TRAVEL FOR OPERA

In Search of Opera's Holy Grail

2010-03-26T17:07:00.002-04:00

Everyone who travels has an agenda. Some folks will endure twenty-four hours on a plane because they need to see Australia (koalaphiles?), while others are tired of seeing photos of the Greek islands and need to see the azure waters of the Aegean for themselves. The adventuresome type take Arctic/Antarctic cruises, either to see polar bears/penguins, to see the ice caps before they disappear, or to do something (anything!) that their friends haven't done yet (and if they hit the Arctic and the Antarctic, are they “bipolar” explorers? I kid because I love...)

And then there are the people who travel for OPERA. A word of caution: stay out of their way. Rarely have I met travelers more passionate about their agenda, and I have met scores of them over the past decade whilst designing and directing opera tours around the globe. Some follow singers (I have a good client and friend who has a not-yet-unhealthy love for Daniella Barcellona), others "MUST get to La Scala/Bayreuth/Glyndebourne before they die", most of them are seasoned travelers and all are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about opera.

As an opera tour operator, the challenge is to ensure that the experience lives up to the anticipation — in some cases, a lifetime of anticipation. How do I make certain that the person who has waited their entire life to hear Verdi at La Scala or Wagner at Bayreuth has an unforgettable experience?

The short answer is: there is only so much I can do. The old chestnut about leading horses to water applies (though my "horses", to steer my way out of this metaphoric minefield, are beautiful, charming, intelligent thoroughbreds). Folks who get to Bayreuth for the Ring and expect the ultimate Wagnerian experience, replete with tarnhelm and 1876 staging, may feel a little stunned, or worse, when they spend seven plus hours at the Festspielhaus, most of which is spent on a barely-cushioned wooden bench whilst teenagers on skateboards whizz across the stage in a completely non-traditional production. And the pilgrimage to La Scala may be a let-down if the pilgrim is expecting the Mecca of Italian opera to be the grandest of halls. La Scala is lovely, and it is La Scala, but in terms of sheer opulence, it is not #1 (#1 is open to debate).

As an aside, let's face it, there are plenty of beautiful opera houses out there. Many of them could be right in your back yard: San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House is stunning, and rivals any of the major European houses for the beauty of its interior; Chicago's Civic Opera House (Ardis Krainik Theater) is a spectacular hall, and nothing feels more like An Event than the walk past the Lincoln Center Fountain on approach to glorious Metropolitan Opera House.

Bayreuth, La Scala, La Fenice, Teatro Colon, Manaus — everyone who loves opera has their own checklist to work through. It is an honour to be able to help people add the checks to that list. In the process, I’ve learned that what makes each pilgrimage memorable is often not the venue or the production but the unexpected: like discovering Fiorenza Cedolins as Maria Stuarda at Venice’s La Fenice, or feeling the electricity in the audience at Teatro Regio in Parma during the 2009 Verdi Festival, as though for the first time, you had really felt the soul of opera.

What makes these trips so special, and makes all of them “successful”, is not whether the traveler’s vision of that lifelong dream was perfectly realized, but that along the way, small, magical and often unexpected moments transpired—during a performance, at a restaurant, in a gallery, during a conversation with a local resident—that made the journey unforgettable. It is a privilege to be able to experience this time and time again.

Redefining the Luxury Hotel

2010-03-02T22:42:00.005-05:00

If you've ever stayed in a gorgeous, "5-star" hotel and paid through the nose, only to feel disappointed and, frankly, ripped off (who hasn't?), then maybe it's time to change your conception of the truly luxurious hotel experience.

We are fortunate enough to stay in some of the finest hotels in the world for our opera/theatre/classical music itineraries, and although we carefully research each property, visiting and staying in each, we have had a handful of experiences that, although perhaps invisible to clients, have left us a little cold. This is more often than not attributable to poor service rather than something physically missing from the hotel. I can happily accept a room that may be on the small side (if it is tastefully done) in a hotel with impeccable service where I'm made to feel like family; I cannot accept an exquisite property, even with a vast room, where I am ignored, or where I have the feeling that although the front desk and management staff deal with me in a generically polite fashion, they curse me under their breath or to one another once I walk away.

There is a very interesting survey of the hospitality industry in the February 2010 issue of Monocle magazine in which "informed" travelers (hoteliers, chefs de concierge, business travelers, architects, designers) are asked their opinion on what makes a good hotel. There seems to be a consensus that three things are crucial to the exceptional hotel experience: 1) location, 2) service and 3) context--a hotel must be connected with its community and reflect its location (Scandinavian design in a Venice hotel does not cut it). To this I would add value for money--I do not mean paying less for something "as good" as a highly-rated luxury property; I mean getting an experience that meets or exceeds the rate, whatever that may be, whatever the property. This would incorporate 1), 2) and 3), above, and also all of the design elements and amenities that make the property special.

The right location and context are easy to define, but what constitutes great service? For too many hotels, it means an insincere "how are you?", or having staff mantras ("Have a good one", the trademark of a now astronomically priced luxury hotel near Carnegie Hall in New York, is my all-time winner, made even more ridiculous by the number of different accents used to utter it). Still many others, usually larger luxury chains, seem to care little for their guests, resting on the laurels of their lofty structures and past glories.

Good service can in fact be defined, and though this is not an exhaustive list, it would at least include a genuine concern for the guest, immaculate presentation, dignified demeanor, eye contact, speed married with thoroughness, prompt follow-up and execution. I prefer to have my clients stay in hotels that can combine these service basics with elegant design and decor and ideal location. Occasionaly this means a luxury chain, but more often than not it means a smaller, family-run hotel. The art is in the discovery, and that is my job.

I love this assessment from Alain de Botton in the Monocle article:

"A good hotel is an embodiment of the act of love: love understood as a commitment to the wholehearted care of another human being. The ideal hotel would for a time manage to satisfy with utmost intelligence all the needs, physical as well as mental, of its clientele...The hotels we love are the work of those rare hoteliers with the humility to adequately interrogate themselves about their desires and the tenacity to translate their fleeting apprehensions of joy into logical plans--a combination that enables them to create environments that satisfy needs we never consciously knew we even had."

Hear hear--all you need is love, and for the gracious and graceful doorman to remember your name when you arrive.

New York Times Travel Show

2010-02-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

My trip this past weekend to New York for the New York Times Travel Show proved to be a very worthwhile experience, as the morning seminars on Specialization and Social Networking were eye openers. The former confirmed that we have been doing things the right way, and the latter (the impetus for this blog) showed me what we need to do differently.

I was also able to meet with some key suppliers for our 2011 tours, and we will have some very exciting itineraries to Vilnius/Riga/Tallinn, Croatia, Ireland/Wales/Scotland and Spain very soon.