Salome, by Richard Strauss, is a difficult opera to cast. The singer of the title role has to be a dramatic soprano with a huge voice that will carry over a full-power 110-piece orchestra, which usually means a Brunnhilde-type in her fifties. On the other hand, the character of Salome Read More …
Salome was the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. Her story is told in the Bible (Mark 6:21-28): And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Read More …
Admission to the German Pharmacy Museum is included in the ticket for Heidelberg Castle. The museum is located in one of the castle buildings called the Ottheinrichbau, which is mainly a ruin but still has enough usable rooms to house a museum. As I have mentioned elsewhere, the Ottheinrichbau was named Read More …
The S-Printing Horse is said to be the largest horse sculpture in the world. It seems to have left two footprints or rather hoofprints in the pavement in front of the Print Media Academy, so when you come out of the central train station in Heidelberg you could cross the Read More …
Oblivious to the religious conflicts of previous centuries, and to the stray tourists who are still walking around looking at the ruins, stage hands from the City Theater have started putting up chairs in the castle courtyard for the evening’s open-air performance of the comic opera L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir Read More …
Heidelberg Castle is a large picturesque ruin up on a hill overlooking the city. On the (only half-ruined) façades facing the castle courtyard there are several statues of imposing gentlemen who were all-powerful counts or dukes or whatnot in their time. This one is identified as Ioannes Casimirus MDXCII which Read More …