Okay, this is too fun of a story to pass up. Apparently, Katharina Wagner, the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner thought it would be a great idea to “spice up” the opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
And, oh, did she make it interesting.
The opera was modernized by having an arts league, with theater designs and film directors, [...]
I read musicological texts like some people read The National Inquirer or People magazine.
Mozart wrote a song telling a woman to lick his a**!
Was Vivaldi shacking up with a much younger woman?
Schumann was crazy and his best friend was in love with his wife!
Did Schubert get syphilis from that prostitute or that maid?
Yes, these are [...]
I realize the title of this post sounds musicologically irreverent. But that’s the point on Meet the Composers! Anyhow, during a piano lesson one day, my teacher said that Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms were like the Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher of their day. And I agreed. Clara Schumann was a beautiful and successful [...]
I have volunteered my time for a year and half at a local radio station here in Madison, Wisconsin called WORT 89.9 FM. I currently host a show for entitled Other Voices which emphasizes women’s contributions to classical music. And those contributions are myriad. There are women composers, performers, conductors, technicians on classically-based electronic music, [...]
I have complained about the film Immortal Beloved enough to write a post on it and finally just shut up!
Okay, my first order of business is the fact that the “Immortal Beloved” was probably some married aristocratic woman whom Ludwig had become infatuated with and wrote this mushy letter to. Of course, he never gave [...]
I am a Mozart Freak. No doubt about it. I am also an atheist. For a few years, I couldn’t justify to myself why exactly I’m an atheist. I know I believe in natural materialism, and that everything in this universe can be traced back to natural causes. There’s no reason to interject the supernatural [...]
A single manuscript page of a Mozart Mass was found in Nantes, France. The score did not bear Mozart’s signature, but Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said Thursday that there is no doubt this was written by him, as he had a very characteristic writing style.
I’m pretty [...]
From a very young age, I remember thinking classical music concerts were penultimately boring. I love classical music to death and I think it is a very worthwhile pursuit and something to dedicate one’s life to. Hey, I even plan to have my ashes scattered over Mozart’s grave at St. Marx Cemetary in Vienna, Austria. [...]
The Abduction from the Seraglio, or, The Abduction from the Harem/Brothel was Mozart’s first important German opera. Of course, Mozart had done other operas in German, but this was his first big-hit. The Abduction from the Seraglio was brought into play partly by the success of Idomeneo, King of Crete in Munich, and also from [...]
Hildegard von Bingen was a fascinating historical figure. She was an exceptional woman and a noted polymath. A polymath is a person with encyclopedic knowledge who excells in almost anything she/he pursues. She was a mystic and visionary of wondrous proportion, a composer, an artist, an herbalist, an author, a counselor, a linguist, a naturalist, [...]