An option for those who have found accommodation in other cities on Lake Constance is to travel to Bregenz on a special ship that is timed to arrive shortly before the performance, and leave shortly afterwards. There is a ship to and from Lindau, Germany, for every performance, and usually Read More …
The Bregenz Festival began on a very small scale in 1946, directly after the Second World War, while this part of Austria was still under French military rule. The stage that first summer consisted of two small barges moored in Bregenz harbor. That first year, the festival already included two Read More …
You can take a tour of the Bregenz Festival grounds at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30 or 15:30 any day during the five-week festival season. The cost (as of 2022) is € 7.50 per person and usually includes the inside of the festival building, the grandstand, and of course the big stage Read More …
Before my first trip to Bregenz in the summer of 2002, I was very skeptical about the loudspeaker system. I was afraid it would either sound tinny, like a London musical, or ear-splitting like a rock concert. But it was neither of these. It was pleasant, natural, clearly audible but Read More …
While cycling along the left bank of the Main River, near the town of Bürgstadt, I came across this assemblage which looked at first glance like a Rube Goldberg Machine. All sorts of tanks, towers and conveyer belts were creaking and cranking up and down in all directions, some dripping Read More …
Salle Pleyel is an Art Deco concert hall that was originally built in 1927 by the Pleyel piano company. For decades it was a leading classical music venue in Paris, even though the acoustics and appearance of the building suffered from a series of botched renovation projects over the years. Read More …
In the winter of 2019/2020, I took four short city-and-opera trips (three days and two nights each time) by train from Frankfurt. This was something I used to do fairly often in December and January, because I typically had fewer teaching commitments in those months than in the months before Read More …
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 Leszczynski. The buildings on the four sides of Place Stanislas all have similar neo-classical façades, and two of the corners Read More …
The opera house on Lake Zürich was designed and built in 1891 by the Vienna architects Fellner and Helmer, who were involved in building no fewer than forty-eight theaters and opera houses in cities all over Europe between 1873 and 1919, including for instance Augsburg, Gießen, Salzburg and Prague. The Read More …
In June 2010 in the Zürich opera house I had a super box seat with some lovely people for a performance of the opera Der ferne Klang (The distant sound) by Franz Schreker (1878-1934). This is Schreker’s second opera. It had its world premiere in Frankfurt in 1912, but had Read More …