Opera Highlights

Opera Highlights 2010 and 2011

(Itinerary as of April 2010)
(2010 sold out)

Day 1 STOCKHOLM – SWEDEN
D = included

Welcome to Stockholm, the Royal Capital of Sweden. Discover a city like no other – a city built on 14 islands, where you are never far from the water. Well-preserved medieval buildings stand alongside modern architecture. Stockholm is also home of the Nobel Prize. Stockholm is a city of contrasts – water and islands, history and innovation, small town and big city, short winter days and long, light summer nights – with a dazzling array of impressions. Thanks to the city’s compact size, you can see and do most things in a short space of time.

Walking tour of Stockholm‘s historic section Gamla Stan, (Old Town). Go back 750 years in time and feel the medieval atmosphere of the Old Town as you wander through the narrow streets.

Learn more: Stockholm part 1 Stockholm part 2

Remainder of the afternoon free to recover from jet leg or explore the local area.

Welcome dinner.

After dinner you can finish the day at the Absolut Ice Bar, another Stockholm attraction. At the world’s first permanent ice bar the temperature is -5° C (23° F) all year round. The entire interior, including the glasses, is made from 100% pure, clear ice from the Torne River in Swedish Lapland.

Day 2 OPERA PERFORMANCE, DROTTNINGHOLM COURT THEATRE, STOCKHOLM
B = breakfast buffet, included L = on your own D = included

Take a three-hour guided tour of Stockholm. Famous sights on the tour include the Royal Palace, the island of Djurgården, and the Parliament Buildings. The highlight of the tour is a visit to City Hall with its famous Blue and Golden Rooms, where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held each year.

After lunch, embark on the tour’s first opera performance – at Drottningholm Court Theatre (1766).
For this royal journey, a magnificent turn-of-the-century ship will take you from central Stockholm (City Hall) out to the royal residence Drottningholm and the theater.

About Drottningholm court Theatre, Drottningholm
Drottningholm Court Theatre, located just outside Stockholm, was built at the request of Queen Lovisa Ulrika by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz. It was completed in 1766 and has been preserved in its entirety until today. Thus even today, the original stage machinery allows for quick changes of scenery, and in addition there are moving waves, trapdoors, cloud carriages, and wind and thunder machines. A unique collection of original 18th Century scenery is also preserved. The heyday of the theatre began in 1777 with Gustaf III, who initiated drama and opera in the Swedish language. Following his death in 1792 the theater was closed for 130 years, until it was rediscovered in the 1920s. Every summer the theatre presents a festival of 18th Century opera (May to August). This festival started in 1946, making it one of the longest running festivals in Europe. In 1991, Drottningholm Court Theater was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Learn more: Drottningholm

There are also guided tours of the Royal palace, but be sure not to miss the beautiful palace park and the Chinese Pavilion. The journey itself is a great way to experience Stockholm and its surroundings from the water.

For program information please contact Scandinavian Performance Tours.

Day 3 OPERA PERFORMANCE, SKÄRET (OPERA PÅ SKÄRET), KOPPARBERG
B = breakfast buffet, included L = included D = included

Enjoy delicious breakfast buffet and then explore the beautiful Stockholm on your own.

With a chartered train (“the Opera Train”) you will leave the city and go off the tourist track to Kopparberg, a charming Swedish countryside town in the province of Bergslagen, central Sweden. Lunch will be served during the train journey (2,5h) and 3-course dinner on the return journey to Stockholm.

About Opera på Skäret
La Scala, Metropolitan, Opera på Skäret… Since its inception in 2004 Opera på Skäret has established itself as a highly original summer festival with extremely versatile leadership and high-class performances.
Led by artistic director Sten Niclasson, it takes its name from the local village just beside Lake Ljusnaren. The surroundings are breathtaking. And this is probably why opera singer Niclasson once discovered the old sawmill – beautifully situated at the edge of the water.
In the large store-house he found the outstanding acoustics – which has proved to be one of the best if not the best of them all.
The company’s policy is to create new and innovative productions of opera, comic opera and concerts, and to attract a broader and even new audience for opera.
A rapid development of the company’s work has resulted in doubling the number of visitors each year. In 2007 ten thousand visitors experienced the magic and unique atmosphere of Opera på Skäret during the summer festival.
Although most of the audience comes from Sweden the ambition is to soon establish Opera på Skäret as an international summer opera festival and to be the leading opera festival in Sweden.

For program information please contact Scandinavian Performance Tours.

Day 4 OPERA PERFORMANCE, VADSTENA ACADEMY, VADSTENA
B = breakfast buffet, included L = on your own D = on your own

Breakfast buffet at the hotel and then you have a free morning in Stockholm, with possibility to visit the famous Wasa Museum or take one of the popular canal tours.

After lunch it is time to travel to Vadstena. For individual travelers, the easiest way is to travel by train to Vadstena.

About the Vadstena Academy Summer Opera Festival
In Vadstena you will also find plenty of well-preserved buildings from the 13th – 16th Century, the new Sancta Birgitta Convent Museum. Vadstena Castle is one of Sweden’s best-preserved castles from the Vasa period (approx. 1520-1650).

Vadstena Academy presents on stage absolutely fresh music, hot off the computer, as well as undeservedly lost operas dug out of antique manuscripts. As the icing on the cake, we do this in the absolutely fantastically beautiful environments of Vadstena Castle and the Vadstena Old Theatre.
Vadstena is friendly, provincial, close and intimate. And you never know what to expect. Except performances of an internationally high class.

This is how an international opera critic responded to being asked why he kept on travelling to Sweden to see Vadstena Academy’s performances year after year.

Sweden’s biggest commissioner of new operas
Our research activities consist of producing works from European archives, source critical editions, musical analysis, and transference to modern notation and instrumentation. The aim is to bring to life a part of our cultural heritage. Over forty antique operas have been performed for the first time in modern times at Vadstena. Vadstena Academy is also Sweden’s biggest commissioner of newly composed Swedish operas. To date, around 25 new works have been revived on one of Vadstena Academy’s stages. Nine of Vadstena Academy’s opera performances have been broadcast on TV and over thirty-five on Sweden’s national radio, Sveriges Riksradio.

The 2010 summer season at Vadstena Academy is all about love. Star-Cross’d Lovers is a performance steeped in love; young, boundless, fated love. Two operas by 18th century masters Johann Adolph Hasse and Georg Anton Benda form a double bill at Vadstena Castle.
The tragic fates of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are reflected through two widely diverse temperaments and styles.

Dinner on your own and overnight at Vadstena Klosterhotel.

Day 5 COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
B = breakfast buffet, included L = included D = on your own

Check out of the hotel, board the train and depart for Copenhagen, Denmark.

Welcome to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

After a traditional Danish lunch at the oldest restaurant in Copenhagen, 1720, check in at the hotel and then enjoy a three hour guided tour of the city.

During the tour you will see Hans Christian Andersen’s statue, the Amalienborg Palace, Christiansborg Palace, Gefion Fountain, the old harbour of Nyhavn, the famous Little Mermaid and many other popular sights.

Afternoon free in Copenhagen. May we suggest a walking tour of central Copenhagen to the colourful harbor district of Nyhavn. Nyhavn ”New Port” was established in 1673 as a gateway to the sea from the old inner city. During the growth of Copenhagen the canal moved to it present place and the houses surrounding the Nyhavn canal are more than 300 years old. Today the canal is packed with old wooden ships creating an atmosphere from the past time around 1780-1810 when Nyhavn was the main center of all trade to sea from Copenhagen.

Nyhavn with its picturesque old houses and sailing ships on either side of the canal, offers a variety of restaurants, pubs and cafes. Nyhavn is also called ”the longest bar in Scandinavia”.
Learn more: Copenhagen

Day 6 COPENHAGEN
B = breakfast buffet, included L = on your own D = included

Lunch on own in Copenhagen and then it is time for a guided tour of the fabulous opera house.
The Copenhagen opera house, Operaen, is a unique building designed by Danish architect Henning Larsen with commissioned artworks by Danish artists such as Per Arnoldi and Per Kirkeby.

All levels of the marble-clad foyer offer sweeping views of Renaissance Copenhagen and the city harbor. A restaurant with roof terrace is situated on the top floor offering a panoramic view of the royal palace, Amalienborg, and the adjacent domed Marble Church.

Experience the extensive backstage facilities consisting of five mobile stage units as well as a small experimental stage, Takkelloftet, in addition to the auditorium and the rehearsal and training rooms for the ballet and the opera.
No trip to Copenhagen would be complete without a visit to Tivoli Gardens. Right in the middle of the town, Tivoli offers both the fun of the fair, the peace and tranquility of a park and the ambiance of the many open air cafes, concert hall, restaurants and bars. It’s a real wonderland for kids of all ages, with its marooned pirate ship, roller coaster rides, shooting galleries,….

This evening enjoy a farewell dinner in the famous Tivoli Gardens.

Day 7 COPENHAGEN – HOME
B = breakfast buffet, included

Breakfast at the hotel. Departure from Copenhagen according to your own itinerary.
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