Bavaria at the turn of the 20th century was a kingdom within an empire. The king, Otto I, was insane, so he was kept locked up in a castle behind high walls while the kingdom was run by his uncle, Prince Regent Luitpold (1824-1912). During the twenty-six years of his Read More …
The Bavarian State Opera (Bayerische Staatsoper), in the National Theater in Munich, is one of the best places in Germany to see big-name opera stars. This is the only place I have ever seen Edita Gruberova in a live opera performance. Or Vesselina Kasarova. Or Bryn Terfel. Or Angelika Kirchschlager. Read More …
This house was originally built as the residence of a well-do-do and apparently rather eccentric Munich painter named Franz von Lenbach (1836–1904). It now belongs to the City of Munich and is the site of a popular art museum featuring painters of the “Blue Rider” school of the early 20th Read More …
Starting May 14, 2021, the Alte Pinakothek and several other Munich museums are re-opening after a long closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tickets are available only online and in limited numbers, with an admission time slot. FFP2 masks are required, and other hygiene measures are in force. The Alte Read More …
The National Theater (“National” meaning Bavarian, not German) is the main venue for the Bavarian State Opera. The building has had a quite typical history for nineteenth-century opera houses in this part of the world. It was first built from 1811 to 1818. In burned to the ground in 1823 Read More …
Besides the Bavarian State Opera, Munich also has a second full-scale opera house called the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. They do all their operas in German (or Bavarian!), not in the original languages, and also put on the occasional operetta or musical. Gärtnerplatz is one of the few opera houses which Read More …