OPERA IN NEW YORK

JANUARY 9-18, 2019 TOUR LEADER: LINDY MONTGOMERY

Anna Netrebko Yannick Nézet-Séguin Clémentine Margaine

Anita Rachvelishvili Gustavo Dudamel Sonya Yoncheva OPERA IN Overview NEW YORK It’s cold outside, but the singing is hot! Take 10 days out of the Australian summer to enjoy singing, orchestral music and stage production of the Tour dates: January 9-18, 2019 highest calibre on our Opera in New York tour. Academy Travel is delighted to offer lovers of vocal music a 10-day program that includes five Tour leader: Lindy Montgomery performances at the Met and a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. We’ve secured seats for all performances in the Grand Tier, in Tour Price: $7,950 per person, twin share our view the best seats in the theatre for acoustics and sight-lines.

Single Supplement: $2,300 for sole use of The performance program is complemented by visits to a select range of double room small galleries and museums, background talks and plenty of time to relax and enjoy New York. Tour leader Lindy Montgomery will provide both Booking deposit: $500 per person background talks on the performances and expert information on some of the galleries and museums we visit. Recommended airline: Qantas Accommodation is in spacious Premier Plus rooms at the Warwick Hotel in midtown New York. The Warwick is close to restaurants, cafes and a Maximum places: 20 number of museums and historical sites. Academy Travel has conducted long-stay tours to New York since 2007. We have a thorough and up-to- Itinerary: New York, 9 nights, with 6 date knowledge of most of the cultural attractions of the city. performances at the

Date published: March 28, 2018 Your tour leader

Lindy Montgomery is a music educator and performer with over twenty five years’ of experience in her field. She has been involved in a number of tours throughout Europe and the United States and has led groups to Germany, Canada and the USA for Academy Travel. She has also toured widely throughout Australia, Europe and Asia as both a soloist and as a member of various choral groups.

Lindy holds a Bachelor of Music Education, majoring in piano from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as well as a Bachelor of Music (Hons), majoring in singing from the University of Sydney. She has taught all age groups, from primary music, through high school and including thirteen years in the Musicology Department of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, tutoring in Aural Perception, Solfège and Harmony. Lindy currently holds the position of Co-ordinator of Vocal Studies at Ascham School.

As a soprano, Lindy has made many solo appearances with the Sydney Chamber Choir, The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Enquiries and Cantillation and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. She is also a regular bookings performer with smaller ensembles such as The Marais Project, Synergy Percussion and Halcyon. For further information and to secure a place on this tour “Lindy was a superb, knowledgeable and enthusiastic leader.” please contact Hannah – Participant on our Montreal to New York: fine music in historic cities tour, Kleboe at Academy Travel on April 2017. 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email [email protected]. au

Six outstanding Performances

OTELLO Verdi’s penultimate opera Otello is considered by many to be his masterpiece. His ‘mature’ style is a perfect vehicle for exploring the complex emotions that govern the principal characters. The cast is outstanding, led by Stuart Skelton, opposite the remarkable Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona and the equally talented Željko Lučić as Iago. Star Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel makes his Met debut.

ADRIANA LECOUVREUR Cilea’s verismo drama, telling the tale of a feted singer, her tangled romantic life and a bunch of poisoned violets, could have been written for its star, Russian soprano . Sir David McVicar’s well-regarded production premiered at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Ms Netrebko is supported by two outstanding co-principals, Piotr Beczała as her lover and Anita Rachvelishvili as her rival.

AIDA Horses, wagons, two brass choirs, hundreds on stage – there’s nothing bigger or better than the Met’s ! Met favourite Sondra Radvanovsky is in the title role. The energetic Met production stars French singers Clémentine Margaine, a rising star, and Roberto Alagna.

PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE Debussy’s only opera premiered in 1902, but it is only in recent years that the landmark status of Pelléas et Mélisande has been recognised, with performances all over the world, including Australia. Incoming Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a fine international cast and is sure to bring the ravishing orchestral score to life.

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA This orchestra has an illustrious history. Founded in 1842, it has premiered masterpieces such as Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Music Directors have included Mahler, Toscanini, Stokowski and of course Leonard Bernstein. Our concert features works by Beethoven and Rachmaninov.

Detailed itinerary

Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D.

Tour start & finish time

The tour starts on Wednesday 9 January at the Warwick

Hotel, New York, at 6.00pm.

The tour ends on Friday 18 January at the Warwick Hotel,

New York, at 11.30am.

Wednesday 9 January Arrive New York Meet your tour leader and fellow tour participants over welcome drinks and finger food in our hotel.

Thursday 10 January Midtown and Verdi This morning a specialist architectural guide shows us some of the remarkable 20th century architecture of Midtown Manhattan. We survey ‘Beaux Arts’ style buildings such as Grand Central, Art Deco skyscrapers and sleek ‘mid-century modern’ buildings. After a welcome lunch, Belinda Montgomery guides us through tonight’s performance at the Lincoln Center. Verid’s Otello features soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who emerged just a few years ago and is now one of the most in-demand divas in the Above: The iconic Art Deco Chrysler building is just one of dozens of world. Australian tenor Stuart Skelton is an experienced remarkable 20th and 21st century buildings on Manhattan exponent of the title role, while charismatic Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel conducts. (B, L)

Performance details Below: Australian Stuart Skelton as Verdi’s Otello. Skelton is one of the world’s leading heroic tenors and regularly performs in the Venue: Metropolitan Opera leading theatres of Europe and the United States Program: Verdi, Otello Performers: Stuart Skelton (Otello), Sonya Yoncheva (Desdemona), Željko Lučić (Iago)

Friday 11 January Frick Collection – Rockefeller Center This morning we visit the former Fifth Avenue home of ‘robber baron’ Henry Clay Frick. Set on an entire block, this elegant home has been a museum since shortly after Frick’s death in 1913. It contains a superb collection of Renaissance to 18th- century European art, accompanied by exquisite furniture and decorative arts. This afternoon we visit the Rockefeller Center, completed in the Great Depression and a supreme example of New York skyscraper architecture. This evening is free, but there are plenty of performance options available, including a Broadway play or musical, the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. (B) Saturday 12 January Art and Design and a Met Matinee

After a talk on Adriana Lecouvreur we depart the hotel on foot, calling in first at the Museum of Art and Design, overlooking Central Park on Columbus Circle. The Museum hosts constantly-changing exhibitions of decorative arts and design from around the world. We continue the short distance to the Lincoln Center, and our matinee performance. Seeing the great Russian diva Anna Netrebko live will surely be a highlight for many tour participants. (B)

Performance details Venue: Metropolitan Opera Program: Francesco Cilea, Adriana Lecouvreur Performers: Anna Netrebko (Adriana), Piotr Beczala (Maurice), Anita Rachvelishvili (The Princess), Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

Sunday 13 January Above: Polish tenor Piotr Beczala thrives in challenging roles such as Neue Galerie, Central Park Eugene Onegin and Cilea’s hopelessly conflicted Maurice in Adriana Lecouvreur The Neue Galerie, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was established by the art dealer Serge Sabarsky and the art-loving Below: Gustav Klimt’s celebrated portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer is the centrepiece of the Neue Galerie, but it is just one of several world-class entrepreneur Ronald S Lauder. The collection focuses on early works in this delightful small museum 20th-century painting and decorative arts from Vienna, and its centrepiece is Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer, subject of the recent film, The Woman in Gold. Our before-hours tour will also include a visiting exhibition of early 20th-century art (the Neue regularly holds exhibitions of the highest calibre). This afternoon, if the weather is good, we stroll through Central Park, once dubbed ‘the largest work of art in New York’, for the remarkable landscaping by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. Along the way we learn a little of the park’s history and design. Alternatively, you might like to catch a Sunday matinee performance at Carnegie Hall or a Broadway theatre. (B)

Monday 14 January The Met Museum and Verdi This morning has been set aside to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose 54 departments contain paintings, decorative arts and artefacts from all corners of the globe, covering more than 3,000 years of human history. Rather than trying to cover the whole collection, our visit will focus on one or two departments and a selection of the special exhibitions that are showing. We may also call in at the Met’s new campus on Madison Avenue, the Met Breuer. After lunch at the Museum, Belinda. In the afternoon there is a pre-performance talk on Verdi’s much-loved Aida, a mix of scenic grandeur and intimate emotions. Before the performance we will share a light dinner. (B, D)

Performance Details Venue: Metropolitan Opera Program: Verdi, Aida Performers: Sondra Radvanovsky (Aida), Yonghoon Lee (Radames), (Amneris), Roberto Frontali (Amonasro), Nicola Luisotti (conductor) Tuesday 15 January Guggenheim and Debussy

In the mid-morning there is a background talk on Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. As the work and the musical style will be unfamiliar, Belinda Montgomery’s careful analysis will add greatly to your understanding and enjoyment. In the afternoon we head to the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side. Housed in Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic spiral-shaped building on Fifth Avenue, the Guggenheim has both an excellent permanent collection and large-scale visiting exhibitions of modern art. This evening we return to the Lincoln Center for our performance. (B) Above: The swirling organic lines of Frank Lloyd Wright’s last masterpiece, the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, are a striking Performance details contrast to the verticality of Manhattan’s skyscrapers Venue: Metropolitan Opera Below: The sumptuous Morgan Library, home to countless precious Program: Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande manuscripts, spanning millennia of human history; and pianist Yefim Performers: Isobel Leonard (Mélisande), Paul Appleby Bronfman in action (Pelléas), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor)

Wednesday 16 January JP Morgan Library – New York Philharmonic Late this morning we visit the magnificent collection of the JP Morgan Library. In 1903 banker JP Morgan commissioned Gilded Age architect Stanford White to design a Renaissance- style pavilion to hold his precious literary collection. Spending the equivalent of $900 million in today’s terms, Morgan acquired an unrivalled collection, ranging from ancient Mesopotamian tablets to illustrated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, some of the first and rarest printed books, music manuscripts and important documents of American history. The collection has expanded beyond the original pavilion and now incorporates a Renzo Piano-designed atrium and nearby buildings. After lunch in the Morgan restaurant, Belinda introduces tonight’s concert, featuring works from the very beginning and the very end of the Romantic Style. Renowned Israeli pianist Yefim Bronfman is joined by incoming chief conductor Jap Van Zweden. (B, L)

Performance details Venue: David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center Program: Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 2, Rachmaninov, Symphony No.2 Performers: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Yefim Bronfman (pictured left), Jap Van Zweden

Thursday 17 January MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, located a few steps from our hotel, contains a collection of European and American art from the 1880s to the present day and has had an immense influence on our understandings of modern art. A museum lecturer takes us through the highlights of the permanent collection in the hour before MoMA opens its doors to the public. After our tour the remainder of the day is free to enjoy the museum. This evening we make our final journey to the Lincoln Center. After our farewell dinner at the Grand Tier restaurant, we attend the the powerful Richard Eyre production of Carmen, a Met favourite since its 2009 premiere. An excellent international cast of mainly young singers guarantees a satisfying final evening. (B, D)

Performance details Venue: Metropolitan Opera Program: Bizet, Carmen Performers: Clémentine Margaine (Carmen), Roberto Alagna (Don José), Aleksandra Kurzak (Michaëla), Alexander Vinogradov (Escamillo), Omer Meir Wellber (conductor)

Friday 18 January Departure The morning is free to relax or undertake last minute sightseeing. In the mid-afternoon there is a transfer to John F Kennedy airport for those returning to Australia.

The Warwick Hotel

Our four-star hotel is very conveniently located in midtown Manhattan, on 54th Street. We have booked Premier Plus rooms. These are large and comfortable, each with modern amenities. The hotel is in walking distance of many of New York’s most popular attractions. The hotel has recently completed a major renovation.

Above: An Academy Travel private viewing of MoMA; and French tenor Roberto Alagna practising his smouldering gaze

Below: The Grand Tier restaurant within the Metropolitan Opera

The Warwick has an interesting history. It was built in 1926 for newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, primarily as a residence for his Hollywood friends, among whom was his mistress Marion Davies. Over the years guests have included James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Actor Cary Grant lived in the Warwick for 12 years. www.warwickhotelny.com

Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center

Tour Price Fitness Requirements

The tour price is $9,250 per person, twin share (land content of THIS tour only). The supplement for a single room is $2,300 per person. A non-refundable deposit of $500 per person is GRADE ONE required to secure a place on the tour. It is important both for you and for your fellow travellers that Tour Inclusions you are fit enough to be able to enjoy all the activities on this tour. To give you an indication of the level of physical fitness Included in the tour price required to participate on our tours, we have given them a star grading. Academy Travel’s tours tend to feature  Nine nights’ accommodation in premier plus rooms at extended walking tours and site visits, which require greater the Warwick Hotel in midtown Manhattan fitness than coach touring. We ask you instead to consider  All breakfasts, and selected lunches and dinners in carefully your ability to meet the physical demands of the hotels and local restaurants tour.  Land travel by air-conditioned coach or taxi as required  Grand Tier Prime seats to six performances at the Participation criteria for this tour Metropolitan Opera  Background notes and background talks This Grade One tour is appropriate for travellers in good  Services of Academy Travel expert tour leader health with good mobility. You should be able to comfortably throughout tour participate in up to three hours of physical activity per day on  All entrance fees to sites mentioned on itinerary most days, including walking at an easy pace, sometimes on  Expert local guides at selected sites uneven terrain, climbing stairs and standing in galleries.  Tips for all services stated as included in the itinerary You should be able to: Not included  keep up with the group at all times  International airfares, taxes and surcharges (see below)  walk for 2-3 kilometres at a moderate to slow pace with  Travel insurance only short breaks  Meals not mentioned in itinerary  stand for a reasonable length of time in galleries and  Expenses of a personal nature museums  negotiate stairs and bridges Air travel OPTIONS  get on and off a coach, ferry or boat with steep stairs unassisted The tour price quoted is for land content only. For this tour we recommend Qantas or United who have regular flights  move your luggage a short distance if required to New York. Please contact us for further information on A note for older travellers Economy, Business and First Class airfares. Taxi transfers between airport and hotel are included for all passengers If you are more than 80 years old, or have restricted mobility, booking their flights through Academy Travel. These may be it is likely that you will find this itinerary challenging. You may group or individual transfers. have to miss certain activities and may not get the full value of the tour. Before submitting your booking form, please Enquiries & bookings contact Academy Travel to discuss your situation and the exact physical requirements of this tour. While we will do our For further information and to secure a place on this tour best to reasonably accommodate the physical needs of all please contact Hannah Kleboe at Academy Travel on group members, we reserve the right to refuse bookings if 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email we feel that the requirements of the tour are too demanding [email protected] for you and/or if local conditions mean we cannot reasonably accommodate your condition. Weather on Tour Expect cold days, around 2-7 degrees. Days will be mainly overcast, with the possibility of light snow or rain, but also some sunny days. You need to be well prepared with a warm overcoat, gloves, scarf and a hat, a good pair of shoes or boots and an umbrella.