Operas and symphonies
 

Musical Tour of Europe We got a lot of good input when we were planning this trip so I thought we would share our experience. Thanks to those who helped.

For our 50th anniversary my wife and I decided to take a 2-week trip to Europe to see some of the famous opera and symphony venues in Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Milan. On our “bucket lists” were the Berliner Philharmoniker and La Scala. Our anniversary is on Nov. 22 and were planning to go the last 2 weeks of November, but quickly found out that we would have to change that timing since the Berlin Phil would be on tour and La Scala would be between seasons.

We always plan our trips months in advance and usually we don’t have to plan too far ahead for our anniversary trips, being that they are in November the low travel season. What we quickly found out was that, though it was low season for tourists it is high season for local music lovers.

Our itinerary ended up as Paris for the operas Bastille and Garnier, Berlin for the Philamoniker, Operas Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper , Vienna for Staatsoper , Volksoper and the symphony at Musikverein, Milan for La Scala. The schedule was hard to set early since when we first started planning several of the season schedules had not been published yet.

Purchasing the tickets to get the best possible seats was challenging and several times meant getting up at 1 AM St Louis time to get in queue on line when the tickets were available for sale to the general public. Generally, we were very satisfied with the tickets with the exception of the seats at LaScala which were not only the priciest but also the most scarce. Although we were able to get front row box seats, the box was on the side and so had limited visibility. Any disappointment we had was more than offset by a wonderful performance of Rigoletto. The folks at the ticket office did explain that many season ticket holders had subscribed to this particular performance.

We ended up with 9 events in 13 days. With this ambitious schedule we decided to fly rather than train between cities. We were very happy with Air Berlin flights which all took about one hour versus 8-10 hours by rail, and at half the cost. Flying gave us more time to settle into the new hotel and go to a concert if we chose.

Our hotels were selected after using the reviews in Trip Advisor. Here again, although it was low season, rooms at some of the smaller hotels were hard to find. What we didn’t know was that the week before Armistice Day Nov. 11 is a holiday for many in Paris. (An hour wait to get into the D’Orsay was our first clue.) Since all the venues were in the central city we chose hotels that were close and provided us with the opportunity to walk if we wanted to. A word of caution, get a good street map like the laminated Streetwise maps. We got lost walking to the Bastille Opera house and were late. We thought we would use taxis most of the time but because of our proximity to the various subway lines and the street traffic we used the subways many times.

All the hotels lived up to their recommendations: Hotel Paris France, mittendrin in Berlin, Hotel am Stephanplatz in Vienna, and Hotel Berna in Milan. We booked directly with the hotels except for Vienna where we found a good deal on Expedia. On average our price per night was about $200. Since most of our events started at 7 or 7:30 we were not able to eat in restaurants, but found the cafes and brasseries recommended by our hotels to be very good and saved us a little money.

In summary all the venues were special, from the magnificent La Scala to the sound perfect Berliner Philharmoniker. Our expectations were very high and with few exceptions they were met. We were disappointed in the modern ballet at Garnier as was most of the Parisian audience. On the other hand we loved the comical, almost slapstick, presentation of the Barber of Seville at Deutsche Oper and completely blown away by the Vienna Ballet’s Carmina Burana and particularly Bolero at the Volksoper.

We were not sure of the dress for the various venues so we opted for suit and tie for me and comparable suit/dress for my wife. Better than half of all the audiences were dress that way or at least business casual. Whatever you wear go to see some of these wonderful places and hear some amazing music.

I'd love to do a similar trip someday. It sounds like it was a bit of a challenge to set up, but worked out well for you!

Wow, I agree, I would love to do this one day. Thanks for sharing!

That was a really busy cultural schedule for such a short time! If you can spend more than 2 weeks in Europe in the future, you will have a much less frenzied schedule.

What a great theme for a trip! Thanks for sharing your experiences planning and experiencing it.

One of my takeaway from this report is that with focused objectives along with relevant transportation options, one can pull this type of trip even at "50th anniversary" point, rather than constrained by so many days, so many places rule.

I have gone to a concert at Berliner Philharmoniker and Volksoper in Vienna last month, and they were the one of the objectives of my trip. I usually cannot change the days of the trip due to work commitment, so I need to find performances within the target geographical area within the time frame. Before I hit that "buy" airfare button, I look at several itinerary options to see if I can include desired venues by playing around with the destination sequences.

I think this type of planning, unless one has a lot of vacation time, is hard to coordinate. One has to match the itinerary with the venues with performances of interest and not just any performance at that venue. I think those who are thinking of doing something like this might want to try to hit venues whenever one travels to Europe. I think what OP has pulled off is an amazing feat by 1) being able to travel at "50th anniversary" point, 2) with wife, to 3) (mostly) interesting venues, and 4) within 2weeks.

My one experience at opera in Berlin, in October 2011, suggested tickets may be easier to obtain there than in Paris, perhaps because so much opera is on offer. I stepped out of the overnight train at the central station, went to the tourist office and bought a ticket for Barber of Seville just two days later. The cheap subsidized prices were startling. It was the Staatsoper, temporarily located in the Schiller Theater because its old hall was (and apparently still is) being rebuilt. The Schiller is so small that Daniel Barenboim was forced to sit down to conduct and the props and sets were nothing more than a few boxes and window curtains. Still, despite my lack of German, it was howlingly funny and of course beautifully sung. If this was just first-time luck, I'm sure going to try again.

Next time you plan a trip like this, let me know, and I will ask you to book my tickets (for a fee, of course :-)) No reason for both of us to be up at 100 AM!

It sounds wonderful. We usually do relaxed trips in Europe but we have taken several trips similar to yours in the US, and they have all been Worth It.

Our schedule was pretty busy but we decided early on that we would only do things like city bus tours and art museums since we wanted to stay fresh for the performances. We've been to Paris before to see the sights and now know that it will take several more trips before we get enough of Vienna...we loved it

we will be in Berlin in the first week of Sept. On top of my list to watch a performance of Berlin Philarmonic in the audio perfect Berlin Philarmoniker. I subscribed to their website but they havent published their performances that far out. would you by chance know if their on break around first week of Sept?

we are also flying AirBerlin from Krakow, and found a reasonable OW fare of $138 with 1 pc of included luggage included. i have read many great reviews of AB from another forum, and the chocolate hearts... yumm

Count me among those impressed! I'd love to do something similar some day (but I don't think I could keep up with your pace - lol).

Bravo - truly.