Thread: Opera trips

I live in Europe and there are many cities with great Opera venues here. Since a year or two I have started undertaking city-trip holidays to go to a live opera performance, but also to enjoy some days in the city.

So far I went to London, Paris, Vienna, Prague. Next is Milan.

Anyone else doing this ? What is your experience and what are your future plans ?

Ive only ever been here in Amsterdam, but im moving to London in a month and I hope to see Tristan in Vienna next summer.

What are your favourite companies?

Originally Posted by emiellucifuge

What are your favourite companies?

I have no particular favourite companies. I look for the opera, production and singers first.

I loved Vienna, what a great city of music. If you need a suggestion for a hotel....

London is quite easy for me to reach, I live near an airport and within 1 hour and a half I'm in Covent Garden :-)

Originally Posted by Dongiovanni

I live in Europe and there are many cities with great Opera venues here. Since a year or two I have started undertaking city-trip holidays to go to a live opera performance, but also to enjoy some days in the city.

So far I went to London, Paris, Vienna, Prague. Next is Milan.

Anyone else doing this ? What is your experience and what are your future plans ?

Oooh, another opera-tripper!! I adore opera trips & would love to hear about your experiences. Those of us who live in Europe are so lucky, it's so easy to get to all these wonderful houses.

So far in Europe I've been to Munich and Berlin and I'm going to see L'amour des trois oranges in Amsterdam next March.

In January I had the trip of a lifetime when I went to Seattle to see Attila but the one place I really want to go is La Scala so I'll be asking you for advice!

Before retirement, I traveled around North America to hear my favorite tenors (Siegfried Jerusalem and then Jonas Kaufmann) when they were performing on this side of the pond. I've been to New York more than a dozen times, Chicago a bit less than that, Los Angeles, Toronto, and New Orleans twice, and San Francisco, San Diego, and Cleveland once. Things got to the point that my family once joked that Delta Air Lines should give Jerusalem a share in their profits due to all the business he was generating for them. (This was obviously during the years when airlines were still financially healthy.)

You lucky Europeans! We usually get to New York (from Chicago) at least once a year and take in a few productions at the Met. A few years ago we hit the summer festivals out west: Santa Fa, Aspen, and Central City Colorado - and we have been back to Aspen several times. Last year in ten days we caught operas in Milan, Florence, and Bologna and topped it off with a layover at the Opera Comique in Paris on the way home.

Originally Posted by Cavaradossi

You lucky Europeans! We usually get to New York (from Chicago) at least once a year and take in a few productions at the Met. A few years ago we hit the summer festivals out west: Santa Fa, Aspen, and Central City Colorado - and we have been back to Aspen several times.

You have lots of great opera houses but they are a long way apart! Are you going to see The Magic Flute at Chicago Opera Theater? I don't know anything about the production or the main singers but Grigory Soloviov who is singing Sarastro is very good.

Originally Posted by Cavaradossi

Last year in ten days we caught operas in Milan, Florence, and Bologna and topped it off with a layover at the Opera Comique in Paris on the way home.

Paris is another on my wish list.

So far I've never traveled with the sole purpose of seeing opera (something that should be rectified soon), but I have seen opera abroad, in Vienna, Munich and Paris. Fun was had. Also, feels. Especially in Paris.

Originally Posted by sospiro

You have lots of great opera houses but they are a long way apart! Are you going to see The Magic Flute at Chicago Opera Theater? I don't know anything about the production or the main singers but Grigory Soloviov who is singing Sarastro is very good.

Yes, I'll be there. I'm not familiar with Soloviov, but I'll keep an eye out for him. The Russian name sounds promising! We have been inundated with magic flutes this year: last season at the Lyric, this summer at Ravinia with the CSO and James Conlon, and COT's this fall. By the way, talk about an embarrassment of musical riches: the same evening adjacent to the theatre in Millennium Park, Ricardo Muti and the CSO will be giving a free concert of Carmina Burana. We'll probably catch the first hour and scoot into the opera.

I would love to hear about other folks trips too. I have only managed a few: Nozze and Radamisto in Santa Fe, Cosi fan Tutte and Angela Gheorghiu in concert in Washington DC, lots of Met trips but those are day trips. Next spring I am planning to take the train down to Philadelphia for Silent Night and then to DC again in March for Manon Lescaut and Norma.

I dream about traveling more for opera; once I get done paying tuition for my kids I will be out there. My BIG dream has always been the Mozart Week in Salzburg every January; okay, not specifically opera but I will go anywhere for my Mo-Z. Saving my pennies.............

Without a doubt -go to Berlin. 3 opera houses! The Germans are big on classical music and have lots of super shops selling cd's and DVDs. Like the Japanese they love the stuff and these shops are well stocked, have helpful and great staff. The problem with London, Amsterdam and even Paris is that the classical sections in the shops is diminishing or shops closing down! Independent retailers are selling stuff at ridiculous prices so it is better to get stuff online.

Best of all, Germany is cheap! Flights are cheap, hotels are cheap (or great value). Berlin has a Beautiful cathedral, gardens, loads of places to eat and drink.

If you want something a little 'less city' head to Barcelona. The Liceu Opera house is stunning and it also has quite a few music shops around it. Weather is lovely and there are masses of stuff to do, nice walks, beaches, places to eat -it really is a beautiful city. Not sure how it is being affected with the downturn though.

When i think about visiting europe these 2 are my favourites -ok. I also love Paris and London!

Of course, it is important to go when it is opera season -unlike me i can only visit really in the summer and not much opera goes on. But i can still browse and shop for cds

Originally Posted by Yashin

Without a doubt -go to Berlin. 3 opera houses! The Germans are big on classical music and have lots of super shops selling cd's and DVDs. Like the Japanese they love the stuff and these shops are well stocked, have helpful and great staff.

Yes! I love Ludwig Beck's in Munich and Dussmann's in Berlin.

^ I ask myself every day why I don't live Germany. I would like to do a trip in 2014 to see a Barenboimeierwagner.

Back around 1980, I took a trip from Los AngeLes to Seattle to see the Ring in English. The Brunnhilde got sick and couldn't go on, so the only person in the world who knew the part in English was Rita Hunter. It was a truly astounding performance... Both Remedios and Hunter.

In Prague I went to the theatre where Don Giovanni was premiered to see, of course, Don Giovanni. The theatre is small, it just takes you back to Mozart's time. In fact, lots of parts for the movie Amadeus were shot here. Not much has changed there. The performance was so-so. The schedule showed that they play Don Giovanni very regularly there. Well, they must be very proud it premiered there ! It was a great trip, Prague is such a lovely city, with a very small old centre. You can see all the sites just walking around. There is a lot of focus on classical music. Lots of posters promoting concerts.

In London I also went to Don Giovanni. Great performance. I can get there quite fast, so in the future I will go there again. By the way, Don Giovanni is one of my favourite operas. I can never get enough of it. With every new production (even the ones I dont like so much) there are new things to discover.

In Vienna I went to see Magic Flute. Julia Novikova singing Queen of the night. See was wonderful, her high f in the Hoelle Rache was awesome. Goosebumps allover. Also Pamina was very impressive. During the break I walked around to check out the building. The same trip I also visited the Musikverein. Wow... It was smaller than I expected, but wat a beautiful place. The stage is quite small actually, if you sit near the stage, you can almost shake hands with the musicians. The seats were not very comfortable though.... I also arrived late, beacuse of my own fault, but still was allowed to enter the hall, together with the soloist and the conductor entered, I had to find my seat in only a few seconds, they were just started playing when I sat down.

Next is Milan, La Scala, I can't wait ! Boheme with Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczela. I adore Anna's voice. Getting a ticket was not easy, sales opened at 09:00 for the remaining 100 or so tickets, they were all sold out at 09:05.... I hope she doesn't cancel !

Wishlist: Now that I read about it, Berlin, and the Salzburg festival. And Italy ! So many places worth seeing. I really want to see a Tosca performance, I guess this will also be soon. Maybe Covent Garden. I saw Tosca on BBC with Gheorghiu, Kaufmann and Terfel. Would have loved to see this one live.

Also st Petersburg, the Mariinsky theatre ! New York... who knows.