Giacomo Meyerbeer first visited Italy in 1816. He only planned for a brief study tour, but in the event, it gradually extended itself to nine years! During that time, the composer produced seven operas, starting with the semi-serious Romilda e

If we look at Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) we see a musician who came to embody the best of classical music. He was a conductor, most famously making his debut in 1943 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on a moment’s

The 2005-film Brokeback Mountain—an adaptation of the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, which featured two married cowboys in love with each other—brought the issue of mixed-orientation marriages to public attention. However, this type of marriage between partners of differing

Maurice Ravel was small and slender in stature, standing about 162 centimeters, with an unusually large head in relation to his body. He was an avid walker and swimmer and until the age of 50 he was perfectly healthy. Ravel

Every summer, the “Intimacy of Creativity Festival” brings together aspiring composers and seasoned performers in Hong Kong. Emerging composers present and revise their work after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers. The principle aim of this gathering is to rekindle the

The fictional HBO series Game of Thrones, already in its fourth season and slated to run for at least another 2 years has once again garnered a number of impressive awards and accolades. Loosely based on the novel A Song

The Romantic Violin Concerto Erich Korngold (1897-1957) was a modern composer with a Romantic touch. He is considered, along with Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind) and Alfred Newman (Wuthering Heights / How the West was Won) as one of

The composer Jacob Liebmann Beer (1791-1864), frequently described as the most successful stage composer of the 19th century, is more commonly known under his stage moniker Giacomo Meyerbeer. That name arguably represents the best combination of his parents’ names, Jakob