The best opera and music holidays for 2019
Our experts round up the most exciting holidays in 2019 for fans of opera and music.
1. Ravenna Festival
Each summer Ravenna stages a truly eclectic and original festival, which includes classical music, dance and theatre performances dispersed around some very special settings, from the city’s ancient monuments to its historic theatres, cloisters and palaces. Leading performers this year, the 30th anniversary, include Riccardo Muti, Maurizio Pollini (June 5) and John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet.
June 5–July 14 (ravennafestival.org)
2. Tanglewood Festival
The villages of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills, western Massachusetts, have been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for more than 80 years, and its annual Tanglewood festival is East Coast America’s most distinguished music event. Andris Nelsons, BSO music director, conducts 14 of the concerts and star performers include Emanuel Ax, Paul Lewis and Anne-Sophie Mutter. Tickets on sale Feb 10.
June 15–Aug 25 (tanglewood.org).
3. Aspen Festival
This year is the 70th anniversary of the Aspen Music Festival, one of the longest-running and most prestigious festivals in the United States. The 2019 programme has yet to be announced, but a typical eight-week summer season includes more than 400 classical music events – including concerts by five orchestras, solo and chamber music performances, fully staged opera productions, masterclasses, lectures, and children’s programming. Tickets and details available in February.
June 27–Aug 18 (aspenmusicfestival.com)
4. Munich Opera Festival
Each year, the festival reprises the season’s productions and premieres new ones. New for 2019 will be productions of Richard Strauss’s Salome and Handel’s Agrippina with Alice Coote in the title role. Treats among the 12 other operas to be performed include Anja Harteros in Andrea Chénier and Sonya Yoncheva as Norma, as well as performances of La traviata, L’elisir d’amore, The Marriage of Figaro and Turandot. Ticket requests will be processed from Feb 1.
June 27–July 31 (staatsoper.de)
5. Grand Teton Music Festival
Aspen’s great classical music rival in the Rocky Mountains is the Grand Teton, which has been held in Jackson Hole since 1962 and at its heart is a timber concert hall, the Walk Festival Hall, famous for its intimate atmosphere and excellent acoustics. Despite its relatively modest size, the hall attracts the greats – current music director is the Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles. The programme for 2019 is yet to be announced but subscriptions are on sale from Feb 1, single tickets from March 1.
July 2–Aug 17 (gtmf.org)
6. Salzburg Festival
The excitement is building in Salzburg both for this summer and for its centenary year in 2020. Bar the Proms, it is the world’s oldest music festival and this year it will pack in a staggering 199 performances in 43 days at 16 venues. This year’s theme is ‘Myths’ and includes premieres of Mozart’s Idomeneo and George Enescu’s opera Œdipe, a marathon reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses and the customary line-up of the world’s great musicians.
July 20–Aug 31 (salzburgfestival.at)
7. Lucerne Festival
Jean Nouvel’s fabulous lakeside concert hall in Lucerne is the setting for one of Europe’s premier classical music festivals with an extraordinarily high standard of performances. In 2019, in his fourth year as music director of the festival orchestra, Riccardo Chailly is focusing on Russian symphonic music, with works by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky. But there is plenty of variety – for example Bernard Haitink is conducting a Schubert and Mahler concert.
Aug 16–Sept 15 (lucernefestival.ch)
8. BaroCktage Berlin
The Staatsopera Unter den Linden reopened after major restoration at the end of 2017 and this festival of Baroque opera was launched a year later with three operas and 13 concerts. It was a huge success and the second edition will take place next November. The full programme has yet to be announced, but will feature works by Scarlatti and Henry Purcell.
Nov 1–10 (staatsoper-berlin.de)
