Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) was born and grew up in Halle, Germany. At age 18, he moved to Hamburg, where he got a job playing several instruments in the opera orchestra. When he was 21, he went to Italy, where he spent over three years composing, performing in concerts and Read More …
As in my Verdi list, I have listed the titles of Richard Strauss’s operas in three different colors: Red means I have seen the opera at least once (but usually more often than that) on stage, with costumes, stage sets, lighting, acting, etc. Green means I have only seen it in Read More …
The opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) was 29 years younger than Händel and 42 years older than Mozart — although Mozart narrowed the age gap somewhat by starting to compose operas at age 11. Gluck tried out many different styles during his forty-year composing career, but today he is best Read More …
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) was one of the world’s first opera composers. He wrote at least eighteen operas, but most of them have been lost. His earliest surviving opera, L’Orfeo (Orpheus), was first performed in 1607 in Mantua, Italy, at the court of Duke Vincenzo I. Monteverdi was forty years old Read More …
Here’s a countdown of my ten most-often-viewed blog posts in the year 2022, with links. (Five of these were also on my top-ten list for 2021.) # 10 — Jacques Brel’s Marieke in Brugge/Bruges. It took me a long time to realize why the gorgeous young ladies in French love Read More …
After the collapse of VirtualTourist, I decided not to use any more “free” sites (not even the free version of wordpress.com), but to be a paying customer in hopes of having more stability and security. After five years I am still happy with this decision, since the costs are not Read More …
Here’s a countdown of my ten most-often-viewed blog posts in the year 2021, as tabulated by WordPress and delivered to me through the Jetpack plugin by Automattic Inc. (Five of these posts were also on my top ten list for 2020.) # 10 — Picnic by the Eiffel Tower. In September Read More …