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Opera in Paris - Mozart, Verdi, Massenet, Handel
5 or 7
days
from
£3,180
Book today with a deposit of
£477
18th - 22nd February 2027, 23rd February 2027 - 1st March 2027
Tour highlights
- Three performances at the famed Opéra Bastille: brand new productions of Massenet’s 'Werther' and Mozart’s 'Don Giovanni', plus Verdi’s 'Il Trovatore'.
- The second departure also includes Handel’s 'Israel in Egypt' and 'Rinaldo' at the beautiful Art Deco Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
- Stay in a five-star hotel on the Left Bank in the historic and atmospheric district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
- Daily lectures on the music, plus a backstage tour of the Opéra Bastille and visits to other major museums and galleries, including the world’s finest collection of Impressionism at the Musée d’Orsay.
Ever since the reign of Louis XIV, the city of Paris has been a pioneer in theatre design, building some of the world’s most innovative and distinctive opera houses. The Opéra Bastille was opened in 1989 to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution: the ground-breaking design by Uruguayan-Canadian architect Carlos Ott ensured excellent sightlines and acoustics from all parts of the large auditorium, which we will enjoy during the three performances we experience there. Thanks in part to its vast backstage area, which we will explore in a special visit during our tour, the Bastille has encouraged world-renowned directors and designers to interpret familiar classics in exciting and thought-provoking ways.
Our tour includes two brand-new productions. Canadian director Robert Carsen – whose previous productions for the Opéra de Paris have included Rusalka and The Magic Flute – returns to the Bastille to direct one of the most beloved of French operas, Werther. His production of Massenet’s interpretation of Goethe’s classic epistolary novel will foreground the place of books and reading in the story by setting the action in a library. Nathalie Stutzmann, who has recently been highly praised for her work at Wagner’s theatre in Bayreuth, conducts; French tenors Benjamin Bernheim (first departure) and Léo Vermot-Desroches (second departure) take the title role.
Mozart’s Don Giovanni also receives a fresh new interpretation from the young and fast-rising Cambridge-educated duo of conductor Finnegan Downie Dear – conducting Der Rosenkavalier for Garsington in 2026 – and director Louisa Proske. Their production is set in a grand hotel, ‘a place where social structures can be transgressed and the protagonists’ deepest fantasies revealed’; the Swedish baritone Peter Mattei, renowned worldwide for his Mozart performances, takes the title role.
Our trio of performances at the Bastille is completed by Verdi’s Il Trovatore, one of three works (alongside Rigoletto and La Traviata) with which he triumphantly transformed the genre of Italian opera in the 1850s. Catalonian director Àlex Ollé’s decision to set the production in the First World War illuminatingly clarifies the opera’s notoriously convoluted plot; Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones sings the famously demanding role of Manrico.
On the second departure of this tour (23 February–1 March), we enjoy two more performances downriver at the beautiful Art Deco Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, opened by the impresario Gabriel Astruc in 1913, and location less than two months later of one of the most notorious evenings in musical history, when the first performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring produced a riot among the audience. The theatre is now home to a varied programme of music, dance and opera, and makes a particularly good venue for baroque music.
We will witness one of Handel’s finest achievements in each of the two genres he made his own, English oratorio and Italian opera: a concert performance with Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet of the magnificent Israel in Egypt, composed two years before Messiah, will be followed on our final evening by a fully staged performance of Rinaldo, Handel’s most popular opera in his lifetime but a relative rarity in the theatre now. Valentina Carrasco’s production will feature a stellar cast of singers under the baton of superstar French countertenor-turned-conductor, Philippe Jaroussky.
Itinerary
Travel by Eurostar at c. 10.30am from London St Pancras to Paris. Afternoon visit to the sumptuous Palais Garnier opera house, an architectural masterpiece and key site in the history of opera in the French capital. Continue on to the hotel in St-Germain-des-Près.
Morning lecture, then visit the Musée d’Orsay, home to the world’s finest collection of Impressionism, and also to the contemporaneous academic tradition of painting and sculpture. Dinner near the Opéra Bastille, then an evening performance: Don Giovanni (Mozart), Finnegan Downie Dear (conductor), Louisa Proske (director), Peter Mattei (Don Giovanni), Slávka Zámečníková (Donna Anna), Amitai Pati (Don Ottavio), Kwangchul Youn (Il Commendatore), Jacquelyn Stucker (Donna Elvira), Joshua Bloom (Leporello), Vartan Gabrielian (Masetto), Ilanah Lobel-Torres (Zerlina).
Morning lecture, then a visit in Paris to be confirmed nearer the time, depending on exhibition schedules. Lunch is included today. Evening performance at the Opéra Bastille: Werther (Massenet), Nathalie Stutzmann (conductor), Robert Carsen (director), Benjamin Bernheim (Werther), Aigul Akhmetshina (Charlotte), Gordon Bintner (Albert), Sandra Hamaoui (Sophie), Laurent Naouri (Le Bailli), Christophe Mortagne (Schmidt), Franck Leguérinel (Johann).
A morning lecture precedes a guided tour of the Opéra Bastille. Break for lunch, then return to the Bastille for an afternoon performance: Il Trovatore (Verdi), Timur Zangiev (conductor), Alex Ollé (director), Gwyn Hughes Jones (Manrico), Saioa Hernández (Leonora), Artur Ruciński (Il Conte di Luna), Yulia Matochkina (Azucena), Morgan-Andrew King (Ferrando), Margarita Polonskaya (Ines), Bergsvein Toverud (Ruiz), Fabio Bellenghi (Un vecchio Zingaro), Ook Chung (Un messo).
Take an early afternoon Eurostar to St Pancras, arriving at c. 2.30pm.
Travel by Eurostar at c. 10.30am from London St Pancras to Paris. Time to settle in to the hotel before dinner.
Morning lecture, then visit the Musée d’Orsay, home to the world’s finest collection of Impressionism, and also to the contemporaneous academic tradition of painting and sculpture. Dinner near the Opéra Bastille, then an evening performance: Il Trovatore (Verdi), Timur Zangiev (conductor), Alex Ollé (director), Gwyn Hughes Jones (Manrico), Saioa Hernández (Leonora), Artur Ruciński (Il Conte di Luna), Yulia Matochkina (Azucena), Morgan-Andrew King (Ferrando), Margarita Polonskaya (Ines), Bergsvein Toverud (Ruiz), Fabio Bellenghi (Un vecchio Zingaro), Ook Chung (Un messo).
Lecture in the hotel, then afternoon tour of the Opéra Bastille. After a break for dinner we retun to the Bastille for an evening performance: Werther (Massenet), Nathalie Stutzmann (conductor), Robert Carsen (director), Léo Vermot-Desroches (Werther), Aigul Akhmetshina (Charlotte), Gordon Bintner (Albert), Sandra Hamaoui (Sophie), Laurent Naouri (Le Bailli), Christophe Mortagne (Schmidt), Franck Leguérinel (Johann).
Morning lecture, then take a guided tour of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, built between 1911 and 1913 and one of the first examples of Art Deco architecture in the city (subject to rehearsal schedules, available nearer the time). Evening performance at the Opéra Bastille: Don Giovanni (Mozart), Finnegan Downie Dear (conductor), Louisa Proske (director), Peter Mattei (Don Giovanni), Slávka Zámečníková (Donna Anna), Amitai Pati (Don Ottavio), Kwangchul Youn (Il Commendatore), Jacquelyn Stucker (Donna Elvira), Joshua Bloom (Leporello), Vartan Gabrielian (Masetto), Ilanah Lobel-Torres (Zerlina).
A morning lecture is followed by a visit in Paris to be confirmed nearer the time, depending on exhibition schedules. Dinner near the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, then continue to the theatre for a concert performance of Israel in Egpyt (Handel): Le Concert Spirituel Orchestra & Choir, Hervé Niquet (conductor), Thaïs Raï-Westphal (soprano), Melissa Petit (soprano), Avery Amereau (alto), Rupert Charlesworth (tenor), Andreas Wolf (bass), Matthieu Walendzik (bass).
A final lecture on the music, then take a guided tour of Notre-Dame, the majestic Gothic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, which has been spectacularly restored following the devastating fire of 2019. A late afternoon performance at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées is followed by dinner nearby: Rinaldo (Handel), Ensemble Artaserse, Philippe Jaroussky (conductor), Valentina Carrasco (director), Carlo Vistoli (Rinaldo), Regula Mühlemann (Almirena), Karine Deshayes (Armida), Christophe Dumaux (Goffredo), Nahuel Di Pierro (Argante), Paul Figuier (Eustazio), Elsa Roux Chamoux (Donna), Dominique Visse (Christian magician).
Take an early afternoon Eurostar to St Pancras, arriving at c. 2.30pm.
Expert speakers
Dr John Allison
Editor of Opera magazine and music critic. He was born in South Africa and completed his PhD degree while playing the piano and working as assistant organist at Cape Town cathedral. Since moving to London in 1989 he has written for publications around the world, authored two books and served on the juries of many international competitions. He co-founded the International Opera Awards in 2013. He reviews for the Daily Telegraph and has previously held positions as music critic on The Sunday Telegraph and The Times.
More tours led by Dr John Allison
Dr Michael Downes OBE
Director of Music at the University of St Andrews, and founding artistic director of Byre Opera. He has lectured for the UK’s leading opera companies and writes notes for Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh Music. Publications include books written both with and about British composer Jonathan Harvey, and a collaboration with Nike Wagner, great-granddaughter of Richard. Story of the Century, his new book on Wagner’s Ring, was published in 2024 by Faber. It was named by Presto Music as one of the five best music books of that year and described by Gramophone magazine as ‘the best introduction to The Ring out there’; it was published in the US in 2025 by Pegasus as Wagner and the Creation of The Ring, and an Italian translation is forthcoming. Michael’s next book will be a biography of Elgar, to be published by Oxford University Press.
More tours led by Dr Michael Downes OBE
Practicalities
18–22 February: Two sharing: £3,340 or £3,180 without Eurostar. Single occupancy: £3,970 or £3,810 without Eurostar.
23 February–1 March: Two sharing: £4,740 or £4,590 without Eurostar. Single occupancy: £5,680 or £5,530 without Eurostar.
Travel by private coach; accommodation as described below; breakfasts and 6 dinners with wine or beer, soft drinks, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.
Hotel Bel Ami, Paris: 5-star hotel in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district on the left bank. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
Visits require a fair amount of walking and standing around. There are some late nights. You need to be able to lift your luggage on and off the train.
Typically between 10 and 24 participants.
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website and Travel Health Pro to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
Dates & prices
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Testimonials
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“The lecturer was outstanding. He brings everything to life and is an erudite lecturer.
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