Spanish Melodies

LearningTours
Spanish Melodies
Great music, art, and food in Madrid and
Barcelona, with an extension to Mallorca
with 99.5 All Classical Host Cathy Fuller
Th u rs day, A pr il 7 – Sat u r day, A p r i l 1 7, 2 01 1
M allo rca e x t e n s i o n : S at u r day, A p r i l 1 7–
T u e s day, A p r i l 2 0 , 2 0 1 1
Barcelona’s Palau de Musica Catalana
B
eauty and fashion, flamenco and zarzuela, Picasso, and
Goya. Revel in the glories of Spain with 99.5 All Classical
host Cathy Fuller on a WGBH LearningTour to Madrid and
Barcelona, with an extension to Mallorca. The musical highlights include an opera performance at Barcelona’s Teatre del Liceu,
the St. John Passion by Amsterdam Baroque, pianists Grigori
Sikolov and Rudolph Buchbinder; a zarzuela (Spanish operetta),
and an evening of flamenco. On Mallorca, we will hear a Chopin
program in the cell in which he lived.
Excursions take us to medieval Toledo and Romanesque Segovia;
modern and chic Barcelona; and then to the island of Mallorca.
Thursday, April 7
Hola, Madrid!
Group flight departs for Madrid, arriving the next day.
Friday, April 8
The Marqués’ Masterpieces
We arrive at our hotel, the Westin Palace, with a spectacular Beaux
Arts lobby and elegant rooms in a central location. Our gala welcome reception is at the palace of the Marqués de Santa Cruz. We
will view the Marqués’ private collection of masterpieces by Goya
and others while listening to a private guitar recital. The reception
is followed by dinner at a fine restaurant.
Lodging for three nights in Antigua is at the iconic Casa Santo
Domingo, an expansive, gorgeously restored 16th-century convent.
Saturday, april 9
A Night at the Operetta
We begin explorations with the Palacio Real, the royal seat built in
1738 by Philip V. We’ll wind through medieval streets surrounding
the 17th century Plaza Mayor and have lunch at a notable tapas
bar. Our first musical event is a performance of Luisa Fernanda by
Federico Moreno Torroba. This zarzuela was chosen by Placido
Domingo for US audiences at Washington Opera in 2004.
sunday, April 10
Palace Tour and Segovia Trip
El Escorial, at the foot of the Guadarrama Mountains, was one of
the largest buildings in the world in 1584. We’ll tour the palace,
with its 16 courtyards, view the tombs of Charles V and successive
emperors (and that of his son Don Carlo - of Schiller and Verdi
fame.) Then we travel to Segovia, dominated by its Roman aqueduct, cathedral, and fairytale castle, known as the Alcazar, and
have lunch there. Evening free.
monday, april 11
Walled City, El Greco and Chopin
The ancient, walled city of Toledo is built atop a hill, bordered on
three sides by the River Tagus. We’ll visit the Cathedral and wind
through the medieval streets, viewing masterpieces of the painter
El Greco. Lunch is at El Perdiz. At night, back in Madrid, we’ll
attend an all-Chopin recital by Russian pianist Grigori Sokolov.
Tuesday, April 12
Picasso, Dali and the flamenco
We visit two of Madrid’s treasures, the Prado, unrivalled for its
paintings by the great artists Velasquez, Goya, Zurbarán and Ribera;
then we’ll visit the Reina Sofia home to Picasso’s “Guernica.” We’ll
also view works by Dalí. Our evening concludes with the swirling
dance of flamenco. Dinner is included at the Casa Patas.
w e d n e s day, a p r i l 1 3
Barcelona Bound, for Bach
We board a high-speed train to Barcelona, and explore the ancient
streets, monuments, and market Barri Gótic, the old Roman center
of town. We’ll stay on the elegant Passeig de Grácia, in the city
center, in a modernista building at the Hotel Condes de Barcelona.
That night is a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion by Amsterdam
Baroque, at the spectacular
Palau de la Musica Catalana.
T h u rs day, a p r i l 1 4
Gaudi’s Greatest Hits;
Opera at Night
Architect Antonio Gaudì set the
design world on fire at the turn
of the 20th century with his
buildings of illusionistic
exteriors and undulating forms.
We’ll visit three of his works:
Park Güell, Sagrada Familia,
and Casa Milà. At night is a performance of the two great verismo
one-act operas, Cavalleria Rusticana
and I Pagliacci at the Teatre del Liceu,
featuring Argentinean tenor Jose
Cura and Italian mezzo Lucina
d’Intimo.
then on to the monastery of San Salvatore, famous for its paella,
for lunch. We are then serenaded in the church by a magnificent
choir in a private concert. Our gala dinner at El Turo in the
nearby village of Fornalutx is followed by another private concert,
this by a group of Mallorcan musicians playing folk music.
F r i day, a p r i l 1 5
A flight back to the mainland from Palma then goes on to Boston
for an afternoon return.
An Olympic View
The tall hill Montjuïc, scene of the
1992 Olympics, overlooks Barcelona.
We stop at the Museu Nacional de
Catalunya to see Romanesque
frescoes, extracted from the walls of
Pyrenees churches. Then, we view a collection of painting and
sculpture by Joan Miró. We travel to the medieval town of Girona,
with its Romanesque churches and old Jewish quarter, with lunch
in a typical Catalan restaurant. Evening free.
S at u r day, a p r i l 1 6
Picasso’s Palaces by day; concert at night
For our final day in Barcelona, we’ll visit the Museu Picasso, made
up of three medieval palaces in the old district of Born. We’ll attend
a concert at L’Auditori by the Orchestra Nacional de Catalunya, a
program of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven with Austrian pianist
Rudolf Buchbinder as conductor and soloist. Our farewell dinner
is at El Principal, a fine restaurant.
Extension
s u n day, a p r i l 1 7
Magnificent Mallorca
The main part of the tour ends with the optional flight back to
Boston. Those staying on will fly to Palma, on the island of Mallorca, refuge and playground of the rich and famous for decades.
We’ll walk through the medieval center, dominated by its immense
Gothic cathedral. Our hotel is the Gran Hotel de Sóller, nestled in
a valley below the Tramontana Mountains. In the evening, the
antique train takes us to the Port de Sóller for a drink on the
harbor.
m o n day, a p r i l 1 8
Concert in Chopin’s Cell
We’ll go into the hills of the beautiful town of Deià. This was the
home for more than 50 years of poet and author Robert Graves (“I,
Claudius”). We’ll visit his unassuming, but interesting home, now a
museum, and explore the village. Then it’s on to the town of
Valldemossa, famed for the winter of 1838 when Frederic Chopin
and his lover, French novelist George Sand, lived in the Carthusian
monastery the Real Cartuja de Jesùs de Nazaret. The artists’ two cells
are now a museum, with two pianos the composer used to complete
his op. 28 Preludes and other works. After closing hours, you’ll hear
a program of Chopin and Spanish works in the composer’s cell.
t u e s day, a p r i l 1 9
A Spiritual Serenade
We visits Mallorca’s spiritual center at Monastery de LLuc and
w e d n e s day, a p r i l 2 0
Adois to Spain!
Co st
10-DAY TOUR (per person in double occupancy): $ 4,985
Single Supplement: $ 885
EXTENSION (per-person in double occupancy): $1,735
Single Supplement: $155
GROUP AIRFARE (round trip from Boston): TBD
A deposit of $1,100 reserves your place ($600 donation to
WGBH, $500 deposit to The Grand Tour Travel Company)
Balance due Friday, January 14, 2011.
Co n tact
Call Elizabeth Hagyard at 617.300.5747 to reserve your place
on the tour with a credit card deposit, or send checks for the
deposit amount to:
WGBH LearningTours–Spain 2011
One Guest Street • Boston, MA 02135 • Attn: Mary Toropov
Registration materials and further information will be
provided upon receipt of deposit, or can be downloaded from
wgbh.org/learningtours/spain.
Questions? Call 617.300.3505.
LearningTours
YOUR TRAVEL HOST: CATHY FULLER
Since winning the
Boston Symphony
Orchestra’s Young
Artists Competition at 16, Cathy
Fuller has been a
staple of the Boston
classical music
scene as a performer, educator, and
radio host.
She has been a professor of piano on the faculties of the University of Massachusetts/Lowell, Clark University, and the Longy
School of Music, and Classical Director and host at NPR affiliate
WICN in Worcester, and World Classical Network. She is currently the host of 99.5 All Classical’s Classical Music with Cathy
Fuller, and produces weekly live classical performances.
Fuller acts as a classical liaison to the community, frequently appearing as a guest lecturer, and as a recitalist and chamber musician. Her musical passion often leads her abroad, and in 2007,
she hosted WGBH LearningTours’ classical trip to France.