Vanity Fair UK - 11.2019

ROLAND HALBE ANDERMATT; EPV/DIDIER SAULNIER VERSAILLES;POSNOV/GETTY IMAGES LARAPINTA; HELIVISTA FROM ARKABACONSERVANCY IKARA-FLINDERS RANGES

FIELD NOTES

Wanderings / wonderings—

what we’re thinking about

L

abelled the unfriendliest

place in Switzerland,

Andermatt is shedding

its tag as only a military garrison

town to become a seat of culture,

including a new concert hall

(above) that holds an intimate

audience of 650 and a 75-strong

orchestra, but is probably most

ideal for chamber music. Mark

the programming by the team

behind The New Generation

Festival in Florence; this season,

they’re luring the Chamber

Orchestra of Europe

conducted by Daniel

Harding, hypnotic soprano

Anush Hovhanissyan and

the inimitable Daniel

Barenboim.

Meanwhile in Paris, the

ravishing Royal Opera at

Versailles (right)—built

originally only for the

pleasure

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS

Rock of Ages

of the royal court—will be

celebrating its 250th birthday

this season with a new

production of André Grétry’s

heroic Richard the Lionheart, and

a contemporary ‘rst for the

venue with John Corigliano’s

The Ghosts of Versailles in surely

the perfect setting.

Sara Wheeler’s

new travelogue

Mud and Stars:

Travels in Russia

with Pushkin and

Other Geniuses of

the Golden Age

(Cape) is a

journey around

the biggest

country in the

world—from

Mikhailovskoye to

Chukotka—with

its greatest

writers as tour

guide. There’s

never sugar-

coating with

Wheeler, who

here anatomises

the despair of

ordinary Russian

life in a mash-up

with literary

criticism of

Tolstoy, Gogol,

Dostoevsky and

Turgenev, the

masters of

exploring the

hopelessness

of humanity.

FROMRUSSIA

WITHLOVE

Uluru (known to some

as Ayers Rock) will be

closed to climbers from

October 26—forever. The

hope is that visitors will

seek more respectful ways

to explore the Australian

landscape and understand

the sacred sites of the

Aboriginal community,

such as via the Larapinta

Trail (above), about

200km from Uluru, in the

rugged West MacDonnell

Ranges.

In South Australia,

there’s the Arkaba Walk

in the Ikara-Flinders

Ranges (below), led by the

illuminating Pauline

McKenzie, one of the

Adnamatna people, and

in north-east Tasmania

the wukalina walk

takes in the Aboriginal

culture of the Palawa,

who’ve evolved in

isolation for more than

10,000 years.

Travel Worth Travelling For

VANITY FAIR NOVEMBER 2019

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