Around the middle of the 19th century, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) commanded the Italian opera scene. As one of the most celebrated composers in history, opera companies from all corners of the globe were asking for new works, or at least

On 7 May 1896, Johannes Brahms celebrated his 63rd birthday. His friends had organized a little party, and Brahms announced, “I gave this to myself as a gift today. Yes, to myself! If you read the text, you shall grasp

Beethoven was starting to have some serious health problems when Prince Nikolai Galitzine—an amateur cellist in St. Petersburg and great admirer of Beethoven’s music—wrote to him on 9 November 1822. “May I ask,” the Prince inquired “for one, two, or

Freshly married, Mr. and Mrs. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited Salzburg from the end of July to October 1783. For one, Wolfie wanted to introduce Constanze to his family and smooth things over with his father, who had been adamant that

The residential district of “Ziegelhausen” is situated at the eastern perimeter of the city of Heidelberg, Germany. Picturesquely located on the banks of the Neckar River it idyllically stretches into the “Odenwald Forest.” Dotted by charming bed and breakfast establishments,

For a good many music lovers, Mozart’s Don Giovanni might well be the finest opera ever composed. The composer described it as a comedy, but the comic elements are basically driven by Giovanni’s devious schemes. Nevertheless, through Da Ponte’s libretto

Plagued by crippling insecurities, Anton Bruckner endlessly revised his musical scores, and seemingly allowed outside influences to shape the content of his music. Untangling the relative merits of Bruckner’s various versions and finding a definitive musical text has been a

Written immediately after the enormous success of Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos was the third collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The hilarious plot looks closely at the tension between high and popular culture, by presenting an opera