ITINERARY

DAY 1 | SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2027

1ST OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ARRIVE ADELAIDE, ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (D):

Guests arrive at The Playford, MGallery, a 5-star boutique hotel offering a perfect blend of classical style and contemporary luxury. It is conveniently located within easy walking distance of Adelaide's popular shopping areas and its arts, cultural and entertainment precinct. Hotel check-in is at 3:00pm and we recommend arriving at the hotel at this time.

In the early evening, our Tour Leader, Graham Abbott, will introduce the tour. Together, we then enjoy a delicious dinner featuring specialties from South Australia’s celebrated food and wine offerings, and then attend our first performance at the internationally-renowned Adelaide Festival.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 1 - HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, 8:00pm
TAO Dance Theater: 13 & 14

Surrender to ecstatic rhythms in 13 & 14, two otherworldly dance works from the Beijing-based TAO Dance Theater, led by choreographer Tao Ye.

In 13, grey-cloaked dancers huddle into an elusive whole, striving for togetherness even as some dancers fall away (only to be heroically folded back inside the group). In 14, the dancers, dressed in colourful kimonos, perform in stunning synchronicity with a degree of precision both astonishing and profound.

DAY 2 | SUNDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2027

2ND OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (B, L):

This morning, Graham Abbott will give a talk about the performance we will attend today.

We then travel by private coach through the Adelaide Hills to the beautiful UKARIA Cultural Centre.

We enjoy lunch together followed by our second performance at the Festival.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 2 - UKARIA, 2:30pm
Latvian Voices: Sacred Chord

Oscillating between individual and collective voices, this transcendent a cappella performance reimagines Bach’s sacred choral works as a contemporary mass. Artistic director Laura Jēkabsone’s 6 Psalms for 6 Voices celebrates each singer’s distinctive voice within a rich sonic tapestry. Sacred Chord is a profound exploration of devotion, beauty and sound, moving between contemplation and radiant splendour.

Following the performance, we return by private coach to our hotel in Adelaide, where the evening is free.

DAY 3 | MONDAY 1 MARCH 2027

3RD OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (B):

In the morning Graham Abbott gives a talk about Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, which we will attend this evening.

The afternoon is then free. There is an optional performance which guests might like to attend at Elder Hall.

OPTIONAL ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE - ELDER HALL, 12:30pm
Ensemble Lumen: First Light

Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet rightly sits at the top of any list of audience favourites, adored for its sunny outlook and warm world of sound. Ensemble Lumen, comprising faculty artists from the Elder Conservatorium of Music & School of Performing Arts, showcases this masterpiece for you with artistry, imagination and distinctive musicianship.

Alongside Mozart’s timeless work, hear the dazzling virtuosity of Ravel’s Tzigane and the 2027 John Bishop Memorial Commission, a new work by Australian composer Alice Chance, who draws together ancient and contemporary sounds in striking and original ways.

In the evening we attend Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at the Adelaide Festival.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 3 - FESTIVAL THEATRE, 6:30pm
Béla Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle

Romeo Castellucci director
Lidiya Yankovskaya conductor
Christel Loetzsch Judith
John Lundgren Bluebeard
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Bela Bartok’s monumental opera, Bluebeard’s Castle, arrives in Australia in a production by one of the world’s most visionary directors, Romeo Castellucci (Mozart’s Requiem, Go Down Moses).

This landmark 20th-century opera follows Judith, newly married to Duke Bluebeard, as curiosity draws her deeper into his castle where seven locked doors promise revelations both unsettling and wondrous. Performed on a water-filled stage illuminated by erupting fire, Castellucci reimagines this psychological thriller through Judith’s eyes, revealing a journey inward through chambers of memory and mystery.

DAY 4 | TUESDAY 2 MARCH 2027

4TH OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (B, L):

In the morning, Graham Abbott gives a talk about the performance we will attend this evening. Following the talk, we come together for a delicious group lunch.

In the evening we attend our fourth performance at the Festival.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 4 - ADELAIDE TOWN HALL, 7:00pm
il Pomo d’Oro: Al Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto

Giovanni Sollima cello
Federico Guglielmo violin
il Pomo d'Oro

Traditional Cypriot arr. Giovanni Sollima Kartsilamades (Dance I)
Giuseppe Tartini Lieto ti prendo e poi
Giovanni Sollima Il Concerto Perduto (after fragments of Antonio Vivaldi’s unfinished Cello Concerto in E minor, RV 787, for Teresa)
Traditional Cypriot (arr. Giovanni Sollima) Kartsilamades (Dance III)
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto in B-flat major, RV 547
Traditional Arbëreshë (arr. Giovanni Sollima) Moje Bokura
Giovanni Sollima Moghul
Traditional Cypriot (arr. Giovanni Sollima) Kartsilamades (Dance II)
Antonio Vivaldi Sinfonia from Dorilla in Tempe, RV 709
Antonio Vivaldi Recitative from Il Grosso Mogul, RV 208
Antonio Vivaldi Il Proteo, o sia il mondo al rovescio (The World Turned Upside Down), RV 544
Giovanni Sollima The Family Tree

Step inside the bustling world of 17th-century Venice, a cosmopolitan meeting place of trade, culture and music. As Vivaldi composes a new concerto for cello, sounds and influences from the Middle East and Asia flow through the city’s waterways and marketplaces. In Al-Bunduqiyya (Venice in Arabic), il Pomo d’Oro and cellist Giovanni Sollima imagine how this concerto might have unfolded had Vivaldi lived to complete it. This is the lost concerto of Venice, reimagined and found anew.

DAY 5 | WEDNESDAY 3 MARCH 2027

5TH OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (B):

This morning begins with a talk by Graham Abbott, followed by our fifth performance in the Festival.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 5 - ELDER HALL, 12:30pm
The Rave and the Nightingale

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
Australian String Quartet

Elgar’s exuberant Introduction and Allegro for Strings opens proceedings with its vibrant interplay between solo quartet and string orchestra. In the year marking the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, Heiliger Dankgesang (Holy Song of Thanksgiving), drawn from one of Beethoven’s profound late quartets, is a deeply personal meditation.

Adelaide composer Anne Cawrse revisits a previous John Bishop Memorial Commission, reimagining her work originally written for string quartet on a larger string orchestra canvas in Anon, from A Room of Her Own.

Finally, Matthew Hindson slips inside the delirious mind of Schubert in The Rave and the Nightingale as Schubert completes his final string quartet. As Schubert lay dying, what feverish dreams of music may have come to this master of melody had he lived in the 21st century?

The late afternoon and evening are free to visit any aspect you may choose of Adelaide and the Festival.

DAY 6 | THURSDAY 4 MARCH 2027

6TH OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (B):

This morning, Graham Abbott gives a talk about the performances we will attend today.

We then enjoy two performances in the Festival.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 6 - ELDER HALL, 12:30pm
Giovanni Sollima cello

Traditional Armenian Krunk (The Crane)
Giovanni Sollima Lamentatio
J.S. Bach Suite No. 1 in G major for Solo Cello, BWV 1007
Jimi Hendrix Angel (arr. for solo cello)
Giuseppe Dall’Abaco Capriccios Nos. 6 & 8
Giovanni Sollima Natural Songbook Nos. 1 & 4
Traditional Salento Santu Paulu
Giovanni Sollima (after Boccherini) Fandango
Giovanni Sollima Terra Acqua

Giovanni Sollima, a ‘super virtuoso of the cello, [who] has no fear’ (Yo-Yo Ma), takes you on an epic journey through his own works and a kaleidoscope of musical worlds. From traditional Albanian tunes to J.S. Bach and Jimi Hendrix, Sollima weaves together centuries of musical tradition into one thrilling contemporary cello performance. This is music of vivid imagination and unbridled energy from a visionary who has collaborated with the likes of Patti Smith, Yo-Yo Ma and Philip Glass, and performed all over the world – from Carnegie Hall, New York to Suntory Hall, Tokyo.

There is time between the performances to rest or to explore Adelaide.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 7 - ADELAIDE TOWN HALL, 7:30pm
Bach Organ Concertos

Cameron Carpenter organ
il Pomo d'Oro

J.S. Bach Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058
J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548
J.S. Bach Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in E major, BWV 1053
Interval
J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552, St Anne
J.S. Bach Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068
J.S. Bach Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052

When Cameron Carpenter sits down at the grand organ of Adelaide Town Hall, expect the whole city to lift off. The fantastical and flamboyant organist will unleash the great keyboard concertos of J.S. Bach, as well as a selection of Preludes and Fugues, as il Pomo d’Oro propels his performance to even grander realms.

DAY 7 | FRIDAY 5 MARCH 2027

7TH OF 7 NIGHTS AT THE PLAYFORD, MGALLERY, ADELAIDE

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL (B, L):

This morning begins with a private In-Conversation with Adelaide Festival Artistic Director, Matthew Lutton OAM, hosted by Graham Abbott. This is followed by a delicious farewell lunch.

In the evening, we attend our final performance of the tour.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE 8 - HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, 7:00pm
K. - A Talmudic Vaudeville show inspired by Kafka’s The Trial

Barrie Kosky director
Berliner Ensemble

‘Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested’... so begins Franz Kafka’s famous text The Trial; a comic yet terrifying tale of Josef K’s blind tumble through totalitarian bureaucracy and an absurd, labyrinthine system of laws that are nearly impossible to navigate.

DAY 8 | SATURDAY 6 MARCH 2027

TOUR ENDS (B):

Following our final breakfast at the hotel, the tour concludes.

INCLUSIONS

27 FEBRUARY–6 MARCH 2027 (8 DAYS)

AUD$6,750 PERSON TWIN SHARE

Single supplement: AUD$1,130
Deposit payment 1: Deposit AUD$2,500 per person (due at time of booking)
Deposit payment 2: Deposit AUD$2,500 per person (due on 16 October 2026)
Final payment due: 14 December 2026

INCLUSIONS:

• Performances: Premium or General Admission tickets for eight performances at the internationally renowned Adelaide Festival.

• Tour Leader: Tour Leadership and private talks about the performances, by music educator, Graham Abbott.

• Tour Manager: An experienced Tour Manager to accompany the group throughout the tour.

• Hotel: Seven nights' accommodation at the centrally located 5-star The Playford MGallery by Sofitel in a Deluxe King Room. Porterage of one piece of luggage at the hotel.

• Travel: Land travel by private air-conditioned coach to and from our visit to UKARIA. Short journeys between the hotel and performance venues will be by foot.

• Meals/Drinks: Breakfast each morning at the hotel. Four lunches/dinners with wine, water and tea/coffee.

• Tips: Tips for drivers, local guides and meals included in your itinerary.

• Information Pack: Comprehensive pre-tour information pack.

EXCLUSIONS:

• International/Domestic Travel: Hayllar Music Tours can provide you with a quote. Phone 02 9669 9181 / +61 2 9669 9181 (Australia / International) or email contact@hayllarmusictours.com

• Airport Transfers: Transfers to/from airports and hotels at the beginning and end of the tour.

• Travel Insurance: Please note that travel insurance is recommended for tours within Australia. Hayllar Music Tours can organise your travel insurance for you. Phone 02 9669 9181 / +61 2 9669 9181 (Australia / International) or email contact@hayllarmusictours.com

• Meals: Lunches and dinners not nominated in your itinerary.

• Personal Expenses: Personal expenses such as laundry, phone calls and mini-bar.

• Activities in Free Time: Costs associated with any activities suggested for you in your free time.

SMALL GROUP SIZE

The tour will operate with 8 people. The maximum number on the tour will be 20 people.

FITNESS LEVEL REQUIRED - Level 1

For the benefit of the tour group, all members of the tour must have the ability to:

• use a combined shower/bath (please note that we cannot guarantee walk-in shower facilities at all hotels);

• embark / disembark coaches without assistance;

• handle your own luggage (where porterage services are unavailable);

• walk to and from venues with journey times of 10-20 minutes.

BOOKING TERMS & CONDITIONS

Please note that booking terms and conditions apply. Click here for the booking terms and conditions.

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

SOLD OUT | WAITLIST ONLY

This tour is now sold out. To register your place on the waitlist, please fill out the form below, or contact us on 02 9669 9181 / +61 2 9669 9181 (Australia / International) or contact@hayllarmusictours.com