Versailles, epitome of the age of Louis XIV, became the centre of government in 1682. Both palace and gardens chart the major events in the King’s life and the political course of his reign. From the 1680s Louis XIV set aside three evenings a week for musical entertainments in the palace, ranging from private chamber performances to opulent stagings of opéra-ballets by Lully, Lalande, Desmarets and other composers. At the end of the King’s life grands motets were performed in the Chapelle Royale (1710), whose black and white marble floor and painted ceiling are among the most breathtaking features of the palace. Witness here a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the celebrated choir and orchestra of The Sixteen on period instruments.

Paris was the undisputed opera capital of the world for much of the 19th century. The home of grand opera and the city to which Meyerbeer, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Verdi and Wagner all gravitated. For singers and composers alike, conquest of Paris was de rigueur. From the mid-1870s, when the Opera Garnier was opened, Paris boasted the grandest opera house in the world.

The Bastille, the now not-quite-new but still controversial flagship of Parisian opera, offers Strauss’s witty and moving Ariadne auf Naxos, with a cast that includes the sensational Diana Damrau as Zerbinetta, and Sophie Koch (recently acclaimed as Brangäne) as The Composer. Two evenings at the Palais Garnier feature contrasting masterpieces of the Russian ballet repertoire: Tchaikovsky’s melodically ravishing Swan Lake, with choreography by Rudolf Nureyev, and Stravinsky’s Apollon (with the original choreography by George Balanchine) and Rite of Spring.

During this tour we have a guided visit of the Château de Versailles, and in Paris see the Opera Garnier, the Salle Favart (now the Opera-Comique but once the theatre over which Rossini presided), and the music museum at La Villette.