Built in the nineteenth century, Schloss Schadau in Thun, Switzerland, now welcomes hotel guests into interiors that remain largely as they were.
Once the Rougemont family's summer residence, and later a museum belonging to the city of Thun, this castle was renovated in 2019 with only the additions needed to operate as a hotel. Much of its interior remains as it was more than 170 years ago.
An evening at the Tonhalle Zürich, where the orchestra joined past and present prizewinners to celebrate fifty years of the Swiss Youth Music Competition.
The Tonhalle Zürich, home to the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, stands just across the road from the Park Hyatt Zurich, where I like to stay when visiting the city. I had hoped to go during our earlier Christmas market trip, but the concert dates did not fit. This time, I was able to visit.
On a trip to Europe's Christmas markets with my parents, a Christmas concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus left a particular impression.
Photographs of this annual Christmas concert persuaded me to add Christmas in Vienna 2023 - Vorpremiere, the preview performance, to our Vienna itinerary. The sight of Christmas decorations, a choir and an orchestra in the Großer Saal, the main hall of the Wiener Konzerthaus, had stayed with me well before the trip.
After seeing The Phantom of the Opera on its 25th anniversary tour in Seoul, I went to see the original production in the London theatre where it began.
Her Majesty's Theatre is where Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera opened, and the same musical continues its resident run here. The theatre dates back to the early eighteenth century, when it opened with Queen Anne's permission. It has suffered several fires, and the present building was constructed at the end of the nineteenth century. As the name suggests, it has changed its title to reflect the reigning monarch. A place with some history, then.
