MUSIC TOURS 2019 Highlights
AC E C U LT U R A L TO U R S
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
2
RIGA OPERA FESTIVAL
4
ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL
6
BUXTON OPERA FESTIVAL
8
VERONA OPERA FESTIVAL
10
GLOUCESTER THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL
12
INTERNATIONAL GILBERT & SULLIVAN FESTIVAL
14
LUCCA PUCCINI FESTIVAL
16
SIBELIUS FESTIVAL IN FINLAND
18
3
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION In 2019, ACE looks foward to returning to some of the world’s best classical music festivals - from the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Harrogate, to the Sibelius Festival in Finland. As with all our tours, our music collection offerings are expert led, and designed for small groups of up to twenty-five participants. Tours in this collection also offer the opportunity to hear renowned musicians perform in eminent venues.
Read on to discover specially selected musical highlights across the forthcoming year. To discover our full programme of musical tours in 2019, we warmly invite you to contact the ACE office. 01223 841055 | aceculturaltours.co.uk
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
5
RIGA OPERA FESTIVAL 4 - 9 JUNE, 2019 | £1895
with Nicholas Wearne
R
īga boasts a strong musical heritage: Wagner lived and worked here during the late 1830s, and the magnificent National Opera House was built in the 1860s to the design of St Petersburg architect Ludwig Bohnstedt. More recently, the Latvian National Opera has mounted an annual opera festival; founded in 1998, it has since become an important fixture on the European circuit and showcases some of the brightest stars of the Latvian and international stage.
Rīga was an important medieval seaport, and its historical prosperity is reflected in its beautiful town centre, which houses a succession of Gothic and Baroque churches in its narrow streets. Our 2019 tour will offer an opportunity to experience several of the festival’s operas, commencing with Donizetti’s masterpiece of opera buffa,
Don Pasquale, widely regarded as one of the most significant and successful works of its kind. Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites offers another tone altogether: recounting the Revolution-set story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, the work possesses a haunting quality and has been widely acclaimed for the simplicity and beauty of its musical and narrative composition. The atmosphere is changed entirely on our final evening, when we will attend Wagner’s tumultuous tale of spectres, storms, and hope of redemption through love: Der Fliegende Holländer. Tour Director Nicholas Wearne, BA, MPhil is a former ACE Bursary student, and a tutor and Junior Fellow at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has held a number of prestigious positions as organist; most recently at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
6
ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL 20 - 24 JUNE, 2019 | £1345
with Nicholas Wearne
S
tirred by the vast skies and moody seas of Suffolk, Benjamin Britten was inspired to launch the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. Beginning modestly with the contributions of a few of Britten’s friends, the festival has since blossomed into one of the UK’s most innovative and widely acclaimed musical occasions.
Our tour builds towards the festival’s own magnificent ‘blockbuster’ finale, featuring the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner alongside acclaimed cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Stephen Hough. In June each year, established solo artists assemble alongside up-and-coming musicians and internationally acclaimed orchestras to bring us works both old and new, grand and small-scale, performed in Snape Maltings’ world-famous concert hall and the venue’s newer buildings. 2019 promises to be a particularly enjoyable
occasion, characterised by contrast, from intimate recitals to symphonic masterworks. Our first evening will introduce us to conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan, who presents an opera in which she performed one of her first major roles: The Rake’s Progress. A renowned opera singer herself, Hannigan later takes to the stage alongside the Ludwig Orchestra for works by Bach, Grisey and Schoenberg. Full details of this tour are available on the ACE website. Tour Director Nicholas Wearne, BA, MPhil is a former ACE Bursary student, and a tutor and Junior Fellow at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has held a number of prestigious positions as organist; most recently at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
9
BUXTON OPERA FESTIVAL 9 - 1 3 J U L Y, 2 0 1 9 | £ 1 3 8 5
with John Bryden
E
very summer the Derbyshire spa-town of Buxton, surrounded by the glorious hills of the Peak District, presents a feast of opera, literature and music. Literary talks, concerts and guest performances fill the mornings and surround a core of operas by major composers staged in the afternoons and evenings. The combination of established and promising up-and-coming performers makes for one of the UK’s most stimulating arts festivals, and over the years it has become both nationally and internationally acclaimed.
We will take in two well-known operatic masterworks:Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Opera della Luna’s critically acclaimed production of Orpheus in the Underworld. Our opening opera will be Antonio Caldara’s rarely-performed Lucio Papirio Dittatore, a virtuosic feast performed by the awardwinning baroque ensemble La Serenissma.
Furthermore, 2019 – which celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the festival’s foundation – promises to be a year like no other under the helm of its new Artistic Director, versatile conductor Adrian Kelly. Taking in the best of the festival’s performances, our 2019 tour offers not three but four main operas, including the specially commissioned Georgiana, an intriguing new ‘pasticcio’ celebrating the life and times of the 5th Duchess of Devonshire. Fittingly, given the subject of our final performance, we will also make an excursion to the sumptuous Chatsworth House. This tour will be led by John Bryden, MA, an international concert pianist and organist who has given concerts in venues ranging from Cornwall to Kathmandu via Wigmore Hall.
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
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VERONA OPERA FESTIVAL 5 - 1 0 J U L Y, 2 0 1 9 | £ 2 8 9 5
with Sandy Burnett
E
stablished for over one hundred years, Verona’s internationally renowned opera festival ranks as one of the most spectacular in the world. Staged in the awe-inspiring ancient Roman amphitheatre known as the Arena di Verona, the festival has hosted some of the world’s greatest opera singers. As dusk falls and the candles are lit, we take our seats for three operatic masterpieces.
At the heart of our tour we will experience a thrilling production of Verdi’s tragic opera Il Trovatore (‘The Troubadour’). Our tour to the 2019 festival begins in style with a performance of Bizet’s Carmen courtesy of celebrated Argentinian director Hugo de Ana, who first brought his new production to Verona in 2018. This is mirrored, on our final evening, by one of the defining operas of the festival: Verdi’s Aida,
which, with its imposing public scenes and moments of private intimacy, comes to life amongst the stunning sets and costumes of Franco Zeffirelli and Anna Anni. In ‘fair Verona’, the city of Romeo and Juliet, we will explore evocative Roman ruins and splendid medieval churches. One of a number of excursions will take us to the shores of Lake Garda, which has enchanted writers and travellers from Catullus (who had a villa in the beautiful harbour town of Sirmione) to Tennyson. This tour will be led by Sandy Burnett, MA, a musician and former BBC Radio 3 broadcaster. His conducting credits include a complete cycle of Bach cantatas as well as work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre and in London’s West End.
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
13
GLOUCESTER:
THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL 3 1 J U L Y - 4 A U G U S T, 2 0 1 9 | £ 1 2 6 5
with Nicholas Wearne
I
Great East Window - one of the most spectacular examples of medieval glass painting in England.
This tour includes not one but two performances with celebrated baritone Roderick Williams, from a very special English song recital to a thrilling concert based around songs of the sea.
Full details of this tour are available on the ACE website.
n 2019 the Three Choirs Festival will take place in Gloucester, where we will experience a programme of concerts performed both among the pillars of its mighty cathedral – a place of prayer and pilgrimage for over 900 years – and in locations in the surrounding area.
The cathedral’s spectacular structure consists of myriad architectural styles, the most prevalent being Romanesque and Gothic, and also houses such architectural treasures as the oldest surviving Perpendicular window. The cathedral is thought to be the first to invent and use fan vaulting in the 1350s, and as we savour the festival’s musical content we bask in the beauty of the
The tour opens and closes in style: we begin with the UK premiere of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and finish with the festival’s grand finale, a rousing rendition of Holst’s The Mystic Trumpeter coupled with Beethoven’s ninth symphony.
Tour Director Nicholas Wearne, BA, MPhil is a former ACE Bursary student, and a tutor and Junior Fellow at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has held a number of prestigious positions as organist; most recently at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
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INTERNATIONAL GILBERT & SULLIVAN FESTIVAL 8 - 1 2 A U G U S T, 2 0 1 9 | £ 1 2 5 5
with Donald Maxwell
I
n 2019, the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival will present an exciting and memorable programme of operas and fringe events, performed by amateur companies alongside its own professional opera company in Harrogate’s beautiful Royal Hall.
Gilbert and Sullivan represent quintessential Victorian England.The brilliant, witty lyrics of W S Gilbert dazzle alongside the attractive melodies of Arthur Sullivan. Our 2019 tour will take in three professional performances from the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company – The Mikado, The Yeoman of the Guard and The Pirates of Penzance – together with a lively array of fringe events, from a university production of Ruddigore to the New London Opera Company’s Iolanthe. We look forward to a guest lecture from a
Trustee of the Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, Bernard Lockett, as well as a fringe event featuring the festival’s founder, Ian Smith, who will also take us on a backstage tour of the Royal Hall. Full details of this tour are available on the ACE website. Tour Director Donald Maxwell is an operatic baritone, director and lecturer. Donald has been involved with the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival for many years, and performs with opera companies worldwide. He returns in 2018 to the Metropolitan Opera in New York for performances in La Bohème.
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
Call:
01223 841055
to make an enquiry, or email: sales@aceculturaltours.co.uk
17
MUSIC TOURS COLLECTION
LUCCA PUCCINI FESTIVAL 1 5 - 2 0 A U G U S T, 2 0 1 9 | £ 2 2 4 5
with John Bryden
G
iacomo Puccini was born in 1858 in Lucca, “the most fly-in-amber little town in the world” according to Hilaire Belloc. Medieval Lucca will be the base for our visit to the Puccini Opera Festival, held in the lakeside village of Torre del Lago, where Puccini composed Madama Butterfly, La bohème and Tosca, among other works.
“This is paradise!” exclaimed Puccini on his first visit to Torre del Lago, a quiet Tuscan hamlet sandwiched between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Even before the birth of Puccini, Lucca had enjoyed a vibrant musical history: the 18th century composers Francesco Geminiani and Luigi Boccherini were born within the famous city walls. Puccini was a choirboy in the cathedral, played the organ in the Church of San Michele and studied at the Pacini School of Music. On the banks of Lake Massaciuccoli we will attend three festival operas.
Turandot and Tosca remain firm favourites among the composer’s repertoire, while our opening performance of Le Villi, or ‘The Fairies’, offers a rare opportunity to experience Puccini’s first stage work. While perhaps never reaching the heady heights of his other operas, it is possible to discern many of the finer compositional elements he later built upon; the work enjoyed a successful first production while later versions were conducted both by Mahler and Toscanini. Full details of this tour are available on the ACE website. This tour will be led by John Bryden, MA, an international concert pianist and organist who has given concerts in venues ranging from Cornwall to Kathmandu via Wigmore Hall.
M u s i c To u r s C o l l e c t i o n
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SIBELIUS FESTIVAL IN FINLAND 3 - 9 SEPTEMBER, 2019 | £3145
with Sandy Burnett
E
ach year music aficionados from around the world gather in the Finnish city of Lahti for the International Sibelius Festival, devoted exclusively to the work of Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). Built in 2000, Sibelius Hall is an architectural and acoustic marvel with stunning views over the surrounding lake. Indeed, our stay in Lahti provides a tranquil contrast to the urban sites and sounds of Helsinki; between them, we will enjoy two complementary aspects of Finland’s culture and landscape.
Our 2019 tour, which will take in the twentieth edition of the festival, promises to be a particularly celebratory occasion, featuring acclaimed artists from around the world. Performances take place in the spectacular Sibelius Hall, situated on the southern shores of Lake Vesijärvi.
We will begin in Helsinki, where our itinerary incorporates many of the cultural highlights of the city, including the Rock Church and Sibelius Monument. We also hope to include an evening performance in the Finnish capital before moving to the tranquility of our lakeside hotel in Lahti. In these atmospheric surroundings we will sample some of Sibelius’s most beautiful yet frequently unfamiliar choral works, including The Origin of Fire, inspired by Finland’s nineteenth century poetic epic The Kalevala.
This tour will be led by Sandy Burnett, MA, a musician and former BBC Radio 3 broadcaster. His conducting credits include a complete cycle of Bach cantatas as well as work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre and in London’s West End.
Call:
01223 841055
to register your interest, or visit: www.aceculturaltours.co.uk
AC E C U LT U R A L TO U RS
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01223 841055
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