THE TOUR INCLUDES: - Top Category seats for 7 performances as listed - 7 nights Deluxe 5-star accommodations at one of the premier hotels in Munich, one block from the Nationaltheater - Full breakfast daily, 2 lunches, 2 dinners (exquisite dining) and 1 Welcome Reception (light meal). Complimentary wine and tapas at hotel. - 3 custom (private) tours (city highlights, Old & New Galleries, Nymphenburg) - private Airport-Hotel transfers - Tour Direction by an Aria Tours director - a comprehensive Tour Handbook containing travel info, performance synopses and a detailed daily itinerary Cost: $6475 US Single Supplement: $875 US Herrenchiemsee Excursion: $150 US * includes lunch Deposit: $2500 Balance due: May 24, 2007 NOTE: For those wishing to combine this tour with the Salzburg Festival, car transfer to Salzburg is included.

OPTIONS FLIGHTS We will be happy to make any flight arrangements, including reward travel with your preferred carrier, for $75 per person. TOUR ADDITIONS The itinerary can be customized to meet your needs and desires. Please call us to discuss any changes or amendments you wish to make. INSURANCE We strongly recommend that all tour members purchase cancellation insurance upon registration. We can assist you with this, though you are welcome to purchase a policy at your own discretion. If you would like information on the policies offered by our supplier, please contact us for details, or click HERE for an insurance brochure and application.

Munich is perhaps the most attractive of Germany’s cities, and few cities in Europe are better endowed with great art. The cultural capital of German-speaking Europe before 1914 and by many standards after 1945, Munich has often been at the cutting edge, home of the Jugendstil and the Blue Rider School of Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann, of the BMW and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. And though it is a truly modern (and affluent) city, Munich manages to maintain a very comfortable pace, and very strong links with its Bavarian past.

The Munich Festival is one of opera's most important. Held every summer since 1876, it attracts an audience from around the world to listen to the prestigious Bavarian State Orchestra, now under the musical directorship of Kent Nagano. It was at Munich's revered Nationaltheatre that Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg—more recently the Festival's traditional finale—was given its world première, and we will hear it performed from the very same stage. We will attend three additional performances at the Nationaltheater: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer and Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera. We will also attend two performances at the Prinzregententheater—Il Turco in Italia and a recital by renowned Lithuanian soprano Violeta Urmana.

In addition to the superb Festival program, we partake in private guided tours to the Old and New Picture Galleries, Nymphenburg, and the city's most important historic sights. Add to this the stellar accommodations and meals, and enough leisure time to make the pace quite comfortable, and you have what we feel is a very thorough yet relaxing taste of Munich--the perfect Festival travel experience.

THE ITINERARY

Tuesday, July 24
Departures for Munich. Those wishing to arrive on this day will be accommodated. Please call for early arrival rate.

Wednesday, July 25
Upon arrival at Munich Airport, you will be met and transferred to our hotel, a luxury 5-star property in the city centre, one block from the National Theatre. After settling in, we gather in the hotel lounge for a Welcome Reception (light meal) prior to departing by private transfer for our performance of Rossini's Il Turco in Italia at the Prinzregententheater. Maurizio Barbacini Conducts. Cast includes Simone Alaimo, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Carlos Chausson, David Alegret and Roberto De Candia.

Thursday, July 26
The morning and afternoon are at leisure today, to rest and adjust to local time. Breakfast is included at the hotel each morning. This evening, we return to the lovely Prinzregententheater for a recital by soprano Violeta Urmana (with Jan Philip Schulze at the piano).

Friday, July 27
This morning we embark on a private coach and walking tour of the city's highlights, including the Residenz (the former royal residence of the Bavarian Dukes, Electors and Kings, today one of the finest room decoration museums in Europe; the Festsaalbau wing contains the magnificent Cuvilliés Theatre), the Church of St. Peter (the Oldest parish church in Munich, containing paintings by old masters spanning five centuries), the Frauenkirche (Cathedral Church of Our Lady, one of the city's landmarks), the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) with its famous Glockenspiel, and Marienplatz (the heart of the city; in the Middle Ages, the square used to be a market as well as the place where tournaments and festivities were held). Following our tour, lunch is included. In the evening, we walk one block to the Nationaltheater for a concert featuring Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Wolfgang Rihm's Psalmus for Bassoon (premierè). Kent Nagano conducts the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera. Soloist: Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann and Christoph Fischesser; Contralto: Daniela Sindram; Bassoon: Pascal Gallois; Violin: Yamei Yu. Director Andrés Máspero.

Saturday, July 28
Today we tour the collections at both the Alte Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek (Old and New Picture Galleries). These collections combine to make for on of the truly great gallery experiences in the world. In the Old Gallery we will see masterpieces by Titian, Frans Hals, Rubens (one of the largest collections of his works in the world), Altdorfer and Dürer (both Dürer's epochal self-portrait from 1500 as well as his "Four Apostles"); in the New Gallery we will see works by Caspar David Friedrich, Gainsborough, Goya, Jacques Louis David, Monet, Manet, Degas, Pissaro, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin and van Gogh to name but a few. Afternoon at leisure. In the evening, we depart for the Nationaltheater for an elegant pre-performance dinner before attending Doris Dörrie's production of Verdi's Rigoletto. Friedrich Haider conducts. Cast includes Joseph Calleja, Carlos Alvarez, Elena Mosuc, Maurizio Muraro and Elena Maximova. Dessert will be served at the intermission.

Sunday, July 29
Enjoy the morning and afternoon at leisure. We will be suggesting numerous points of interest for you to visit in your leisure time. This evening we attend Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the Nationaltheater. Adam Fischer conducts, and the excellent cast includes Matti Salminen, Anja Kampe, Klaus Florian Vogt, Heike Grötzinger, Kevin Conners and Juha Uusitalo.

Monday, July 30
This morning we depart for a private tour to Nymphenburg, the Baroque summer palace of the Bavarian royalty, where Mozart performed his first public recital. We visit the Gallery of Beauties, stroll through the massive and stunningly beautiful park to see Amalienburg--the little hunting lodge with its Hall of Mirrors, and end by taking lunch on site. The afternoon is at leisure. This evening we return to the Nationaltheater for Beethoven's Fidelio, featuring another stellar cast: Waltraud Meier, Aga Mikolaj, Martin Gantner, Egils Silins, Robert Dean Smith, Matti Salminen, Kevin Conners, Kenneth Roberson and Steven Humes. Christof Prick conducts.

Tuesday, July 31
Today you have the option of resting or exploring Munich on your own, or may join us for an optional excursion to Herrenchiemsee ($150 for the day, including lunch). In 1873, King Ludwig II of Bavaria acquired the Herreninsel as the location for his Royal Palace of Herrenchiemsee (New Palace). Modelled on Versailles, this palace was built as a "Temple of Fame" for King Louis XIV of France, whom the Bavarian monarch fervently admired. When Ludwig II died in 1886 the palace was still incomplete. Late afternoon we attend our final performance—Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Nationaltheater. Peter Schneider conducts a Thomas Langhoff production. Cast includes Camilla Nylund, Heike Grötzinger; Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Matti Salminen, Eike Wilm Schulte and Francesco Petrozzi. Afterward, we walk a very short distance to the Platzl, across from our hotel, for our Farewell Dinner at one of the city's best restaurants, run by a celebrity German chef.

Wednesday, August 1
Group transfers to Munich airport.