Munich & Bregenz

Day 1 | Sunday 18 July
Arrive Munich
Few European cities owe so much to a single family as the Bavarian capital of Munich. From the 13th century the Wittelsbach dynasty transformed a riverside market town into one of the continent’s great cultural capitals, endowing it with palaces, galleries and the musical establishment that became the Bavarian State Opera. It is into this inheritance that we arrive, settling into our centrally located hotel in the old town, where squares and arcades were rebuilt with care after the war and the twin domes of the Frauenkirche rise over the rooftops as they have for five centuries. Gathering in the early evening, we begin with a welcome drink over introductions before dinner together at a nearby restaurant. Overnight Munich (D)

Day 2 | Monday 19 July
Musical Munich | Münchner Opernfestspiele
From the court composers of the Wittelsbach dukes to the premieres of Wagner under Ludwig II, this city has stood at the centre of German musical life for centuries – a heritage that culminates each summer in the festival we have come to attend. A morning lecture at the hotel sets the scene before a walking tour with a local guide traces the making of a musical metropolis, through the streets where composers lodged and quarrelled and the theatres where reputations were made and unmade in a single evening. Lunch is then enjoyed together at a local restaurant, followed by an afternoon at leisure. In the evening, we take our seats at the National Theatre, home of the Bavarian State Opera, for the first of our performances at the Munich Opera Festival. Munich-born tenor Jonas Kaufmann, one of the leading opera singers of his generation, returns to his home city for a festival song recital accompanied by pianist Helmut Deutsch. A distinguished specialist in the Lied repertoire, Deutsch has collaborated with Kaufmann for many years, making this an opportunity to hear the tenor in the more intimate setting of recital rather than in a fully staged opera. Overnight Munich (B, L)

Day 3 | Tuesday 20 July
Neuschwanstein
No building expresses the romantic imagination of 19th-century Bavaria more vividly than the mountain castle raised by Ludwig II from 1869 as a private homage to the operas of Wagner. Conceived as an idealised medieval fortress into which the King could withdraw from his court, it is not so much a residence as a stage set made stone, its towers conjured from the German myths that haunted him. Today we travel by coach into the Alpine foothills, with time in the village below Neuschwanstein before our guided tour of the castle. Within, the painted halls are drawn directly from Wagnerian legend: the Singers’ Hall evokes the medieval song contests of Tannhäuser, the throne room rises like a Byzantine church, and throughout recurs the swan of Lohengrin, the knight to whom the king felt a lifelong devotion. We return to Munich by late afternoon, with the evening is at leisure. Overnight Munich (B)

Day 4 | Wednesday 21 July
The Alte Pinakothek | Münchner Opernfestspiele
Three centuries of Wittelsbach collecting created one of Europe’s great picture galleries, bringing together major works of German, Flemish and Italian painting under successive dukes and kings. The collection found a permanent home under Ludwig I, whose purpose-built Alte Pinakothek opened in 1836 as one of the world’s earliest public museums. Following a morning lecture at the hotel, we visit the gallery with a guide, taking in masterpieces including Dürer’s Self-Portrait with Fur-Trimmed Robe of 1500, da Vinci’s Madonna of the Carnation, Rubens’ monumental The Great Last Judgement and Titian’s Vanity. An afternoon at leisure follows, with an easy walk back to the hotel through the heart of the city. In the evening, we return to the National Theatre for Verdi’s Rigoletto, his darkly concentrated tragedy of power, vengeance and paternal love, based on Victor Hugo’s once-banned play Le Roi s’amuse. This new production by Barbara Wysocka is conducted by Daniele Rustioni, with acclaimed French baritone Ludovic Tézier in the title role, Rosa Feola as Gilda and Xabier Anduaga as the Duke of Mantua. Overnight Munich (B)

Day 5 | Thursday 22 July
Schloss Nymphenburg
Begun in 1664 to celebrate the birth of a long-awaited heir, the Wittelsbachs’ summer palace grew under successive rulers into one of the grandest Baroque ensembles in Germany, its long facade fronting formal gardens, fountains and canals. This morning we travel by coach to tour the state rooms, among them the Gallery of Beauties, where Ludwig I hung portraits of the women he most admired, drawn from every rank of Munich society, before exploring grounds first laid out in the French manner and later softened into an English landscape park. Lunch is enjoyed at a traditional restaurant within the palace park before we return to the city for a private guided tour of the Cuvilliés Theatre. Commissioned by Elector Maximilian III Joseph and completed in the 1750s, this richly decorated Rococo court theatre was designed by François de Cuvilliés and became one of Munich’s principal venues for opera and court performance. It was here, in 1781, that Mozart’s Idomeneo received its world premiere. An evening at leisure follows on return to our hotel. Overnight Munich (B, L)

Day 6 | Friday 23 July
Britten’s Final Opera | Münchner Opernfestspiele
Death in Venice was Benjamin Britten’s final opera, a setting of Thomas Mann’s novella that distils its themes of beauty, longing and mortality into music of extraordinary intensity. Britten wrote the central role of Aschenbach, the ageing writer, for his lifelong partner Peter Pears, completing the score as his own health was failing – giving the opera something of the character of a farewell. A morning lecture at the hotel introduces the work and its autobiographical undercurrents, after which the day is at leisure to explore Munich at your own pace – perhaps visiting the Lenbachhaus for its outstanding collection of Blue Rider art or following the paths of the English Garden along the Isar. In the early evening, we transfer to the Prinzregententheater, the Jugendstil theatre built in 1901 in conscious emulation of Wagner’s Bayreuth Festspielhaus, for the Bavarian State Opera’s new production of Death in Venice. British tenor Allan Clayton takes the demanding role of Gustav von Aschenbach, with Étienne Dupuis appearing in the multiple roles that shadow his journey through Venice. Edward Gardner conducts the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in this production by Vasily Barkhatov, whose staging receives its premiere just one week before our performance. Overnight Munich (B)

Day 7 | Saturday 24 July
To Bregenz | Bregenzer Festspiele
In the aftermath of war and without a hall large enough for an operatic production, a festival was founded in 1946 on two gravel barges moored off the Austrian shore of Lake Constance. From those beginnings, the Bregenz Festival has grown into one of Europe’s major summer music festivals, centred on its spectacular floating stage, the Seebühne. A morning lecture at the hotel introduces the Festival before we leave Munich and Germany behind, travelling south-west by coach through the rolling country of the Allgäu. Its pastures and onion-domed churches accompany us towards Lake Constance, where we cross the border from Bavaria into Austria and continue through Vorarlberg to Bregenz. We arrive at our hotel by mid-afternoon, with time to freshen up before taking our seats on the Seebühne for Verdi’s La traviata. One of Verdi’s most personal operas, the tragic story of the Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry and her doomed love for Alfredo Germont unfolds on the Festival’s spectacular floating stage above Lake Constance. Damiano Michieletto directs the new production, with sets by Paolo Fantin and the Wiener Symphoniker performing Verdi’s score under conductor Pietro Rizzo as the summer light fades across the lake. Overnight Bregenz (B)

Day 8 | Sunday 25 July
Penthesilea | Bregenzer Festspiele
Beyond the spectacle of its lake stage, the Bregenz Festival has a long tradition of presenting less familiar works in the Festspielhaus. This year it turns to Penthesilea, Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck’s intense 1927 setting of Heinrich von Kleist’s tragedy, presented in the year marking the 250th anniversary of the playwright’s birth. In a single unbroken act, the opera follows the Amazon queen Penthesilea and her fatal passion for the Greek hero Achilles, caught between love, duty and the laws of her people. Following an introductory lecture at the hotel, we make our way to the Festspielhaus for our midday performance. Kristiina Poska conducts the Wiener Symphoniker, with Mariame Clément directing and Julia Hansen responsible for both sets and costumes. After the performance, the afternoon continues with a guided walking tour of Bregenz, exploring the medieval Oberstadt with its surviving walls and watchtower before descending through the town towards the lakeside promenade. We then gather for dinner at a local restaurant, rounding out our day in Bregenz. Overnight Bregenz (B, D)

Day 9 | Monday 26 July
Lake Constance | Bregenzer Festspiele
Straddling the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lake Constance has for centuries connected the towns, monasteries and trading centres that developed along its shores. Today we cross back into Germany for a full-day exploration of the lake, beginning on the Island of Mainau. Developed by the Bernadotte family over successive generations, its gardens spread across terraces overlooking the water, with an arboretum, formal plantings and an 18th-century Baroque palace at their centre. A guided visit introduces its botanical collections before we gather for a farewell lunch by the lake. We then continue to Konstanz, one of the great historic towns of Lake Constance, whose largely intact medieval centre preserves narrow streets, merchants’ houses and the imposing Münster, with origins reaching back more than a thousand years. Following time to explore the old town and waterfront, we return to Bregenz for our final Festival performance at the Festspielhaus. Here, Domingo Hindoyan leads the Wiener Symphoniker, joined by Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst, in a program ranging from Nielsen’s atmospheric Pan og Syrinx and Hillborg’s theatrical Peacock Tales to Bartók’s brilliant Concerto for Orchestra – bringing our journey through the Munich and Bregenz Festivals to a fitting musical close. Overnight Bregenz (B, L)

Day 10 | Tuesday 27 July
Depart to Zurich
After breakfast, we depart Bregenz and travel west into Switzerland for our group transfer to Zurich Airport, where our tour concludes. (B)