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Luxury Puccini Festival tour...
Music & Opera Holidays main menu
- 0845 003 2211 or 01543 258631
Now booking for 2011
Depart 21st July or 11th August 2011
from £1,782 per person
5 night luxury tour taking in 3 operas
Pre-opera dinners, flights, 2nd category tickets, excursions and tour leader all
included
Introduction...
Anyone who loves Puccini should make the journey to his beloved Torre del
Lago, a beautiful and peaceful place not far from Lucca where the composer was
born in 1858. What better time for a visit than in July or August when the
annual Puccini Festival takes place, with performances of a selection of his
operas being performed on the lakeside stage close to the very spot where
Puccini lived and composed for more than thirty years.
Tour details...
Our tour is based in Lucca at the comfortable and modern 4 star Hotel Celide,
located just outside the city's impressive walls. The hotel has comfortable
bedrooms, a bar and a pleasant terrace. Dinners before each opera performance
will be taken in a restaurant at Torre del Lago. During our stay in Lucca we
will spend time exploring the city with visits to the Church of SS Paolino e
Donato where Puccini was baptized, together with two other churches that have
associations with the composer. We will also visit two great Tuscan gardens –
the Villa Garzoni with its dazzling water cascades and the Villa Reale at Marlia.
Operas...
Turandot - The icy Princess Turandot despises all men. When the Persian prince Calaf arrives to claim her hand in marriage she asks him three riddles. Many men before him have failed to answer them and lost their lives as a result. Calaf gets all the right answers and his prize is Turandot. Horrified, she does all she can not to keep her side of the bargain but Calaf persists and wins her heart.
Tosca - Jealousy, sex, revenge, rape, murder – it’s all here in Puccini’s thrilling opera where all the three protagonists, the opera singer Tosca, her revolutionary lover Cavaradoss and the evil Chief of Police in Rome, where the opera is set, all end up dead.
La Boheme - This is the world’s most popular and best-loved opera. The poet Rodolfo is visited by his neighbour, the seamstress Mimi. They fall in love and embark on a bitter-sweet love affair which is doomed to disaster. Unbeknown to Rodolfo, Mimi is terminally ill. In the most heart-wrenching scene in all opera, Mimi expires on her bed. The music tells us that she has died with a series of searing chords as Rodolfo sobs uncontrollably, all hope of love extinguished.
Second category tickets are provided for all three performances.
Accommodation - Hotel Celide, Lucca
A comfortable, modern hotel situated just outside the impressive
city walls that circumnavigate Lucca and just a few minutes’walk from the
historic centre.The hotel has 62 bedrooms, a restaurant, bar and a pleasant
terrace.
What is included...Return scheduled flights to Pisa
5 nights’ accommodation with breakfast
Three pre-opera dinners in Torre del Lago
Second category tickets for all three operas
All excursions as detailed above
Synopses on the three operas
Services of a tour lecturer
Price details...
from £1,782 per person
Our price is per person based on the shared occupancy of a
twin/double room. Supplement for single occupancy is as shown.
FLIGHT DETAILS
London
Gatwick departure with British Airways:
Depart 11.35 arrive
Pisa 15.35; return 15.35 arriving 16.45.
How to book...
To book please call us on 0845 003 2211 or 01543 258631.
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