Guided Small Group Tours of European Art Galleries
Discovering European Masters: Small Group Tour of Dutch and Italian Art Europe is home to some of the world’s most spectacular art galleries. There are of course the titans such […]
Important commentary on Covid-19
For all travellers joining an Odyssey small group tour we ask for respect for all member of the group and yourself and the communities we are visiting and that:
- If requested by Odyssey Traveller you will undertake to take a Covid-19 test and share the result with Odyssey no more than 72 hours before a tour commences.
- You respect the communities you are visiting and the Covid-19 directions issued including social distancing.
- You will advise your program leader/Odyssey of any underlying change in your health whilst on tour and up to 14 days after the tour.
- Odyssey and its suppliers will observe as a minimum the WTTC guidelines and those of the region you are visiting their Covid-19 requirements, the higher standard of the two instructions will be applied for a small group tour.
- We remain aware, vigilant and empathetic to the need to change arrangements in response to the challenges of managing Covid-19 before and during a small group tour for the benefit of all in the internal and external Odyssey Traveller community.
Travellers should also familiarise themselves with our Peace of mind travel policy for Covid-19 as well as the terms and conditions applicable at the time of booking.
Opera Tour Europe | Enjoy Theatre, Ballet, and Classical Music
Program for December 2020 program will be available August 2020.
This Opera Tour Europe, combined with theatre, ballet, and classical music performances is a 22-day extravaganza across four leading European cities. This is a chance for music lovers and fans of the performing arts to see and hear a showcase of performances and European opera whilst on holiday.
Each year, Odyssey Traveller seeks to put together the very best of the varied performing arts on offer into one program to celebrate the start of the new year. Going into 2019/20, the program will not be any different. This year, the tour spends 22 days in these 4 great locations.
- Hamburg (5 nights) including New Year's Eve plus 1 night at the end of the tour
- Amsterdam (3 nights)
- Paris (6 nights)
- London (6 nights)
This tour from Odyssey Traveller includes tickets to at least 11 performances during the 22 days, as well as guided city tours to the main museums and art galleries in most locations with a focus on history and the arts. The group is limited to a maximum of 10 people.
The following list is a sample of concerts, operas & performances that the group attends in each city.
Hamburg is where the group is based for New Year's Eve, and where you'll enjoy the thrill of a performance at the new Elbphilharmonie.
- The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra supplies the perfect background music, with masterpieces of light entertainment for the end of the year. This year the programme features a brilliant musical: Alan Gilbert conducts My Fair Lady.
- Enjoy a performance of Beethoven's 9th on NYE.
- A Jazz performance with De phazz in the main concert chamber of the Elbphilharmonie
Amsterdam
- Hannes Minnaar performs Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30 and two other pieces with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Attend a concert in the concert hall at the Phiharmonie de Paris. Conductor Herbert Blomstedt bestows his brilliance and pure mastery of Mozart’s Concerto No. 23.
- Attend the Royal Opera at the Chateau de Versailles to watch the opera performance of Mozart's famous The Magic Flute.
- Enjoy Le Corsaire as performed by the English National Ballet
- attend the final performance at the Royal Opera House of the Royal Ballet's performance of Sleeping Beauty
Hamburg
- The group returns to Hamburg for our final concert at the Elbphilharmonie Great Hall where the legendary Christoph von Dohnányi (age 90) conducts the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
It is a great, diverse program for music lovers. Our European opera tours and music tours reflect the best of the performing arts in these cities. Our guided tour allows to attend some 12 concerts from late December 2019 to mid-January 2020.
Odyssey Traveller secures good-to-better-than-average seats on this program and will typically provides taxis back to the hotels after evening performances.
Check out the blog post in which we profiled some new recently opened European concert halls here!
You can learn more about Germany, the Netherlands, France and England with our country profiles where all other tour departures are listed as well. For more details about this tour, click the ‘Top 5’ or ‘Itinerary’ buttons above! If you’re keen to experience this tour, please call or send an email. Or, to book, simply fill in the form on the right hand side of this page.
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- Once performances have been finalised the itinerary will be updated and forwarded to registered participants.
- Group size is limited to 10 participants.
Overview: After arriving in Hamburg, make your own way to the hotel. In the evening we come together for a welcome dinner and program orientation.
Accommodation: 5 nights at Steigenberger Hamburg Hotel, centrally located and close to the Elbphilharmonie. https://www.steigenberger.com/en/hotels/all-hotels/germany/hamburg/steigenberger-hotel-hamburg
Overview: Today, we start with a city tour in the morning of Hamburg, its history and place in German musical culture. This evening we are attending a performance of My fair lady at the acclaimed Elbphilharmonie concert hall. High spirits in the Grand Hall. Fireworks outside the windows. And dancing in the foyer. New Year’s Eve at the Elbphilharmonie is a real hit! The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra supplies the perfect background music, with masterpieces of light entertainment for the end of the year. This year the programme features a brilliant musical: Alan Gilbert conducts »My Fair Lady«.
Accommodation: Steigenberger Hamburg Hotel or equivalent
Overview: A late start day touring around Hamburg with local guides. Visiting museums galleries and relevant historic locations. This afternoon we return to the Elbphilharmonie for Beethoven’s 9th. At the turn of the year, there is truly joy: there is hardly another work that is more suitable for a successful start to the New Year than Beethoven’s sparkling Ninth Symphony. It conveys in a psychological symphony journey “through night to the light” a valuable and deeply humanitarian message. A musical plea, together with the setting of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, which evokes with exuberant pathos the ideal of a society of equals.
PERFORMERS
Symphony Orchestra Hamburg
Laeiszhallen Special Project Choir
Heather Engebretson soprano
Lioba Brown mezzo-soprano
Brenden Gunnell tenor
Audun Iversen bass
conductor Guillermo Garcia Calvo
The Symphoniker Hamburg under the direction of Guillermo Garcia Calvo get support from a prominent soloist ensemble and a choir, which comes together especially for this performance. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125
Accommodation: Steigenberger Hamburg Hotel
Overview: Today is a free day at your leisure. There is a group meal this evening.
Accommodation: Steigenberger Hamburg Hotel or equivalent
Overview:
Tonight we attend in the LAEISZHALLE HAMBURG GROSSER SAAl performance by the acclaimed De-Phazz & STÜBAphilharmonie.
Lounge goes classic: you can expect something special when the De-Phazz jazz ensemble takes to the stage with a symphony orchestra. The band started out in tranquil Heidelberg two decades ago and has produced an unmistakable blend of soulful jazz, dancefloor and Latin rhythms. Now, for the first time ever, they join forces with STÜBAphilharmonie, which has repeatedly demonstrated its stylistic openness on critically acclaimed tours with singer-songwriters such as Clueso and Alin Coen. The symphonic De-Phazz project brings two stories of success together at the Laeiszhalle.
Accommodation: Amsterdam tbc.
Overview: Today we take the short flight to Amsterdam. We have an afternoon orientating ourselves with a walking tour of the city. There is a group dinner this evening.
Accommodation: Amsterdam tbc.
Overview: We spend the day exploring Amsterdam. Tonight we enjoy Hannes Minnar performing Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto No.3 at Amsterdam’s The Royal Concertgebouw
Accommodation: Amsterdam tbc.
Accommodation: Amsterdam tbc.
Overview: The group leaves Amsterdam morning for the short journey to Paris where we take a guided tour including a gallery visit followed by a group meal.
Accommodation: 5 nights at Hotel Relais Monceau.
Overview:
Today we have a guided tour of Paris artists quarter including gallery visits. Tonight we attend a performance at the Theatre Champs De Elysse by Vannina Santoni soprano Saimir Pirgu tenor and Orchestra of the Royal Opera of Wallonia-Liège under the direction of Paolo Arrivabeni.
Last winter they were Violetta and Alfredo here and loved each other until death separated them. they find themselves for a recital of tunes and duets … of love, necessarily.
PROGRAM
Mozart Cosi fan tutte , Opening “Il mio tesoro” from Cosi fan tutte “Fra gli amplessi” from Don Giovanni Verdi “Strano … Ah! Fors’è him … Semper libera … “extract from La Traviata Donizetti Roberto Devereux – Opening ” Una furtiva lagrima “,” Prendi per me sei libero “,” Caro elisir! Sei mio! … Esulti pure la barbara »excerpts from L’Elisir d’amore Gounod « I want to live »excerpt from Romeo and Juliette Massenet « Why wake me up, O breath of spring? »Extract from Werther Gounod” Go! I have forgiven you … Night of Hymenae … “extract of Romeo and Juliet Cilea L’Arlesiana – Prelude ” The solita storia del pastore “from The Arlesiana Leoncavallo I Pagliacci – Intermezzo Puccini ” Si, mi chiamano Mimi “, “Che gelida manina”, “O soave fanciulla” extracts from La Bohème It was a role for her, and this first Violetta exceeded all expectations, as the young soprano “lived” his role, both musically and theatrically. For the Italian tenor of Albanian origin, this was to be his 100 th Alfredo was intact but its freshness and its solar song had the bloom of youth role. It was obvious that these two had to meet for new duets of love. It is done with this program built from some of the most beautiful tunes and duets of Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti, Gounod, Massenet and Puccini.
Accommodation: 5 nights at Hotel Relais Monceau.
Accommodation: 5 nights at Hotel Relais Monceau.
Overview: The group tours Paris learning about the impressionist movement with a guided tour and visit to the Musse D’ Orsee. Tonight the group attends a concert in the concert hall at the Phiharmonie de Paris. Conductor Herbert Blomstedt bestows his brilliance and vitality on the most accessible of Bruckner’s great symphonies. He is joined by Bertrand Chamayou in the pure mastery of Mozart’s Concerto No. 23.
Accommodation: 5 nights at Hotel Relais Monceau.
Overview: Today local guides assist the group in exploring Paris fro the return visitor beyond the typical sights of the city.
Accommodation: Hotel Relais Monceau
Overview: Today we spend the afternoon at Versailles and then attend a performance in the evening of Mozarts The Magic flute in French with english subtitles. The Royal Opera is one of the greatest works by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Inaugurated in 1770 during the reign of Louis XV, it was at the time the largest concert hall in Europe, and was also a great technical achievement and an impressive feat of decorative refinement. A theatre for monarchic and then republican life, it has hosted celebrations, shows and parliamentary debates. OPERA IN FRENCH VERSION In 1791, at the Theater auf der Wieden, in a suburb of Vienna, Mozart gave the first performance of his Singspiel Die Zauberflöte. Emanuel Schikaneder’s libretto – he was also the director in his own theatre – aimed to reach a popular audience in their own language. Thanks to the theatrical and dreamlike qualities of the work and to Mozart’s magnificent music it was performed more than a hundred times in a year, and its success has never waned since. To charm audiences of all ages, music lovers and inexperienced public, Mozart and Schikaneder’s plus was addressing spectators in their own language – and not in Italian as in court operas. This is what this new production is proposing, in a version entirely in French, staged by Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek (remember their beautiful Dido and Aeneas by Purcell) and conducted by Hervé Niquet, with a team of soloists fully invested in their roles of actor-singers, in French, to give more force to Mozart’s masterpiece. Production Opéra Royal de Wallonie / Liège. Corealisation Opéra Royal / Château de Versailles Spectacles, Opéra Grand Avignon, Le Concert Spirituel. Show in French with surtitles in French and English
PROGRAMME
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) The Magic Flute Opera in two acts on a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, created in 1791 in Vienna.
Accommodation: Hotel Relais Monceau
Overview: Today the is at leisure.
Accommodation: Hotel Relais Monceau
Overview: Today the is at leisure.
Accommodation: Hotel Relais Monceau
Overview:
Accommodation: Stay five nights in London. London – CourtHouse, a 5* hotel with an excellent location in the city centre. http://www.courthouse-hotel.com/
Overview:
Accommodation: 6 nights at CourtHouse Hotel, 5* hotel with an excellent location in the city centre. http://www.courthouse-hotel.com/
Overview: The day is free to explore at your leisure.
Accommodation: CourtHouse Hotel
Overview: Today we visit with local guides relevant museums and art gallery exhibitions. Tonight we attend a concert by Sir Mark Elder who conducts Brahms’s radiant and bucolic 2nd symphony, in the second year of an acclaimed four-year symphony cycle. The cycle borrows from the spirit of early performances of the works by performing them with the musical forces that Brahms intended, to ‘exhilarating’ effect (The Times). The concert also traces a poetic line from Brahms’s symphonic Romanticism to more intimate evocations of poetry, love and nature in Mahler’s emotionally charged Songs for a Wayfarer, and Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes, the composer’s last completed orchestral work. Programme Britten Suite on English Folk Tunes Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Brahms Symphony No 2 Performers Britten Sinfonia Sir Mark Elder conductor Anna Stéphany mezzo-soprano
Accommodation: CourtHouse Hotel
Overview: Today we fly back to Hamburg for our final concert at the Elbphilhamonie great hall. When Christoph von Dohnányi returned to the rostrum of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra after a long time last season, the audience did not want to let him go again: Standing Ovations decided on an intensive interpretation of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony and paid tribute to the overwhelming artistic achievement of the former chief conductor. It is not too long to wait for the next comeback: a few months after his 90th birthday, Dohnányi’s maestro is back on stage at the Elbphilharmonie. Dohnányi played a major role in its construction and this will be one f the last concerts in this acclaimed concert venue.
PERFORMERS
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Luc Mangholz flute
Kalev Kuljus oboe
conductor Christoph von Dohnányi
PROGRAM
Charles Ives The Unanswered Question / Two Contemplations No. 1 György Ligeti Concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra – Pause – Piotr I. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor op. 74 »Pathétique«
Charles Ives The Unanswered Question / Two Contemplations No. 1 György Ligeti Concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra – Pause – Piotr I. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor op. 74 »Pathétique«
Accommodation: Steigenberger Hotel Hamburg.
Overview: The program concludes after breakfast.
1
Attend a performance at the new Concert hall in Hamburg.
2
Attend an opera the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
3
Attend the Royal Opera house at the Palace of Versaille to watch Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute.
4
Back stage tours of major theartes, including The National in London and the Paris Opera.
5
Visit major art museums in Amsterdam, Paris & London including current special exhibitions.
What’s included in our Tour
- 21 nights hotel accommodation.
- Breakfast daily and 7 dinners.
- Tickets to selected performances.
- Transport Passes in London.
- Transport, field trips, concerts and excursions as indicated.
- Touring by comfortable and modern coach as well as public transport.
- Rail services and internal flight in economy class.
- Applicable entry fees and services of local guides.
- Detailed Tour Information Booklet.
- Services of an Odyssey Program Leader.
- Gratuities and necessary tips.
What’s not included in our Tour
- International airfares and departure taxes.
- Comprehensive travel insurance.
- Meals not specified in the itinerary.
- Porterage.
- Items of a personal nature, such as telephone calls and laundry.
Available at
Ballet in Western Culture: A History of Its Origins and Evolution
This volume is a history of the development of ballet designed for dance history courses. The discussion moves from the origins of dance through the middle ages onto the beginnings of ballet, to Renaissance spectacle in Italy, and the beginnings of ballet in France.
Purchase on
Amazon
Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet
For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo’s Angels—the first cultural history of ballet ever written—is a groundbreaking work. From ballet’s origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France’s Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, émigré dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings “a dancer’s grace and sure-footed agility to the page.”
Purchase on
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When Ballet Became French: Modern Ballet and the Cultural Politics of France, 1909-1939
For centuries before the 1789 revolution, ballet was a source of great cultural pride for France, but by the twentieth century the art form had deteriorated along with France's international standing. It was not until Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes found success in Paris during the first decade of the new century that France embraced the opportunity to restore ballet to its former glory and transform it into a hallmark of the nation. In When Ballet Became French, Ilyana Karthas explores the revitalization of ballet and its crucial significance to French culture during a period of momentous transnational cultural exchange and shifting attitudes towards gender and the body. Uniting the disciplines of cultural history, gender and women's studies, aesthetics, and dance history, Karthas examines the ways in which discussions of ballet intersect with French concerns about the nation, modernity, and gender identities, demonstrating how ballet served as an important tool for France's project of national renewal. Relating ballet commentary to themes of transnationalism, nationalism, aesthetics, gender, and body politics, she examines the process by which critics, artists, and intellectuals turned ballet back into a symbol of French culture. The first book to study the correlation between ballet and French nationalism, When Ballet Became French demonstrates how dance can transform a nation's cultural and political history.
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