Edvard Grieg met Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen in 1864, when the writer and poet already enjoyed considerable fame in many parts of Europe for his stories, novels, and poetry. The two artists enjoyed a close kinship as both were

Throughout his life, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) composed a total of 181 songs. That means that excluding folk-song arrangements, Grieg composed more vocal music than piano and chamber works together. From his 4 Songs Op. 2 of 1861 to the 5

Claude Debussy set altogether thirteen poems by the Parnassian poet Théodore de Banville (1823-1891). The Banville mélodies, like almost half of his entire output for voice and piano, date from a period between roughly 1880 to 1884. This period was

Published in 1982, Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl re-interpreted six well-known fairy tales, deliciously deviating from traditional versions. Just one year later, Dahl married Felicity d’Abreu Crosland, who was instrumental in setting up “The Roald Dahl Foundation” shortly after his

In 1982, master storyteller Roald Dahl published a collection of poems under the title Revolting Rhymes. This parody of six favourite fairy tales features his darkly comic twists complete with rollicking rhymes and hilarious surprise endings. Humorously deviating from the

In 1840, Robert Schumann wrote to his beloved Clara, “This ceaseless inner music is almost killing me; I am almost obsessed by it. Oh Clara, what bliss it is to compose for the voice! I have done without it for

Alexandre Dumas, born on 24 July 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne, in Picardy, France, is one of the most famous and widely read French authors. We all know him from his historical novels “The Count of Monte

For many literary critics, the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is considered “the father of realism and the second most influential playwright of all times.” Ibsen was one of the founders of modernism in theatre and completely rewrote the rules