European opera houses

[Dave2002]

I quite fancy organising one or more trips to visit opera houses on the continent during the next 12 months, but it doesn't seem to be too easy to find out what's on. I did find out the programme for Leipzig http://oper-leipzig.de/spielzeit-2014-2015/ and http://oper-leipzig.de/fileadmin/use...tbuch_1415.pdf With the opera house in Lille only a relatively short Eurostar journey away, it would be quite good to check that one out, as also the opera venues in Paris and Lyon.

Previously I have heard recommendations for opera in Prague and Budapest, and I also once spent a happy few evenings in Riga opera house.

What I'd like now is first of all recommendations for opera venues which are easily accessible from the London area, and also details of what's on during the next year. Also, it looks as though the summer period is "dead" re most opera, which is perhaps a shame for some, though maybe there are some opera festivals which I don't know about.

I could be persuaded to go even further afield, though I'm not likely to revisit Sydney in the near future. I would happily revisit the USA, funds and time permitting, and perhaps there might be recommendations for other venues - South America perhaps?

[Belgrove]

Try La Monnaie, direct to Brussels on Eurostar. They are doing Daphne in September, which is a rarity.

In the States, the Sante Fe festival has an interesting programme next year. In the open air, and it never rains!

Buenos Aires would be fun, nice steak and a glass of Malbec after the show...

[VodkaDilc]

I'm sure that Ms Grant, the tourism minister, would urge you to go to British opera houses.

[Dave2002]

I'm sure that Ms Grant, the tourism minister, would urge you to go to British opera houses.

I do that as well. Some of the foreign ones are significantly cheaper with good productions and reasonable seats if one ignores the travel costs, and some put on interesting works.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/10914873/Staycations-a-solution-to-the-passport-crisis-Tell-that-to-Englands-footballers.html

[slarty]

Change at Brussels for Cologne and begin looking around the German Opera houses. Cologne - http://www.operkoeln.com/ and Dusseldorf - http://operamrhein.de/ are very close together (35 minute train ride) have suberb orchestras and are definitely worth considering.
Then it is either north-east to Berlin where there are the Berlin Staatsoper (Barenboim is GMD) or the City Opera in Charlottenburg -http://www.deutscheoperberlin.de/ which used to be the main operahouse in West Berlin during the cold war, OR south east to Stuttgart - http://www.oper-stuttgart.com/ a great little house, or a little further on to Munich - http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/...aktuelles.html
From Munich which is one of the best in Europe (along with the Staatsoper in Berlin) it is a couple of hours on a train to Vienna - http://www.staatsoper-wien.de/

Most of the sites translate into English.
There are also other great Opera Houses in Germany - Hamburg, Hannover, Dortmund, Duisburg, Frankfurt all of them a very good standard.

WARNING - there are very few "traditional opera productions" left in Germany - they are all "Regie" driven and there is a great deal of "Eurotrash" amongst the offerings.
Berlin (DB) is very good, but the house with the most traditional productions still in the repertoire is Vienna. Vienna is the only Major Opera House(the big 5 used to be - MET - Paris - Milan - Vienna - London) in the world that still runs the Repertory system as against the "Stagione"System, which one finds at Covent Garden and other International houses.

All opera houses in Europe close in June (mid to late) so as to give all the different festivals the chance to gear up. They all re-open for business September time.
With so many in Germany alone, it is worth getting a weekly rail ticket or hiring a car and turning up at the houses and taking last minute tickets.

[gurnemanz]

I quite fancy organising one or more trips to visit opera houses on the continent during the next 12 months, but it doesn't seem to be too easy to find out what's on.

Operabase is pretty good.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I quite fancy organising one or more trips to visit opera houses on the continent during the next 12 months, but it doesn't seem to be too easy to find out what's on.

Excuse the self-promotion, but Bachtrack is the largest online classical music listings site in the world. We're still inputting a lot of opera seasons at the moment, but plenty are up already. E.g. Bavarian State Opera: http://bachtrack.com/find-opera/performer=44737

[David-G]

I quite fancy organising one or more trips to visit opera houses on the continent during the next 12 months.

Dave, did you ever go?