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...when you travel with Kirker
The sister hotel of the Imperial, the Bristol is traditional and elegant and has been the focal point of Vienna's cultural life for over a century.
Anton Crayton studied cello with Melissa Phelps at The Royal College of Music and for a time was a member of the Marmen String Quartet.
He currently teaches cello in a number of schools throughout London and works in an administrative capacity for the National Youth Orchestra. He leads many Kirker music holidays and helps to create the music programmes for our series of Kirker Music Festivals.
The Operas
Boxing Day - 26 December
Hansel und Gretel by Humperdinck
Our annual Christmas visit to Vienna this year includes a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel.
The opera was first performed in Weimar on 23 December 1893 and remains one the most popular operas in the repertoire, especially at Christmas time, despite its rather dark undertones.
Christmas Day – 25 December (Optional Performance)
Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss
Strauss’s opera is set in Vienna during the 1740’s, although the first performance took place not in that city but in Dresden in January 1911. The cast includes Bulgarian soprano Krassimire Stoyanova, internationally-acknowledged as today’s finest Marschallin; American soprano Erin Wall as the silver-tongued Sophie; and Daniela Sindman as Octavian. The bitter-sweet story tells of how the ageing Marschallin accepts that she must lose the attentions of her virile young lover, Octavian, who will abandon her for the love of Sophie, a young woman of his own age.
There is no better way to celebrate Christmas Day than with a performance of Strauss’s Viennese opera in the sumptuous and traditional production by Otto Schenk, first seen at Vienna in 1968. It is a glorious and nostalgic feast of the sort still craved by today’s audiences but seldom delivered. Leonard Bernstein conducted the production’s premiere in 1968 and it has been performed on the stage of the Staatsoper more than 1,000 times since.
Tour leader
Anton Crayton studied cello with Melissa Phelps at The Royal College of Music and for a time was a member of the Marmen String Quartet.
He currently teaches cello in a number of schools throughout London and works in an administrative capacity for the National Youth Orchestra. He leads many Kirker music holidays and helps to create the music programmes for our series of Kirker Music Festivals.
Our expert reservations team regularly travel to a wide range of destinations to explore new cities, visit hotels and to research museums, galleries and restaurants so that we can offer the most up-to-date advice and recommendations.
