The two organisations are launching a partnership to create bespoke cultural tours linked to music, history and the great symbolic settings of opera.
Opera does not end when the curtain falls. It can also continue in the cities, theatres, palaces and landscapes that have shaped its history. With this in mind, Mundo Amigo, an agency specialising in bespoke cultural tours, and the Fundación Amigos del Teatro Real are launching a partnership to design tailor-made experiences that will allow the Friends of the Real to discover new perspectives on opera, music and European cultural history.
The first offering from this partnership will take place from 5 to 8 September 2026 in Bayreuth, a city closely linked to the European musical tradition. The trip has been designed around the Baroque Opera Festival, the figure of Georg Friedrich Händel and some of the most iconic cultural venues in this German city.
The Bayreuth programme marks the launch of a series of trips conceived as a cultural extension of the operatic experience, designed for those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of music through the places, figures and historical contexts that shape it. It is not merely a matter of attending a performance, but of understanding the cultural world surrounding opera.
This collaboration brings together Mundo Amigo’s expertise in designing cultural trips for institutions with the mission of the Friends of the Teatro Real to broaden their members’ engagement with opera and its major international figures.
In Bayreuth, music is not heard in the abstract: it resonates in venues that form part of European cultural history. Internationally renowned for its association with Richard Wagner, every September the city is transformed into one of Europe’s most unique musical centres thanks to its Baroque Opera Festival, which highlights the beauty of the Baroque, the intimacy of its historic setting and a first-class musical programme centred on Handel.
The programme includes three musical events at the Margraves’ Opera House: the lyrical concert Handel’s Nature, the new production of Floridante – one of Handel’s least frequently performed operas – and Koffer-Arien, performed alongside the Kammerorchester Basel. The experience is rounded off with visits to the Festspielhaus, situated on the so-called Green Hill; Villa Wahnfried, Richard Wagner’s residence in Bayreuth; the New Palace, the gardens and the Hermitage, a complex of historic buildings associated with Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth; as well as a day trip to Nuremberg, an ancient imperial city linked to Wagnerian cultural imagery.
One of the distinctive features of the trip will be the guidance of Gabriel Menéndez, who holds a PhD in Aesthetics and Philosophy and is a musicologist and art historian from the Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg im Breisgau. Menéndez currently directs the Opera and Musicology Seminar at the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid, where he is a lecturer in the History of Opera, and has taught specialised courses at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
“For Mundo Amigo, travelling is not just about reaching a destination, but about understanding it. Bayreuth allows us to interpret opera through its stages, its history and its cultural identity. That is precisely the essence of this collaboration: transforming the journey into a form of knowledge”, says Mikel González, product director at Mundo Amigo.
“We want the Amigos del Real to enjoy unforgettable experiences that complement their time at the Teatro Real, by visiting places where music engages with the history, architecture and cultural life of Europe. “The partnership with Mundo Amigo enables us to offer carefully curated, meticulously organised experiences designed for an audience seeking to continue learning about and enjoying music from diverse perspectives,” emphasises Lourdes Sanchez-Ocaña, director of the Amigos del Real Foundation
Through this collaboration, Mundo Amigo strengthens its position in the field of high-end cultural travel, conceived not merely as tours of a destination, but as bespoke experiences in which knowledge, artistic sensitivity and access to exclusive settings form an essential part of the journey.
At a time when cultural tourism is seeking increasingly carefully curated experiences, the partnership between Mundo Amigo and the Friends of the Teatro Real points towards a way of travelling that is less about accumulating sights and more about interpretation: it is not just about seeing more, but about understanding better.
About MUNDO AMIGO
Mundo Amigo is a travel agency specialising in curated cultural tours, with a long track record in designing bespoke experiences for institutions, museums, foundations, cultural organisations and travellers keen to discover the world from a deeper perspective. Its tours combine expert knowledge, access to unique settings and a carefully curated selection of content linked to art, history, music, architecture and heritage.
Source: MDG Comunicación