For more than a decade, our marriage of opera and travel has offered a delicious melange of enriching experiences, spectacularly played out on the world stage – and 2009 will be no exception!

First, farewell 2008 and ring in the new year in style with festive Christmas celebrations in Vienna, a sumptuous New Year’s Eve Ball at the Hungarian State Opera House and five nights in the Czech capital at the Prague Winter Festival.

In May and June 2009 join Antony Ernst and Peter Bassett in Vienna and later to Washington D.C. to witness Wagner’s mythic figures battling for possession of the Ring of the Nibelung.

Peter Bassett will also lead an exploration of vibrant Espaňa from Barcelona, home to the historic Gran Teatre del Liceu, through exotic Moorish Andalucia and culminating in a grand finale at the breathtaking new Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia.

This year’s viaggio to the birthplace of opera with Alan Maddox will take an unexpected twist when we combine Italy’s summer festival season with a journey through the stunning landscapes of Slovenia and then across the Alps to the legendary Salzburg Festival.

And in October join Rosamund Bartlett of Oxford University, as she leads a tour from the historic opera houses of Paris and London to new, state-of-the-art venues in Cardiff and at Ireland’s new Wexford Opera House (opening October 2008).

Happy travelling!