For some, Mallorca is synonymous with Magaluf — the unlucky magnet for badly-behaving Brits abroad. But there is an entirely different side to this Spanish island, which I discovered this October at the 5-star Barceló Formentor.
Hidden in a bay on the northern tip of the Island, the elegant hotel marries natural beauty with golden era glamour. Legend has it that Grace Kelly spent part of her yachting honeymoon at the hotel, and its walls are lined with black and white photos of other famous guests of yesteryear, from Joan Fontaine and Audrey Hepburn to Winston Churchill and Peter Ustinov. Today, the resort is said to be a favourite of the Spanish royal family.
Arriving at the property, you can see the appeal. Just beyond the hotel grounds, a white sand beach hugs the coast, framed by lush mountain peaks and valleys. This spectacular panorama can be enjoyed from many of Barceló Formentor’s rooms, as well as its restaurants, terraces, bars and pool.
But it’s not just raw Mediterranean beauty that Barceló Formentor has going for it. I was there to experience a classical music series, Formentor Summer Classics — one of the handful of artistic initiatives the Barceló family has created since acquiring the hotel in 2006 (others include the revival of the Formentor Literary Prize). The aim of the series, founded in 2013, is to celebrate the hotel and island’s creative heritage: Mallorca is well-known for its association with artists from Chopin to Robert Graves and Miró, and the Formentor hotel itself was built by an Argentinian poet, Adan Diehl, in 1929.
Over its three years, the Summer Classics series has drawn big names from Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim to Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Lang Lang — an impressive roster of vets who probably found it difficult to turn down a sojourn in this lovely spot.
We were there to hear celebrated American baritone Thomas Hampson, who had chosen a crowd-pleasing programme of Mozart, Verdi, Lehár, Bernstein and Cole Porter for his evening open-air concert. The event, set amongst the pine forest overlooking the bay, seemed the perfect way to say farewell to summer.
But first, I was given a chance to enjoy the resort. In the morning, I walked through the hotel’s gardens to the beach. After this five minutes of exertion, it was time to lie down — luckily, there were comfortable white-cushioned loungers on hand. The beach itself is open to the public, and today it was calm, populated mostly by German couples and their bronzed toddlers, industriously moving sand from place to place.
Lounging was not the only item on the agenda that morning. Barceló Formentor offers the usual complement of spa treatments, and I had been invited to try out a massage in a treatment hut nearby. As the sound of the waves lulled me into ever-deeper state of relaxation, I realised why the massage on the beach is such a luxury cliché — because it’s extremely nice.
After a couple more hours on the loungers, our group of journalists summoned the will to stagger over to the beachside Italian restaurant La Veranda. Waiters whisked a bottle of cava to the table, followed by a banquet of calamari, squid, Iberian ham and caprese salad with melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella.
Formentor is wonderful during the day, but in the evening, it comes into its own. That night, we gathered on the garden terrace for an apéritif, surrounded by Mediterranean blooms. I ordered a champagne cocktail and sat back to look at the stars, the strains of a Mozart concerto, the famous “Elvira Madigan”, drifting down from a piano in the bar above.
The next day was the big day — the concert, followed by a gala dinner. Beforehand, guests were treated to a musical workshop on the programme led by artistic director Felipe Aguirre, a charming young Spanish conductor who quickly became known in our group as ‘the nicest man in the world’.
That evening, we draped ourselves in finery and made our way down to the terrace for a champagne reception. Flutes in hand, we took our seats before the stage, framed by the sea. As the sun dipped below the mountains, Hampson ran deftly through the programme of favourite arias from La Traviata and Cosi fan Tutte. The orchestra, meanwhile, made a good account of crowd pleasers such as Massenet’s Méditation de Thaïs and the overture to Verdi’s La Forza del Destino.
At intermission, champagne and pastel macaroons were whisked out to the audience, along with shawls for anyone who felt chilly. Hampson continued with a playful rendition of O Vaterland from The Merry Widow, before arriving at the biggest hits of the night — Cole Porter’s 1930s classics Begin the Beguine and Night and Day. The lyrics, which talked of stars, palm trees and an orchestra down by the shore, seemed tailor made for the setting. The glamour of the past may be something of a mirage, but that night at Barceló Formentor, we all delighted in the glittering vision.
The 2016 Sunset Classics at the Barcelo Formentor begin on 30th July. Details of the concert programme will be available from the end of April. For more information visit www.formentorsunsetclassics.com | www.barceloformentor.com
Monarch, the scheduled leisure airline, operates year round flights to Mallorca from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton, Leeds Bradford and Manchester airports with fares, including taxes, starting from £69 one way (£130 return). For further information or to book Monarch flights, Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit www.monarch.co.uk.
