CHICAGO HIGHLIGHTS
Thursday, March 10th through Sunday, March 13th
For our annual long weekend in Chicago this season, we have chosen an exceptional program in March of 2016 instead of this fall. We do not want to miss the opportunity of including the Bavarian State Opera’s famous Otto Schenk/Jürgen Rose production of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, which will be mounted by Chicago’s Lyric Opera in an unprecedented transferral from Munich. For this writer and many other Strauss ‘aficionados’, this sumptuous staging remains the quintessential Rosenkavalier experience. Our second Lyric performance will be Gounod’s lyric tragedy, Roméo et Juliette, a landmark of 19th century French romanticism, in a lavish production on loan from the MET. The international casts will feature Alice Coote, Amanda Majeski and Matthew Rose as the protagonists of ‘Rosenkavalier’; and Susanna Phillips opposite Eric Cutler as Shakespeare’s ill-fated lovers. Both productions will be seen in Chicago for the first time.
No musical visit to Chicago is complete without a concert in Orchestra Hall, home of the revered Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Michigan Avenue. We have chosen our dates carefully to find Britain’s Sir Mark Elder on the podium for an unusual program offering works by the Central European composers Antonin Dvorak, Bela Bartok, and Leos Janacek. The piano soloist will be Jeremy Denk.
Our fourth performance will take us to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, one of the best repertory companies in the country, for their major spring production of Thornton Wilder’s classic American comedy, The Matchmaker.
March is a refreshingly uncrowded time of the year for shopping and sales along Chicago’s ‘Magnificent Mile’, for our excursion to the priceless galleries of the Art Institute of Chicago, and for exploring the city’s wealth of other museums. We have again selected the Hilton Suites Hotel (which offers a generous suite for every accommodation) for its unbeatable location in the heart of the city’s finest stores.
Accommodations for four nights at the deluxe Hilton Suites Hotel, a creative alternative to the large commercial hotels along Michigan Avenue. This quiet property enjoys a location only a block off the ‘Magnificent Mile’, within a stone’s throw of the Watertower and the Bloomingdale’s mall of luxury shops. The Museum of Contemporary Art is also within a few minutes’ walk. In keeping with the festive nature of our weekend, each of our Tour members will be accommodated in the comfort of a suite. The hotel’s dining facilities include one of our favorite restaurants, The Local, for breakfast and convenient meals. The lobby contains a small café for early morning coffee and pastries and late afternoon cappuccino; and the 30th floor health club includes a small indoor swimming pool. (Our recent travelers have been particularly grateful for the Hilton’s suite accommodations, the optimum location, and the appealing dining room.)
Price Per Person (based on Double Occupancy): $2,880
Price Per Person (based on Single Occupancy): $3,440