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 …
Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 16 The Skyper tower, in the center of Frankfurt at Taunusanlage 1, was completed in December 2004. It has 38 floors and is 153.80 meters tall, which makes it the sixteenth tallest building in Frankfurt (as of 2020). Skyper is easy to recognize because of its Read More …
Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 15 The Marienturm, completed in 2019, is my nomination for Frankfurt’s most conspicuous mediocre building. While the developers praise its “elegant and clear architecture”, my impression is that it looks clunky and out of place among the more imaginative nearby 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 …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 7 << The Trianon got its name because of its triangular shape and because of the upside-down pyramid (or “polygonal diamond”) which is (or seems to be) suspended from the three corners at the top. It is 186 meters tall, which makes it Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 5 << Most Frankfurt skyscrapers are not open to the public, so we are glad that the Main Tower, which was completed in the year 2000, has an observation deck on the roof (the 56th floor), which is open to everyone — except Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 3 << Frankfurt’s third tallest building (208 meters, 53 floors) is named after its address, Westendstraße 1. Actually, the main entrance is around the corner at Mainzer Landstrasse 58, near Platz der Republik. The building was completed in 1993. This is part of Read More …
During his long career, Giuseppe Verdi composed twenty-six operas — or twenty-eight, depending what you count as what. The following list is the 28-opera version, with the year of the world premiere in parentheses after each title. I have listed the opera titles in different colors: Red means I have Read More …
One thing I’ll say for the Lyon opera house: you can’t mistake it for any other building in Lyon, or for any other opera house in the world that I know of. Or do you know of any other building that has a nineteenth century façade topped by a huge Read More …
One of William Shakespeare’s biggest fans in the 19th century was the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), who based three of his operas on Shakespeare plays, namely Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff. The composer’s second favorite author was the 18th century German playwright Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), whom Verdi admired not Read More …