M A RT I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L A RT • A R C H I T E C T U R E • G A S T R O N O M Y • A R C H A E O L O G Y • H I S T O R Y • M U S I C • L I T E R AT U R E
Christmas & New Year 2012
Printed July 2012
Contents
Music in Dresden & Prague................... 1 Palermo at Christmas.................. 3 Turin at Christmas.... 4 Art on the Côte d’Azur at Christmas...5
Edinburgh at Christmas.................. 6 Music in Berlin at New Year................... 7 Florence at Christmas is currently full.
Prague, Charles Bridge, etching by J. Hluboš 1925.
Music in Dresden & Prague 20–27 December 2012 (mz 443) 8 days • £2,880 (includes 4 performances) Lecturers: Professor Jan Smaczny & Tom Abbott (in Dresden only) In Dresden: Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) and Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) at the Semperoper. In Prague: Rusalka (Dvořák) and Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky) at the State Opera House. Talks by a musicologist. Programme of walks and visits with an art historian (in Dresden) and Czech guides (in Prague). Two historic 5-star hotels in both Old Towns.
Dresden, capital of Saxony, was Prague’s nearest metropolitan neighbour (Vienna is twice the distance), and so the corridor of cultural exchange between the two cities was crucial to the history of both. From early in the seventeenth century, Dresden has been one of the most important operatic centres north of the Alps. Performing in the magnificent 19th-century theatre designed by Gottfried Semper, the modern company has built upon the long-standing tradition of high standards of musicianship and visually exciting (if not avant-garde) productions to ensure a consistently high standard of performance. Prague has three opera houses in regular use, two of which are visited on this tour, although we only attend performances at the State Opera. The oldest, and one of Europe’s most regularly functioning eighteenthcentury theatres – Don Giovanni had its première here – is the Estates Theatre. Mozart operas still
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continue to be performed there frequently. The other two were added in the second half of the nineteenth century, serving the Czech and German communities respectively. What is now called (misleadingly) the State Opera, with a wonderful interior of Bavarian Rococo inspiration, compensates for its lack of funding with enterprise and energy to achieve fine artistic results.