This historic theater got its name from the fact that it was built on the bank of a small river called the Wien — a river that has since been banished underground. For many years the Theater an der Wien presented a mixed bag of operas, operettas, musicals and spoken Read More …
This “House of Music” (Haus der Musik) in Vienna describes itself as “an interactive sound museum which provides a new approach to music on a playful as well as scientific level.” It was opened in the year 2000 in a building that was once the palace of Archduke Charles (1771–1847), Read More …
The German dramatist, poet and historian Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) spent the summer of 1785 in a farmhouse in what was then the village of Gohlis, near Leipzig. At that time, Schiller presumably had a better view from his bedroom window than I did when I visited in 2005. Of course Read More …
In the first decade of the twentieth century numerous small and middle-sized European cities built impressive municipal theaters, and Bern was no exception. To finance this one, a group of prominent local citizens got together and formed a joint-stock company to raise money for the new theater, which they later Read More …
Berlin is the only German city that has three full-scale professional opera houses. This one is called the Komische Oper or ‘Comic Opera’, but that doesn’t mean everything they do is hilariously funny. The name Komische Oper was originally meant to suggest that this opera house (like the Opera Comique in Read More …
On the Schillerplatz in the center of Stuttgart there is an exhibition of historical musical instruments. While this collection is not as large as the ones in Brussels, Berlin, Nürnberg or Paris, it is still well worth seeing and has interesting explanations of why certain Baroque instruments went out of fashion, Read More …
Next door to the Rosenberg Palace is another palace which strictly speaking is not a part of Prague Castle, because it is again (after two interruptions) the private property of the Lobkowicz family, an aristocratic family which has “played a prominent role in Central European history for over six hundred Read More …
Scottish Opera is actually based in Glasgow, but they also perform regularly at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh and at two other “mainstage venues” in Aberdeen and Inverness. In 2005 my sons and I attended a performance of the opera Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1857) in Edinburgh. Leonore, the Read More …