Budapest - Opera and Culture Tour - 2026

Join Divas & Scholars from 14th – 18th May in Hungary.  We will be guests of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Your package includes a spectacular luxury 5 star hotel with breakfasts, opera and concert tickets, dinner parties and guided walks around the city.

 

Join me in Budapest for 5 beautiful days of music, art and Hungarian culture in May.

We will be the guests of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and attend a concert performance which includes Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music from Wagner’s Die Walkure starring the celebrated soprano Anja Kampe and the bass-baritone Hanno Muller-Brachmann under the baton of Ivan Fischer.

We will also enjoy the finest stalls seats for Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Hungarian State Opera one of Europe’s most magnificent and historic opera houses.

Our base will be the luxurious 5 star hotel Anantara New York Palace, an elegant architectural gem.  By day we will explore the city’s sights and cultural treasures; by evening we will dine together in style at recommended restaurants.  I am inviting some wonderful artists from the world of opera and ballet to join us over dinner too.

BUDAPEST
Straddling the Danube, the Hungarian capital is the marriage of once-separated settlements: the ancient Óbuda, the royal seat of Buda – and Pest, a small town that became a city of Parisian splendour. It is now the principal metropolis of East-Central Europe, its vibrancy emerging again after the ordeal of Soviet domination.

Its architecture is rich, a few medieval and Renaissance survivals, with magnificent Baroque and 19th-century buildings and a wealth of  buildings in the Art Nouveau style, notable for its originality and variety.  Although an important part of the Habsburg Empire, Hungary’s spirit of national independence led it to express its nationalist pride through a distinctly Magyar style of the arts and architecture.
The Hungarian State Opera
The Magyar Állami Operaház  was designed by Miklos Ybl a major figure of 19th-century Hungarian architecture and opened in 1884 during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary
Anantara New York Palace Hotel, Budapest
OUR HOTEL – The Anantara New York Palace is an important architectural expression of Hungary’s Belle Époque.
This luxury 5-star hotel with the most comfortable rooms, spa, pool and charming restaurants is situated on the elegant Erzsébet Körút Boulevard close to the theatres, restaurants and attractions on the Pest side of the Danube.
Its famous New York Café is the venue for our breakfasts and the beautiful White Salon Restaurant where we will gather for our first night dinner.
This tour has limited availability.
For more information contact Lucy@divasandscholars.com

PREVIOUS TOURS

 

 

Vienna Opera Competition 2025 - Official tour.

Tour over.

Divas & Scholars

Exclusive access to the Vienna Opera Competition.  Official tour

VIP tickets for the Final of the Vienna Opera Competition at the Mozarthaus on 5th August.  Celebration dinner with the prize winners, finalists and jurors.  Three nights with breakfast in the luxurious Imperial Riding School Hotel.  Tickets for the museums and historic sites of Vienna.  Welcome dinner party.

Tour dates 3rd – 6th August.

Contact Lucy@divasandscholars.com

 

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Vienna Opera Competition - Official tour.

TOUR OVER

Divas & Scholars

Exclusive access to the Vienna Opera Competition.  Official tour

VIP tickets for the Final of the Vienna Opera Competition at the Mozarthaus on 5th August.  Celebration dinner with the prize winners, finalists and jurors.  Three nights with breakfast in the luxurious Imperial Riding School Hotel.  Tickets for the museums and historic sites of Vienna.  Welcome dinner party.

Tour dates 3rd – 6th August

Contact Lucy@divasandscholars.com

 

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Be part of an exciting opera festival, meet all the artists and immerse yourself in Viennese culture.

The Vienna Opera Festival (Wiener Festspiele) is a relatively new and small scale opera festival gaining momentum on the the international operatic scene.  The setting is the Grand Ballroom on the famous OpernRing in the heart of Vienna.  Renowned tenor Jesus Leon the founder created the festival as a platform for the rising star Young Artists of the Vienna Opera Academy, who perform alongside renowned and established opera singers.  Young opera singers, graduated from international conservatoires fly in from around the world for training with important opera singers, conductors and teachers. This summer we will enjoy Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s La Traviata in addition to an evening of Mozart’s masterpieces in the composer’s Viennese home, the Mozart Haus.  The world class cast is to be announced soon.  On the Sunday we will travel together to the magical alpine city of Innsbruck for a concert featuring Jesus Leon and the Munich Symphoniker.

Vienna is a relaxed city in the summer when you can wander the cobbled streets of the historic Innere Stadt and enjoy the elegant architecture, beautiful parks and noble palaces and tradtional Viennese cafes in the warm sunshine.  We will have expert daily tours of some of the cultural highlights.

Your 5 day package will include premium seats to the the semi-staged operas and concerts, hotel – Imperial Riding School in Vienna with breakfast.  Four dinners,  expert talks, a guided tour of the historic centre, visits with an art historian to the great art collections, a side trip to Innsbruck for a concert, your hotel in Innsbruck/

Price:
£1,900 inclusive for single occupancy room
£1,700 inclusive per person for a couple sharing a room 
These prices do not include flights but at the time of writing there is good availability and low fares with British Airways and Austrian Airlines.

For booking and information please contact Lucy@divasandscholars.com  
Alternatively call Lucy on (UK) 07880 640863.

PROPOSED ITINERARY FOR D&S Tour group for the Wiener Festspiele.  July 2024

Thursday 24th July

Arrive Hotel – Imperial Riding School – Autograph Collection Hotels

Mozart Haus for Festival Young Artists concert – highlights of Cosi fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro

8pm Group dinner .

Guest speaker tbc

Friday 25th July

Breakfast

Morning expert guided walking tour of 1st district with emphasis on musical history and architecture

Mid morning coffee and cakes (tbd) at Café Central.

Tour the Vienna State Opera.

Free time

6pm Pre-show dinner Grand Hotel

8pm La Traviata – Grand Ballroom

Saturday 26th July

Breakfast

Morning tour of Kunsthistorische museum with art historian

Free time

Pre-show dinner Grand Hotel

8pm Carmen, Bizet – Grand Ballroom

Sunday 27th July

Breakfast

Morning train to Innsbruck

Arrive at our hotel

Walk around Innsbruck

Pre-show dinner

7pm Concert of opera arias with the Munich Symphoniker, Jesus Leon

9.30pm party with the cast – venue to be confirmed.

Monday 28th July

Breakfast

Check out of hotel.

Morning train to Vienna

End of Tour

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The Divas & Scholars Verdi Festival, Parma tour is fully booked.

Please contact Lucy@divasandscholars.com for the waiting list.