L ITERATURE
Opera in ViennaMozart, Wagner, Gounod
26–30 April 2021 (mh 715)5 days • £2,910(including tickets to 3
performances)Lecturer: Barry Millington
Three performances at the Staatsoper: The Magic Flute (Mozart),
Die Walküre (Wagner) and Faust (Gounod).
Productions of the highest quality which tend more towards
traditional than innovatory.
Based at a venerable and very comfortable hotel perfectly
located beside the Staatsoper.
Not content with being the most important city in the history of
western music, Vienna continues to nurture an exceptionally active
cultural life of a high level of excellence. Music and opera are
cherished (and paid for) by government and citizens perhaps more
than anywhere else in the world.
Vienna is notoriously wedded to tradition, and Staatsoper
productions are generally not what could be called progressive by
standards prevalent in the German-speaking world. But stagecraft,
stage design and dramatic portrayal are of the highest order, and
the house continues to attract the world’s finest singers and
conductors. And of course it enjoys the supreme skills and
sumptuous sound of the Vienna Philharmonic, the orchestra in
residence. Highly sophisticated audiences and critics give no
quarter to complacency or laziness; opera at the Staatsoper is a
fairly safe bet.
Each day there is a session of talks and discussions about the
evening’s opera. There are also guided tours on foot to a choice
selection of Vienna’s art and architecture and musical heritage,
but also plenty of free time for rest, recuperation and preparation
for the next performance.
ItineraryDay 1. Fly at c. 12.30pm from London Heathrow to Vienna
(British Airways). Arrive at the hotel in time to settle in before
dinner.
Day 2. A talk on the music is followed by a visit to the
Hofburg, the sprawling Habsburg palace where we see inter alia the
splendid library hall and the imperial apartments. Free afternoon.
Evening opera at the Staatsoper: The Magic Flute (Mozart), Adam
Fischer (conductor), Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier
(directors), René Pape (Sarastro), Long Long (Tamino), Sabine
Devieilhe (Queen of the Night), Regula Mühlemann (Pamina), Andrè
Schuen (Papageno).
Day 3. The daily talk precedes a visit to the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, one of the world’s greatest art galleries. Free afternoon.
An evening at the Staatsoper: Die Walküre (Wagner), Adam Fischer
(conductor), Sven-Eric Bechtolf (director), Andreas Schager
(Siegmund), Mika Kares (Hunding), Günther Groissböck (Wotan),
Camilla Nylund (Sieglinde), Martina Serafin (Brünnhilde), Okka von
der Damerau (Fricka).
Day 4. A morning walk through the centre of the inner city
includes the Stephansdom, the great Gothic cathedral and the
Baroque church of St Peter. After lunch there is free time followed
by an evening at the Staatsoper: Faust (Gounod), Bertrand de Billy
(conductor) Frank Castorf (director), Juan Diego Flórez (Faust),
Nicole Car (Marguerite), Adam Palka (Méphistopélès), Boris Prygl
(Valentin), Peter Kellner (Wagner), Virginie Verrez (Siébel),
Monika Bohinec (Marthe).
Day 5. Journey to the airport. The flight to Heathrow arrives at
c. 1.00pm.
LecturerBarry Millington. Chief Music Critic for London’s
Evening Standard and founder/editor of The Wagner Journal. He is
the author/editor
of eight books on Wagner including The Sorcerer of Bayreuth. He
also contributed the articles on Wagner and his operas to The New
Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians and The New Grove
Dictionary of Opera.
PracticalitiesPrice, per person. Two sharing: £2,910 or £2,780
without flights. Single occupancy: £3,270 or £3,140 without
flights.
Included: air travel (economy class) on scheduled British
Airways flights (Airbus A320); private coach for airport transfers
and some travel by tram; breakfasts, 1 lunches and 2 dinners with
wine, interval drinks and interval fingerfood at 1 performance; all
admissions to museums and sites; all gratuities for restaurant
staff, drivers, guides; all airport and state taxes; the services
of the lecturer.
Music: tickets for 3 operas are included, costing c. £620.
Tickets are confirmed in the autumn.
Accommodation: Hotel Bristol (bristolvienna.com): a 5-star hotel
in a superb location on the Ringstrasse near the opera house,
traditionally furnished and decorated. Single rooms are doubles for
sole use.
How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour,
mainly through the city centre where vehicular access is limited.
Average distance by coach per day: 5 miles.
Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.
Vienna, Theater an der Wien, late-19th-century wood
engraving.
