“Karita Mattila’s performance was, simply put, the kind you take home and replay in your head for months, a performance in which dramatic intensity and pure vocal beauty were mingled in every note, gathered around a stage presence no less overpowering.”
-- Opera News

“Juan Diego Florez was simply dazzling, winning one of the longest and loudest ovations I have heard in years. . . The Peruvian tenor is in radiant vocal health.”
-- Opera News

“Placido Domingo’s voice still retains its malleability, the solidity of the middle voice, and its brilliance above the ‘passagio’. Then there is the flexible and natural enunciation, whose clarity never interrupts the legato.”
-- Opera

“Thomas Hampson brings his considerable best – and ringing top notes – sung with lyricism to match his handsome portrayal.”
-- Opera

“Samuel Ramey’s sonorous bass and the unsparing concentration of his singing were almost pornographic in the bleakly etched detail . . .”
-- Opera News

“The performance of ‘Parsifal’ (at the MET) was dominated by René Pape, who imbued the long-praying utterances of Gurnemanz with bel canto suavity, expressive profundity and endlessly fresh, mellow tone.”
-- Opera

Gypsy: “The greatest of all American musicals”
-- Ben Brantley, NY Times, May ’03

TWO NEW YORK WEEKENDS &
THE MET 'RING' CYCLE:

I. New York Winter Weekend
Price per person, based on double occupancy $ 1,990

Single room supplement $ 390

II. New York Spring Holiday
Price per person, based on double occupancy* $ 1,990

Single room supplement $ 390

III. The MET ‘RING’ Cycle **
Price per person, based on double occupancy: $ 3,680

Single room supplement $ 580

*The April price includes the expensive ticket for the ‘Salome’
Premiere.

TWO NEW YORK WEEKENDS

Our programs in New York during the first half of the new year (2004) will include Two Long Weekends with the most sought-after performances at Lincoln Center and on Broadway. All performances at the MET Opera are sung in the original language and benefit from the enormously popular MET Titles.

First, our New York Winter Weekend in February will offer a plethora of three major productions with today’s biggest international stars: Rossini’s delightful ‘bel canto’ comedy L’Italiana in Algeri, pairing Russia’s Olga Borodina with the sensational new lyric tenor Juan Diego Florez; Tchaikovsky’s brooding melodrama Pique Dame, showcasing Placido Domingo in the towering role of the obsessed gambler Hermann and Canadian soprano Adrienne Pieczonka in her debut assignment as Lisa; and Puccini’s masterful Tosca featuring Italy’s newest diva Ines Salazar opposite Franco Farina’s romantic Cavaradossi and Samuel Ramey’s lascivious Scarpia. For our fourth performance, we are fortunate to have confirmed top-price tickets for Broadway’s sought-after musical Gypsy, which has received rave reviews for the timely revival of an American classic and for Bernadette Peters’ career-defining performance as Mama Rose.

Second, a thrilling March Weekend will include two of the MET’s four New Productions of the ’03 – ’04 season. First, Mozart’s classic Don Giovanni will be mounted in a long overdue new staging with Music Director James Levine conducting and Thomas Hampson repeating his consummate portrayal of the Don from last sum-mer’s Salzburg Festival. Next, Richard Strauss’ searing 20th century landmark Salome will be a tour-de-force for the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila under the baton of Russia’s dynamic Valery Gergiev, which we will enjoy in the Gala Premiere performance. A third operatic evening will take us to the New York City Opera’s for Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, in the wake of widespread national recognition of the composer’s 70 th birthday. The Verdi baritone Mark Delavan is ideally cast as the ‘Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ in Sondheim’s iconoclastic view of Victorian England. Our fourth performance will be a Sunday concert of Chamber Music on the Brooklyn Barge, a unique New York experience of the highest musical calibre. Our carefully planned format has proven to be rewarding for the past fifteen years. With the benefit of our experience and the constructive suggestions of many repeat travelers.

THE MET 'RING' CYCLE

Wagner’s towering achievement Der Ring des Nibelungen was presented in its entirety in 1989 by the Metropolitan Opera. This historic event proved to be an over whelming success and was repeated in 1990, 1993, 1997, and 2000.

Now again in May 2004 the Met has assembled the strongest international cast of Wagnerians to complement the romantic naturalism of Gunther Schneider-Siemssen’s epic stage settings and Otto Schenk’s direction, the same team responsible for the Met’s celebrated versions of Wagner’s ‘Tannhaüser’ and ‘Tristan und Isolde’. The conductor will be the Met’s Music Director James Levine, whose youthful vision and rhythmic energy won him the 1991 Grammy Award for his recording of ‘Die Götterdämmerung’. The Met’s prominent lighting designer Gil Wechsler has choreographed the entire tetrology in a brilliant range of effects to illuminate the Wagnerian realms.

We have chosen the May 3 – 8 Cycle, which will be one of only two Rings spaced within the six-night schedule which is optimum for out-of-town visitors.

CAST: The Met’s preliminary casting announcement includes many of the experienced Wagnerian interpreters who have been critically acclaimed throughout the world’s leading opera houses.

Wotan: James Morris, who continues to ‘own’ this role with his towering portrayal. He has been the Wotan of choice at the MET for more than a decade.

Siegmund & Sieglinde: Placido Domingo & Lisa Gasteen.
Domingo’s portrayal of Siegmund is replete with vocal radiance and psychological intensity. Lisa Gasteen hails from Australia and has conquered Covent Garden with her Isolde and Elektra.

Brünnhilde: Gabriele Schnaut. This stentorian dramatic soprano continues to be the mainstay of ‘Ring’ performances throughout Europe. Her powerful voice proved ideal for a searing portrayal of the Dyer’s Wife in the MET’s unanimously acclaimed new production of Strauss’ ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’. She is also closely identified with the taxing title role of Strauss’ ‘Elektra’.

Siegfried: Jon Frederic West. The American heldentenor is a frequent interpreter of Tristan, Tannhäuser and Siegfried in Vienna and Munich. He has become a popular star with discerning audiences in these cities for his committed characterizations.

Loge: Philip Langridge. The elegant British tenor is particularly noted for his brilliant portrayal of Wagner’s God of fire.

Fafner & Hagen: Matti Salminen. The great Finnish bass is every opera company’s first choice for both of these key roles. Mr. Salminen ‘steals the show’ whenever these two characters are on stage.

Erda: Elena Zaremba. The Russian contralto will lend her indelible deep voice to the short but pivotal role of Wagner’s ‘earth-mother’.

Remaining cast To Be Announced.

New York Tours will each include the following elements:

Accommodations for four nights. All three Tours will be at the Mayflower Hotel at 15 Central Park West, within comfortable walking distance of most of our performances. The Mayflower offers large rooms and considerably better value for our packages than the more deluxe East Side hotels. We have made a conscious decision not to accept the spiraling costs of the obvious East Side hotels, and we are confident that you will appreciate the convenience of our choice. The Mayflower is rated as a First Class property and enjoys a relatively quiet atmosphere on the edge of Central Park only two blocks south of Lincoln Center.

On one of our mornings, a generous continental breakfast in a private suite of the hotel. During breakfast, Mrs. Bridget Paolucci will deliver an orientation lecture on one of the operas scheduled for the weekend. Mrs. Paolucci is a well-known New York music critic, lecturer and journalist whose musical analyses have become a trademark of our programs. We are extremely proud of our continuing association with her.

A cocktail reception and light buffet on our first evening (to meet other members of the Tour) and a dinner on our last evening in one of the interesting restaurants in the Lincoln Center or the Broadway theatre area. Our recent meals have been served at Josephina’s directly across the street from Lincoln Center, Caprice in the nearby Columbus Avenue neighborhood, and the French café Le Biarritz a few blocks below Lincoln Center.

We are pleased to offer you a Guest Pass to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. Your pass will allow for free entry at your own convenience into all permanent galleries, such as the sensational Lila Acheson Wallace Wing of 20th century painting and sculpture, the extensive collection of French Impressionists, and the acclaimed new Greek galleries which lead into the spacious café.

Private bus transportation for any included performances not at Lincoln Center. (The Mayflower is within comfortable walking distance of Lincoln Center.)

Four performances are included on each weekend.

For both Tours, we have scheduled our programs to include a Saturday night stay-over to allow for the most advantageous air fares from other cities.