A rainy day at Place de Roubaix

A nice thing to do in Paris when it starts to rain is to take refuge in one of the many cafés and watch the rain from the second row Read More …

Saint Bénezet’s eclipse and bridge

Probably all French children learn the song “On the Bridge of Avignon” at a tender age, and most people learning French anywhere in the world also have to learn it Read More …

Outer and Inner Alsters

The Alster is first of all a river, a tributary of the Elbe, which starts in Schleswig-Holstein and meanders for 56 km, in a general southerly direction, before reaching the Read More …

Lully and Strauss in Nancy

The opera house in Nancy is on an elegant public square called Place Stanislas, which was designed and built in the 1750s on orders of the Duke of Lorraine, Stanislas Read More …

In the footsteps of . . . Schnabelewopski?

If I had put my mind to it, I’m sure I could have found some distinguished and worthy historical personage to tour Hamburg “in the footsteps” of. But the fact Read More …

The Fairy Tale Fountain

Back in the days when we were both active members of the now-defunct website VirtualTourist, my friend Albert from Canberra, Australia, sent me a message pointing out that my Frankfurt Read More …

To Rahlstedt and back by bicycle

One day in Hamburg I went to visit someone in a district called Rahlstedt, which is at the far eastern end of the city. With the help of my ADFC Read More …

The Hamburg State Opera

Hamburg was the location of the first public opera house in Germany, which opened on January 2, 1678. The great composer Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) came to Hamburg at age Read More …

Ten days, eight operas, seven venues

The amazing thing about my visit to Paris in June 2006 was that in ten days I saw eight operas at seven different venues. As I wrote at the time, Read More …

Guided tour of the Opéra Bastille

The only way to have a look at the backstage areas of the Opéra Bastille (unless you have business there) is to take a guided tour. These begin at 5.00 Read More …

About me

Hello, my name’s Don. I’m an American living in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where I teach, ride a bicycle and go to the opera. I became an opera fan at Read More ...

Frankfurt OperaTalk

If you speak English, live in or near Frankfurt and are interested in opera, be sure to sign up for Germany’s only English-language opera appreciation course, Frankfurt OperaTalk, at the Read More ...

Opern-Gespräche

Seit 1999 leite ich einen Kurs namens „Opern-Gespräche“ an der Volkshochschule Frankfurt. In diesem Kurs reden wir (nicht nur ich!) mit fachkundigen Gästen aus dem Opernbetrieb über das reichhaltige Frankfurter Read More ...

Operas and cycling and whatnot

Get on your bike … and ride to the opera house.