Home Season Schedules Tour Cataloque SF Opera Reviews   Click on these titles for additional pages   News from France Review Archive Architecture Tours         Small Reviews and Previews     Opera on the Riviera, March 26 - April 5, 2009 Italian Opera Festivals, August 7 - August 15, 2009 Please scroll down to see all tours.     Click here to contact Festival Tour.       Opera on the Riviera, March 26 - April 5, 2009   This early spring tour is a repeat, somewhat elaborated, of last spring's sold out tour. Like all our tours the 2009 edition of Opera on the Riviera combines opera with tourism, traveling from opera house to opera house along one of the world's most famous coastlines.   In Genoa we see Andrea Chenier, in Monte-Carlo I puritani plays in Monaco's famous Salle Garnier, and in Nice's belle epoch theater we see a rarely performed French opera, Delius' Lakme. Though the cornerstone of the Marseille opera house was laid in 1789 and that of Montpellier's Comedie in 1888, we have reversed the flow of time -- in Marseille we see Janacek's masterpiece Jenufa and in Montpellier Purcell's King Arthur. Finally in Barcelona's splendidly reconstructed Liceu we see Die Meistersinger. While the Liceu is an international house sharing artists and productions with the world's major opera stages, regional opera in France and Italy boasts superb production values as well. The conducting is often extraordinary (Daniel Oren in Genoa as example) and the singers are among the finest Europe has to offer.   Our small bus plys the scenic routes, discovering the seaside villages between Nice and Monaco, taking in the spectacular views between Monaco and Genoa, crossing the valleys in Provence traversed by Napoleon's armies. There are the spectacular moments when you first see the Mont St. Victoire and when you first feel the Camargue, and when you again sense the deep history of protest as you pass the Cathar fortresses built to defend the first religious heresies. But still there is time to enjoy the unique ambience of each of the six cities we visit.   While Opera on the Riviera is about opera and tourism it also enjoys some fine dining. Our welcome lunch is at chef Christian Plumail's L'Universe in Nice, we have supper in the famous Cafe de Paris at the casino in Monte-Carlo, we have a gourmet luncheon in an Alain Ducasse country inn, etc.   Please ask for a detailed itinerary. Telephone 562 301 2211 or email vmmilenski@yahoo.com.   Italian Opera Festivals, August 7 - 15, 2009   The Italian opera festivals are simply too much fun not to share with friends. So we have revived our Italian Opera Festivals tours, including this year the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago. This tour adds the energy of high season, with all Italy on vacation and in high spirits.   The famous Arena di Verona is about big opera, and big it will be -- we attend performances of Turandot and Aida! In Rossini's Pesaro we see two of his major tragedies, Zelmira and Sigismondo, though any Rossini opera is really about singing, so all catharsis is purely musical and Rossinians from around the world will madly applaud great singing. Plus in the historic Rossini Opera House we see his French comedy Le Comte Ory. Looking out over the Tuscan lake Massaciuccoli we will see Puccini's delicate Manon Lescaut, and the last night of the tour we see what has had to be everyone's favorite at one time or another, La Boheme. Italian opera in Italian theaters has a special excitement. This tour offers lots of it.   Opera and tourism is our speciality. We make the pilgrimage to Verdi's farm, Sant'Agata, we stop at the country villa of his early patron, Napolian's second wife Maria Louise. We take time to visit one of Lombardy's little known jewels, Mantua, the birthplace of Virgil. In Le Marche we visit two beautiful Renaissance towns, one famous as the setting of Castiglione's The Courtier and the other infamous as the setting of Malatesta's murder of his wife Francesca da Rimini. Not to mention the Pesaro of Rossini. In Lucca there is a special poetry, that of "opera's last poet" and there too is the grandeur of Tuscany's late medieval architecture.   Dining before performances is part of the fun, and the festival cities make it easy. We have several special meals together though, in special places, like one in an old villa near Pesaro with a very surprising garden.   Please ask for a detailed itinerary. Telephone 562 301 2211 or email vmmilenski@yahoo.com.