Puccini Opera Festival

   

Itinerary     7 August to 11 August 2008 

Day One

Arrive Pisa and transfer to Lucca.

Walking tour of the city walls and dinner.

Four nights Bed & Breakfast in the Hotel Universo in Lucca.

Day Two

Visit to the Cathedral and Puccini birthplace.  Afternoon free to rest or enjoy the city.

Transfer to Torre del Lago for a performance of Tosca, preceeded by a tour of the new theatre.

Day Three

Walking tour of Puccini sites in Lucca including the cafe where he entertained his friends.

Market day in Lucca

Afternoon free to rest or enjoy the city.

Transfer to Torre del Lago for a rare performance of Edgar, Puccini's second opera, which failed with the critics at the time, but which is now being rediscovered.  Possible meeting with the director, Puccini expert Vivienne Hewitt (to be confirmed).

Day Four

Morning free.

Afternoon visit to Viareggio to see Caffe Margerita where the Puccini Society met during the last years of his life. 

Also a visit to Puccini's house where he wrote Turandot (To be confirmed).

Transfer to Torre del Lago for a performance of Turandot, the last opera written by Puccini.

Day Five

Morning free. 

Transfer to Pisa with opportunity to visit the Duomo and the famous Leaning Tower before our return to London. 

 *

An optional visit to Villa Puccini is planned but cannot be confirmed or costed at this stage.

 Tour Leader:

Adrian Mourby has recently published the AA Guide to Venice, has a novel partly set in Venice and is an experienced tour leader.  Adrian has also directed opera at festivals, is an opera critic and a well known writer of opera programmes.

Adrian will also be leading our Venice in Winter tour, 24 - 28 November 2008, when we will stay in luxury at the world famous Danieli Hotel and plan to visit the opera at La Fenice Theatre.

 

To download or print The Travellers Club Booking Form please click here.

A wonderful trip and three Puccini opera to enjoy

Adrian Mourby, winner of the Special Puccini Award for Journalism 2007, will be taking us to a very special Puccini Festival this summer. 

The annual Festival Pucciniamo Torre del Lago is held in the lakeside town of Torre del Lago where the young Giacomo Puccini lived in his Bohemian days before he made a dramatic impact on the world of opera with his Manon Lescaut.

Later he returned to this beloved spot and wrote three of the most popular operas ever written, La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, while living in a house that he built on the lakeside.

At the end of his life Puccini expressed a wish to hear his works performed in Torre del Lago, a setting that had inspired his most successful operas. This wish was put into effect by the composer Pietro Mascagni who in 1930 began the tradition of conducting Puccini in Torre del Lago.

This year a new permanent open air theatre is opening on the lakeside at Torre del Lago and The Travellers’ Club members will receive a special tour of the new facility before watching three performances of Puccini operas in the inaugural season.

We will be staying in the heart of the beautiful medieval town of Lucca where Puccini was born (about 10 miles away but it is much more charming than Torre del Lago itself) and also visiting Viareggio, the Art Nouveau seaside resort where he moved at the height of success.

His heart however always belonged to Torre del Lago where we will hope to visit Villa Puccini*, the house where his greatest works were written and where he is buried.

Throughout the tour there will be opportunities for discussions with Adrian Mourby on Puccini’s life and works and on the direction and our responses to the works we shall be seeing. It is likely that we will arrange picnic meals or light suppers before each of the performances.

To download or print the full itinerary please click here.

To contact us about this Tour telephone 01425 480600 or via email here.