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Just a block from the Grands Boulevards, Hotel Aston is in an elegant part of the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The Opera, the Madeleine, the Moulin Rouge or the Sacré-Coeur are all within walking distance, and there are many excellent restaurants, cafés and bars right in the quarter.
Originally a residential town house, the building has been tastefully transformed into a classy contemporary 3-star designer hotel. The lounge area is elegant in a classic way, the rooms, however, represent a different style. Very bright with white walls and a few coloured items - a red curtain and lamps, a contemporary painting - giving it a charming character. As far as design concerned it is a good example of "less is more." Equipped with all the modern amenities the room we had was very comfortable and spotlessly clean.
And all this came at a very reasonable price - not only is Hotel Aston a great hotel, but also very good value!
Hotel Aston
12, cité Bergère - 75009 - Paris
aston-hotel-paris.com/
Affordable and stylish, the 3-star Hotel Massena is in one of the most prestigious districts, near the Opera, Place Vendome, the big department stores and luxury boutiqes. It's a shopper's paradise - even if you only window-shop - but also convenient for sightseeing. The Madeleine is a short stroll, and the Tuileries Garden, the Louvre museum and other sights aren't that far either.
We loved the place, it's a cute gem of a boutique hotel, with a very ambient and trendy atmosphere. Our room was modern and classy, with a big comfy bed and spotlessly clean bathroom.
Considering the location and class the prices seem moderate with Paris standards. We certainly believe it's worth it, Hotel Massena is one of those lovely places that make a visit to Paris even more memorable.
www.paris-hotel-massena.com/
16 rue Tronchet
75008 Paris
You don't even need to be a fan of opera to appreciate the thrill and romance of watching an opera performed in an open-air arena on a warm summer's night in the beautiful city of Verona. This is not the hushed atmosphere of Covent Garden. Imagine thousands of people in a Roman arean, humming along, waving lighters, cuddling in the back row. A stunning experience
www.kirkerholidays.com/verona-independent-opera-holidays.aspx
It sounds like insanity, standing for three hours - but you get comfy armrests to lean on, your own surtitles, and a surprisingly good view at the back of the stalls. You're first out to the bar at the interval. And it's very cheap.
Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, 10023
+1 (212) 362 6000
www.metoperafamily.org
Google map: bit.ly/hrZWEg
The Vienna State Opera is the former Imperial Opera. Performances are very lavish. Swan Lake was fantastic! There were international ballet soloists. The opera orchestra consists of members of the Vienna Philharmonic, which was many times voted the best orchestra in the world. We had good seats and enjoyed a great evening!
Tickets for certain performances are bit of a problem. We found tickets for Swan Lake from www.concertvienna.com
An independent cultural and nightlife website, with its ear to the ground.
An English-language website where you can buy tickets for almost every event in town - theatre, ballet, Chinese acrobats, Peking opera and more. They bring the tickets to you, and you pay on delivery. Good for those who don't speak Chinese.
Being an opera lover who lives outside the home counties means expensive trips to London or to west country cities to catch the Welsh National Opera.
However, quality opera performances and productions do not appear to come
much more low-cost than Prague.
There, the National Theatre (Narodni
Divadlo), together with its little sister, the Estates Theatre, and the State Opera (Statni Opera) provide excellent performances.
The NT has a stunning little auditorium in a large building so there is plenty of room for bars and restaurants. With its superb orchestra it
provides a substantial diet of the classics whilst putting on more Czech opera than the opposition.
The musical and production standards are very
high. Really worth catching are Jenufa (I have seen Anja Silja, Rosalind Plowright and Eva Randova all give wonderful and different versions of the
Kostelnicka), Dvorak's The Devil and Kate (why isn't this hilarious twist on the Orpheus and Euridice story more popular abroad? As fine as Hansel and
Gretel, it is perfomed most Sunday mornings to hoards of delighted children) and an operatic version of Verdi's Requiem. The musical director, Oliver
Dohnanyi, conducts regularly. The intendant is the superb designer Daniel Dvorak who often works in tandem with the theatre director, Jiri Neksavil. Jenufa is the best I have seen.
The State Opera, with a larger auditorium, squeezed into a smaller building is more variable and more based on the classics. Former conductors include Mahler, Klemperer and Szell. Both houses have excellent productions of
Dvorak's Rusulka. The best principals seem to appear in both houses and occasionaly one is spoilt for choice with Aida or Carmen on at both houses
on the same night.
Hardly surprisingly, as the birthplace of Don Giovanni and Il Clemenza diTito, the gorgeous little Estates Theatre mostly does Mozart and Donizetti. In all
the theatres opera prices are extraordinarily low by our standards; £20 - £25 for the best seats. The subtitles are in English, as are large sections
of the programme notes which come in paperback books at the NT for about £1
or glossy magazines elsewhere. Tickets are usually available at the box offices if you go between September and March or are easy to book online
www.narodni-divadlo.cz will show full repertoire and let you book. They also run the Estates Theatre). For the State Opera, details can be found on
operacz/en/index/opera and booking made through Bohemia Ticket: www.BohemiaTicket.cz
Forget hotels: go for apartments. Mary's Travel in Prague can put you near the NT for about £20 a night. Restaurants cater for every taste and nationality. Czech food itself is filling with the ubiquitous dumpling and meats acting as a ballast.
The city itself? Need one say more than it holds the most varied and
stunning architecture? Prague is an opera lover's paradise.
If you're in Rome make sure you take a day or afternoon trip out to Ostia Antica (30 mins by train). It was the ancient port city of the Roman Empire & when the river silted up it was abandoned and the silt preserved the city beautifully. What's left is a huge ghost-town several miles inland with amphitheatre, apartment blocks, forum, bath houses and villas.
You can enter and walk around most buildings - even go upstairs and walk in gardens - and there are few of the restrictions you'll find in Pompeii. We went on a Sunday afternoon and the place was spookily almost deserted.
In the summer, the amphitheatre often hosts open air performances of folk and opera. A real find. Plus you can round off the day with a swim with the surf girls and boys at Rome's funky beach suburb, Ostia, a train stop away at Lido Centro.
Take the (very shabby)overland from Piramide/ Ostiense towards C. Colombo or Lido Centro. Costs about 3 Euros.
It's in Gezira - just up from Zamalek, and usually has a good range of shows on - while I was here for four months they had a couple of Operas, lots of Symphony stuff, a few Ballets and (in late November), a Harry Potter play.
It's horribly cheap (25-35LE (about £3) for a mainshow) - but if you're looking for grandeur, make sure you get tickets to the Main Hall show, the Small Hall is underwhelming.
Their website (and lots of other listings websites) lie about their program, so it's best to get down there to ask. Or call (they speak English)
Tell your taxi driver "Op-err-aa, Gezira" - costs about 5LE from Zamalek and Mohandiseen
Telephone number is 02 7398132
The Grand Theatre hosts the National Opera of Bordeaux, with a season of opera, ballet and classical music running largely from September to June. The building itself is beautiful and ornate.
Concerts en balade are held on the first Sunday of every month and have a uniform seat price of 5 euros. They usually take place in the morning or early afternoon and cover music from Mozart to Messaien and Holst to Haydn. You can reserve online.
www.opera-bordeaux.com
Place de la Comédie
This district on the island of Gezira is calmer, greener and more pleasant than the rest of Cairo. It's a great area to wander and explore; lots of the embassies are in Zamalek, and it's got a good mix of worldly Egyptians and expat foreigners. There are big parks, pleasant avenues, lots of cafes.
Right on 26th of July street (the main arterial avenue) there are lots of bars, restaurants and cafes, so give it a wander and select things if you like the look of them.
The Cairo opera house, which is meant to have good performances, is further south on the island of Gezira.
Tetro Colon is an exquisite theatre gracing the widest avenue in the world, la Avenida 9 de Julio. The interior is stunning and is one of the oldest European theatres in South America. Splash out on a ticket for an opera, ballet or play or alternatively take a guided tour. The 5 peso standing only tickets are a bargain, if not a little straining on the legs, especially though a three act opera. Enquire at the box office.
The Teatro Colon is situated on the Avenida 9 de Julio, just past the Obelisk.
Google map: tinyurl.com/llprbe
A low-key 40s-style cocktail bar that specialises in killer Irish coffee (the bar staff make them in batches by lining 30 glasses up along the bar). Also noteworthy for having only opera on the jukebox. A hidden gem that never seems really busy and has a great casual atmosphere.
242 Columbus Ave (between Broadway & Pacific) in North Beach;
tel: 415 986 9651
If you cannot afford full price for an opera or ballet, queue for one of the 600 standing places – which will set you back two or four euros.
Opernring; www.staatsoper.at/Content.Node2/en/index.php
Not one for culture as high brow as this, my visit to the opera house was more than a little hesitant. However, it's great. Particularly for opera virgins. Most Sundays they put on a famous show with ballets like the Nutcracker and Swan Lake commonplace. For a tenner you get seats down the front of this incredibly ornate building. Be warned, however, the people around you are likely to be far better dressed than you are.
Aspazijas bulvaris 3; www.lmuza.lv/opera/
Built in the late 19th-century in Renaissance style, the glorious State Opera House is a wonderful example of the mania for historicist architecture in Budapest. A must for opera or ballet fans, and well worth a visit for the stunning frescoes and dazzling gilded interior for everyone else. Tickets are inexpensive by London standards and can be booked online before your visit.
22 Andrássy Street, VI. Budapest; nearest metro: Opera; www.opera.hu/
It is fun to go see and opera or ballet performance in this glorious old Opera House. Top price tickets are usually about £28 ($50) with lots of lower prices. Website has an easy to use online booking system in English. Productions can be a bit hit and miss but it just rather fun to be in a Grand Opera House - treat yourself to a box and you'll feel very grand indeed!
Arguably one of the world's most famous opera houses. On its busiest night, I decided to gamble and walk in ten minutes after the start of the Saturday 7pm performance of (...I honestly can't remember, but it featured a nun who had renounced her vow of celibacy and was sung in German...).
I asked, using my basic French vocabulary for the cheapest ticket available. Three minutes later, I was in the 'Gods', in a packed Bastille, watching opera with Paris glitteraty ... for €5, yes FIVE EUROS. It was fantastic. I recommend anyone gambles!
L'Opéra de Paris-Bastille, 120 rue de Lyon 75012 Paris France ... It's at the Bastille!
The Viennese Opera House is justly world famous, but costs a bomb and you must book some time in advance. Instead, do the student thing and queue for a Stehplatz, but you need good legs. Standing for 3 hours is good fun, but tiring.
In the 1st district, on the Ringstrasse (Ring Road), with a metro station of the same name.
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