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Château Rayas: Elegance in a World of Ripeness

A study in exceptions,  Château Rayas defies what we think we know about the Southern Rhône. The mythology that Châteauneuf-du-Pape is known for- the Galet stones, the Historic echos of the Papal Kings, blended wines of up to 13 varieties…none of these stereotypes are exactly true for arguably one of the greatest producers of the Southern Rhône Valley- Château Rayas.

Founded in the early 1800s by Albert Reynaud, Château Rayas quickly gained recognition for its commitment to crafting wines of utmost quality. Despite its shorter history, Rayas has become one of the most collectable wines of the Southern Rhône, shrouded in the mysticism of being highly allocated and extremely long lived. The Estate Is continued by the founding family by the current generation, Emmanuel Reynaud, who oversees the winemaking at Château Rayas, Château Fonsalette and Château de Tours.

At Château Rayas we see 100% Grenache- a grape that retains age worthy acidity in extremely hot microclimates, grown in an eponymous lieu dit where we see the real magic of the Southern Rhône soils- Clay and Sand. The sandy plots produce the Grenache contributing to the flagship wine- that the extremely poor soils create a wine of great concentration.  Pignan , effectively the second wine of the estate, is sourced from vines in the Pignan lieu dit, planted in the 1980s- and often has much older vines blended into it since the vines planted in the sandy soils of Rayas cannot sustain the same longevity. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, made from Grenache Blanc and Clairette vines planted in the 1940s, is even more difficult to obtain than the Red Wines due to the smaller production, making it a sought-after collector's item.

Château Fonsalette , a Côtes-du-Rhône from the edge of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, is farmed with such ferociously low yields it produces age-worthy wines that outclass most actual Châteauneuf-du-Papes. The slightly cooler vineyards here can give it more color concentration than Rayas with firmer tannins. The Reynaud family showcase their deft hand at other varieties by producing a special cuvee of Fonsalette from a north-facing vineyard of Syrah. This special bottling shows the refined, animalistic characteristics of well executed Syrah. The Fonsalette Blanc is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Marsanne, and can be even more stunning than the Rayas Blanc in some vintages.

Château de Tours , the third property of the Reynaud family, is located in the hidden gem of Vacqueyras. The Reserve bottling of these wines are intriguing blends of 90% Grenache with a touch of Syrah- soft and ripe. The Vin de Pays de Vaucluse Blends Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, which shows the elegance of this region in the right hands and demonstrates how collectable Vaucluse can be for those clever enough to snap them up.

The enduring legacy of Château Rayas is a testament to the estate's unwavering commitment to tradition, quality, and the artistry of winemaking. As wine enthusiasts savor the exquisite offerings from Château Rayas, they are not just enjoying a glass of wine; they are experiencing a sip of the timeless elegance that defines this legendary winery in the Southern Rhône Valley.

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• Owned by the Reynaud family since 1935, Château des Tours is the home estate of Château Rayas' renowned winemaker, Emmanuel Reynaud.
• Emmanuel has held the reins to this estate since 1989, and, true to his nature as a farmer, grows olives and grains alongside grapes.
• The vineyards are tended with the same organic methods used in all of Emmanuel's properties, horse-plowed, and deeply reverent of the old-vine Grenache grown here.
• Hand-harvested grapes from 40 hectares of vineyards see whole-cluster fermentation and native yeasts.
• Entirely free from modern interventions, Emmanuel's wines are always some of the most coveted in the Rhône.

The spirit of Jacques Reynaud, the godfather of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is always present at the storied estate of Château Rayas. When this legendary founder died suddenly in 1997, his wife asked their nephew, Emmanuel Reynaud, to take the reins at both Château Rayas and Château de Fonsalette. Already making wines at his father's Château des Tours, Emmanuel agreed. Somewhat reclusive and to be found working his vineyards at most any time of day, every day, Emmanuel does not revel in the fame and notoriety that come with making such sought-after and acclaimed wines. Instead, he continues to quietly but successfully carry the mantle of his famous forebears, producing hauntingly aromatic wines at his three estates: Château Rayas, Château des Tours, and Château de Fonsalette. Located in Sarrians, just outside Vacqueyras, the Reynaud family purchased Château des Tours in 1935. The old house is flanked on both sides by tall towers (hence “des Tours”). This is Emmanuel's family estate, which he took over from his father, Bernard, in 1989. Emmanuel is at heart a farmer, and here he grows food for his family — olives, grains, and, importantly, grapes. Like all Reynaud vineyards, these are tended with the same organic methods, manually plowed, all hand-harvested much later than other producers, and centered around a reverence for old-vine Grenache. With 40 hectares of vineyards surrounding the house, Emmanuel produces Vacqueyras, Côtes du Rhône, and Vin De Pays, all from estate fruit. His wines are made with minimal to no sulfur during vinification. Whole cluster fermentation commences naturally without the inoculation of yeasts in underground concrete tanks and the wines are aged partly in oak casks. The parcels are vinified separately before assemblage takes place in enamel-lined tanks and bottled. The resulting wine is unfined and unfiltered. There is a a clear throughline in all the wines produced by Emmanuel — a unique weighty, aromatic, complex, and savory signature of all the wines that ranks them among the most well-regarded, sought-after bottles of the appellation.

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Wine Legend: Château Rayas, Réserve, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1990

Stephen Brook reports on why this wine made into Decanter's hall of fame...

Château Rayas, Réserve 1990 at a glance:

Bottles produced : about 16,000 Composition : 100% Grenache Yield : 18 hl/ha Alcohol : 14.5% Release price : About 250 French Francs per bottle (about €53/£44.50 in today’s money) Price today : £1,741 per bottle (Hedonism)

This Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine is a legend because:

This wine’s legendary status is down to a happy coincidence of factors.

The first was the remarkable quality in general of vintages from this domaine.

Another was the highly eccentric personality of then owner Jacques Reynaud, which often seemed at odds with the stature of the wine. The 1990 vintage played its part too, delivering wines of power, density and succulence.

Today the property is run by Jacques’s nephew, Emmanuel, who has altered little and has maintained the style of the wines.

Looking back

Jacques Reynaud, who died in 1997, inherited the property from his father Louis in 1980.

He was an intensely shy man, and there were stories of visitors seeing him dart into the bushes when a merchant or journalist (even one with an appointment) was heard approaching the winery.

Reynaud was not very forthcoming if one did get to meet him, and there was nothing within the winery to suggest that it was capable of producing drinkable, let alone great wines.

The casks were jumbled, the floor cluttered and the tasting glasses, usually with broken stems, looked no cleaner than the rest of the winery.

Yet there was no doubting the extraordinary quality and personality of the wines – both Rayas itself, white as well as red, the second wine known as Pignan, and even the Côtes du Rhône sold as Fonsalette.

The Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1990 vintage

The summer was very hot and dry, blocking the maturation of the grapes, which ripened slowly, with high sugar.

By mid-September the Grenache , of which Rayas is mostly composed, had potential alcohols of well over 14%, but Reynaud, who always preferred optimal ripeness, delayed picking until late September.

Consequently some tanks showed alcohol closer to 16%. The final wines exhibited density and chewiness, in contrast to the elegant 1989 vintage.

The Rayas terroir

Rayas is a secluded estate northeast of the village, not far from Courthézon.

The vines are almost exclusively Grenache, many aged between 20 and 35 years.

Rayas is renowned for its minuscule yields, which many attribute to the numerous missing vines in the 13 hectares of vineyards rather than to any severe reduction of the crop, even though Reynaud claimed to thin bunches in July to assure a yield of no more than 20hl/ha.

The vineyards were divided into 15 small plots, and soils are varied, though they do not resemble the stoniest sectors of the appellation.

At Rayas there are vines planted on sandy soils, others on clay-limestone. Many face north, which also slows ripening. (Whites account for about one fifth of plantings and production.)

The winemaking at this time was simplicity itself.

The juice was fermented in concrete vats without temperature control, and transferred to casks of various sizes in the spring.

Bizarrely, given the ramshackle conditions at the winery, it was equipped with a pneumatic press. The press wine was blended in and the wine left undisturbed for about a year, although Louis Reynaud had aged the wine for much longer.

It was then bottled without fining or filtration. Because of the very low yields, there were usually no more than 20,000 bottles of Rayas from any vintage.

The reaction

British wine author and merchant Remington Norman found the 1990 ‘more obviously forward and elegant than the 1989, but with greater weight underneath; very long, complex, opulent. Ultimately, the greater of this remarkable pair’€™.€™

Decanter ‘s Michael Broadbent blind-tasted it in 1996: ‘€˜I noted a piquant, high-toned, bilberry-like fruitiness; very sweet, immensely rich, full of fruit.’€™

In 2001 he wrote: ‘Rich spicy, soft, full, fleshy, with a fairly swingeing tannic finish.’€™

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"Under the law of Hong Kong, intoxicating liquor must not be sold or supplied to a minor in the course of business." 「根據香港法律，不得在業務過程中，向未成年人售賣或供應令人醺醉的酒類」

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Sharp Price: 2003 Chateau Rayas at HK$6,500 per bottle

April 25, 2024

Chateau Rayas is the most mysterious and mythical producer in the Rhone Valley. With a long history dating back to 1880 when Albert Reynaud became deaf and went out to seek a new career, the estate is still managed by the Reynaud family to this day. Jacques Reynaud is the man who turn the estate into the highest stage and it is now continued by his son François. Rayas was one of the first estates in Chateauneuf du Pape to bottle and sell their own wine. Known to offer elegance, power and nuance and is the no. 1 and the most expensive wine in Rhone.

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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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21 Things to Know Before You Go to Moscow

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Theatres in Moscow

Cultural life of Moscow city is various and rich! Operas, ballets, symphonic concerts... Russian composers have created some of the most beautiful classical music. Russian classical music is very popular in Moscow. It is performed in many beautiful historical venues. Do not forget to include a visit to a concert hall in your itinerary when you are planning your stay in Moscow! And do it in advance.

There are almost no restrictions on dress code in Russian theatres. Visitors may wear jeans and sports shoes, they may have a backpack with them. Only shorts are not allowed.

A typical feature of Russian theatre – visitors are bringing a lot of flowers which they present to their favorite performers after the show.

Here are some practical advices where to go and how to buy tickets.

The Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre is the oldest, the most famous and popular opera and ballet theatre in Russia. The word “Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian. You can buy a ticket online in advance, 2-3 months before the date of performance on the official website . Prices for famous ballets are high: 6-8 thousand rubles for a seat in stalls. Tickets to operas are cheaper: you can get a good seat for 4-5 thousand rubles. Tickets are cheaper for daytime performances and performances on the New Stage. The New Stage is situated in the light-green building to the left of the Bolshoi's main building. The quality of operas and ballets shown on the New Stage is excellent too. However, you should pay attention that many seats of the Bolshoi’s Old and New Stages have limited visibility . If you want to see the Bolshoi’s Old Stage but all tickets are sold out, you can order a tour of the theatre. You can book such a tour on the official website.

If you want, following Russian tradition, to give flowers to the performers at the end of the show, in the Bolshoi flowers should be presented via special staff who collects these flowers in advance.

In August the Bolshoi is closed.

The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre

This theatre is noteworthy. On one hand, it offers brilliant classical opera and ballet performances. On the other hand, it is an experimental venue for modern artists. You can check the program and buy tickets online here http://stanmus.com/ . If you are opera lover, get a ticket to see superstar Hibla Gerzmava . The theatre has a very beautiful historic building and a stage with a good view from every seat. Tickets are twice cheaper than in the Bolshoi.

The Novaya Opera

“Novaya” means “New” in Russian. This opera house was founded in 1991 by a famous conductor Eugene Kolobov. Its repertoire has several directions: Russian and Western classics, original shows and divertissements, and operas of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is very popular with Muscovites for excellent quality of performances, a comfortable hall, a beautiful Art Nouveau building and a historic park Hermitage, which is situated right next to it. You can buy tickets online here http://www.novayaopera.ru/en .

Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Center

The Opera Center has become one of the best theatrical venues in Moscow. It was founded in 2002 by great diva Galina Vishnevskaya. Nowadays its artistic director is Olga Rostropovich, daughter of Galina Vishnevskaya and her husband Mstislav Rostropovich, great cellist and conductor. Not only best young opera singers perform here, but also world music stars do; chamber and symphonic concerts, theatrical productions and musical festivals take place here. You can see what is on the program here http://opera-centre.ru/theatre . Unfortunately “booking tickets online” is available in Russian only. If you need help, you can contact us at and we can book a ticket for you. 

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and The Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory

These are two major concert halls for symphonic music in Moscow. Both feature excellent acoustics, impressive interior, various repertoire and best performers. You can check the program here http://meloman.ru/calendar/ . You need just to switch to English. Booking tickets online is available only for owners of Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian phone numbers. If you need help, you can contact us and we can book a ticket for you. 

Moscow International Performing Arts Center (MIPAC)

This modern and elegant concert hall houses performances of national and foreign symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, solo instrumentalists, opera singers, ballet dancers, theatre companies, jazz bands, variety and traditional ensembles. Actually, it has three concert halls placed on three different levels and having separate entrances. The President of MIPAC is People’s Artist of the USSR Vladimir Spivakov, conductor of “Virtuosy Moskvy” orchestra. You can see pictures of the concert halls here http://www.mmdm.ru/en/content/halls . The program is impressive in its variety but is not translated into English. You can contact us at and we can find a performance for you.