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Prestige Holidays introduces Music Tours

1st November 2007 Print

Independent tour operator, Prestige Holidays, is offering three special interest music tours through the Travellers Club for 2008: A Baltic Experience: Tallinn, St Petersburg and Riga (22 May – 2 June), The Aix-en-Provence Music Festival Tour (9-13 July), and the Puccini Opera Festival at Torre del Lago (7-11 August).

A Baltic Experience: Tallinn, St Petersburg and Riga
This trip focuses on the art and music of the city of St Petersburg with a visit to the charming and lively city of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. The tour will also visit Riga the port capital of Latvia. Participants will get to see opera and concerts in all three cities.

An important feature of the holiday is the participation of the Rossica Choir of St Petersburg, with whom the Travellers’ Club has a close relationship. This world-class choir has excellent contacts in musical and cultural circles giving those attending the tour the chance to enjoy private concerts, special access to places of interest and other spontaneous experiences.

The holiday, which costs £1595 per person, coincides with the White Nights Festival an annual feast of music and cultural experiences masterminded by conductor, Valery Gergiev, and there will be opportunities for the group to attend performances of ballet and opera as well as concerts.

The package includes: return economy flights from London to Tallin, train transfers to St Petersburg, flights from St Petersburg to Riga and Riga to London. Hotel transfers, hotel accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis and coach transport for group visits. Also included are the services of expert guides, museum and gallery entry fees, the Rossica Choir concert and suppers on the first night in Tallin and on the last night in St Petersburg.

The Aix-en-Provence Festival
This holiday explores the city of Aix and the surrounding region of Provence and offers the chance to listen to music and opera of the very highest quality. The region is well-known for sites such as the Cistercian abbey of Silvacane, the Montagne Sainte-Victoire (inspiration for many of Cézanne’s paintings) and the city of Arles famous for its Roman remains and its Van Gogh heritage.

The Aix-en-Provence festival is, with Salzburg, Glyndebourne and Bayreuth, one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe. Outstanding artists and directors come together here to create operas of great beauty and power: They have included artists such as Daniel Harding, Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Richard Eyre and Patrice Chéreau.

The festival has a particularly strong Mozart tradition; most of the operas have been performed. Performances of twentieth century operas have included Curlew River and The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartok, Wozzeck by Alban Berg and The Love of Three Oranges by Prokofiev.

The tour will cost £1295 per person including: return economy flights, transfers, accommodation in twin rooms at Le Mas de Guilles (thirty minutes’ drive from the centre of Aix) breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, transport for all visits, entrances to museums and tickets to two concerts and one opera.

The Puccini Opera Festival at Torre del Lago
This tour will be designed and led by Adrian Mourby who has directed opera at a number of festivals, writes opera notes for festival programmes and has recently written the AA Guide to Venice.

Taking place from 7 - 11 August 2008 the tour is based in a charming traditional hotel in the historic walled town of Lucca, where Puccini lived and wrote Turandot, not far from the wonderful lakeside opera venue in Torre del Lago. Turandot features in the 2008 season and the group will see this and two other operas of the festival - the equally well known TOSCA, and a lesser known work, DAVID. Adrian Mourby will talk about Puccini and the operas before the performances and encourage discussion on the productions afterwards. In addition there will be visits to the artistic & historical sights of Lucca and Pisa.

The cost of the tour is provisionally £980 for flights to and from Pisa, transfers, accommodation, some dinners, three opera tickets and sightseeing.

The Travellers’ Club offers imaginative and comfortable holidays taken at a leisurely pace which appeal to the elderly as well as younger people. Also as travellers tend to meet before departure, single travellers have the option of sharing rooms, avoiding the cost of single supplements.