News & Reviews

Dear Andrew and Jeanette,
Thank you for organising such a lovely trip: all the travel things worked absolutely fine, the hotel was excellent with some good recommendations for places to eat, and perfectly placed for everything we wanted to do. So we visited the Cathedral, much of the Hofburg and the Upper Belvedere to see the Klimt exhibition as well as doing some Christmas shopping- seeing us return with shopping bags the very dry head porter said ' Die Verkaufen; die Verkaufen ist sehr gut!'  And the operas were wonderful. Beautifully sung and played with very contrasting but both interesting productions so we had a very fulfilling time. You were right about dress code: I did white DJ for Otello as that was my birthday and I was the only person in formal evening dress- there were a couple of people in Austrian national evening dress. But at least everyone in the stalls was paying attention rather than answering their emails like at La Scala!!So we can very strongly recommend the productions and the hotel was perfect. So we had a wonderful time and are as ever grateful for the extraordinary efficiency of your arrangements.

Hello Andrew,
We returned yesterday from our Golden Wedding trip to Vienna.  Everything went very well; it was a successful and enjoyable long weekend, for which many thanks are due to you and your organisation.
The private transfers from Vienna airport to the hotel, and return, were very comfortable and faultless.
The hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth was delightful.  Classy, quiet, and in an excellent location.  Reception staff were very pleasant, helpful and professional.  Our spacious room (more like a suite) was one of the best we have ever stayed in, and the bottle of wine awaiting us there, from Opera in Style, was a most welcome and thoughtful surprise. Thanks a lot.

We rated the "Meistersingers" production amongst the very best operas that we have been to (and we've seen a fair few over the last 23 years or so, both at home and abroad).  In fact, we think it equalled, or even surpassed, the ROH "Meistersingers" under Haitink, which we saw at Covent Garden several years ago.

So, again, many thanks for helping to make our Golden Wedding a very special occasion.
With our best regards.

Dear Andrew
Thanks for your arrangements for our trip to Berlin.  All was fine.  The hotel was ideally placed – central but quiet.  The opera was wonderful.  EasyJet was as ghastly as ever – but their proposal to move to pre-designated seats might make us all behave slightly less like animals in future.

Two tiny suggestions:  

You might like to recommend the Berlin Welcome Card to travellers like us – you might even be able to offer it in advance as part of your package.  It is, as you probably know, well worth having for short breaks – and it also removes any worries travellers might have about how to transfer from Schonefeld to the city centre.

Opera houses around the world have different customs and practices about dress;  and so it might be worth including some advice about this.  For example, for Staatsoper, you might point out that older Berliners tend to dress up (men wearing a jacket and tie and ladies frequently to be seen with jewels and furs) – but that more informal dress is perfectly acceptable.

A great trip – many thanks.

Dear Andrew,

We are now back from our trip and I wanted to thank you for all the arrangements which all worked perfectly.  

The two operas were great - Zeffirelli  actually took a curtain call or two at La Scala, looking very frail but smiling.  Although Gheorghiu was of course marvellous and the immediacy of the orchestra sound gave a rather new perspective which was interesting we thought that overall the Fenice performance was better  and it's such a pretty theatre.  We nearly didn't take the daytime tour there but it's the best 5 euros you could possibly spend - maybe you should mention it to future clients as a 'must see'!  The Duodo Palace is a perfect place to stay.  Thank you again for organising such a lovely trip.

Hello Andrew

We are just back from our visit to Lucca and where do I start! The whole experience was magical.

As it was a birthday present for my Aunt I was hoping it would special and it certainly was.

From the moment we were greeted by our own personal driver in a shiny black Mercedes and chauffeured to our hotel we knew this was going to be a memorable trip.

The staff at the Hotel Ilaria were so friendly and helpful,nothing was too much trouble, and the complimentary buffet and cold drinks every afternoon was very welcome after a morning of sightseeing in the hot Tuscan sun!

Now to the opera. Set in the most beautiful place overlooking the lake, on both nights we took our seats at the front and were treated to two amazing performances of La Bohème and Madame Butterfly. We were captivated by the whole thing, the wonderful music,atmosphere and, of course, the array of beautiful fashions on display (of course as two ladies we couldn't resist!). My Aunt says it has been one of her best experiences to date and she will have some lovely memories to look back on.

Thank you, Andrew, and your company, Opera in Style, for organising everything and making it a most memorable experience.

Looking forward to our next adventure.

Dear Andrew
We write to say that we enjoyed an excellent break and that all went well, including the brilliant weather, thank you for making all the arrangements.

Both hotels exactly met our requirements and were very well located in both places.  The bedrooms were spacious and in Savonlinna we had a balcony.

Savonlinna and the Finnish lake district were very beautiful, we enjoyed half a day on an old lake steamer.  We also enjoyed visiting Helsinki.

The setting for the operas, Olavinlinna Castle was amazing, the staging, acoustics and quality of the singing and music were outstanding.  As arranged you booked The Flying Dutchman for us but, by chance, we met another English couple who had tickets for The Magic Flute which we brought.  The contrast between the two made the whole experience most interesting. 

For The Magic Flute  we sat on the front row in a side block (LHS looking at the stage seats 3 and 4).  These were surprisingly good seats because, even though we were on the side, the action was quite spread out over the wide stage and we had a good view of the orchestra.

For the Flying Dutchman you had booked us central seats on row 7.  These were good but unfortunately the row was on the same level as the seats in front and therefore the view was obstructed occasionally.  The seats on the rows immediately  behind started to be stepped up and therefore the views were not so obstructed. Although these seats were rather more expensive we though that the extra cost would have been worthwhile. 

Again, many thanks for arranging this excellent experience.