Nemorino's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 40,672 | Another great season! by Nemorino - last update: Jul 2, 2009  |
| La finta giardiniera at the Bockenheimer Depot |
This has been another great season at the Frankfurt Opera. The latest premiere was Mozart's La finta giardiniera (The pretend gardener) at the Bockenheimer Depot. Stage director Katharina Thoma (in the red dress) really captured the spirit of the opera, with tenor Jussi Myllys (4th from left) and soprano Brenda Rae (5th from left) flying through the air while singing a love duet, and later trying to split up but discovering they were tethered together. This was Mozart's ninth opera, by the way, composed when he was 19 years old.
My newest page here on VirtualTourist is a small one about taking the ferry from Puttgarden to Rødbyhavn, on my way from Frankfurt to Copenhagen by train. |
| Cycling at night in Münster |
My second newest page is about Germany's number one cycling city, Münster in Westfalen, where bicycles have overtaken cars as the most often used form of transportation.
I've been carfree for a number of years now, and it's great! And I don't even live in one of the big cycling strongholds like Münster, Freiburg in Breisgau or Amsterdam.
Even notoriously car-ridden cities like Paris, Frankfurt am Main and Milan have started re-allocating public space, broadening their transportation systems and expanding their cycling infrastructures.
And it's not only happening in Europe. Even in the USA, the classic homeland of forced car ownership, there are signs of progress. For decades my fellow Americans were so obsessed with cars that they refused to build sidewalks because they couldn't imagine anyone walking on them, and they wouldn't build cycling lanes because they thought a bicycle was just a piece of sports equipment. But that is starting to change now -- in some places -- as you can see on the Complete Streets coalition website.
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| Gypsystravels (Janet) and me in Frankfurt am Main |
In April 2009 VT member Gypsystravels (Janet) from New York came to Frankfurt for just one day.
She had never been to an opera before, but she bravely came with us -- me and some of the people from my English language opera appreciation course Frankfurt OperaTalk -- to the opera La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini, and she came along to the pub with us afterwards. It was really nice to meet her, and I hope to see her again on one of her future visits.
Janet was the eighth VirtualTourist member (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!) who has come along to an opera performance with me here in Frankfurt. The other seven were:
• gildapaolina (Gil) from Italy, who was here on business and came with me to a performance of Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• American opera buff yooperprof (Chet) has been here twice so far, for the operas Macbeth -- but the one by Ernest Bloch, not Verdi -- and later Verdi's Don Carlos.
• Australian VT member iandsmith (Ian Smith).
• German members tini58de (Christine) and Madschick (Heinz) from Karlsruhe were here for a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute. Christine has posted a nice travelogue about this called 2007: Magic at the Opera.
• Greek VT member sinequanon (Gala) from Athens.
• Natrix (Natascha), who lives just up the road in Friedberg, came along to a performance of Verdi's La Traviata.
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| The Semper Opera in Dresden |
Opera in Germany
At last count there were eighty-six functioning professional opera houses in Germany (more than in any other country in the world, I believe), as listed in the Yearbook of Opernwelt magazine for 2008.
I have seen performances in fifty-three of these opera houses so far -- hope to get around to the other thirty-three in the next few years.
These are the fifty-three that I have been to so far:
Aachen: saw Mozart's opera Lucio Silla, which he composed in Milan when he was 16.
Altenburg: saw the opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. I am listing Altenburg separately since I am counting opera houses, not companies. (Otherwise I would have to list it together with Gera.)
Augsburg: saw Der fliegende Hollaender (The Flying Dutchman) by Richard Wagner.
Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden: saw Rinaldo by Georg Friedrich Haendel. Also Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, and quite a few others.
Berlin, Komische Oper: Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi (but in German), and several others.
Berlin, Deutsche Oper: Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, and a couple others.
Bonn: Cardillac by Paul Hindemith, and several others.
Braunschweig: Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky.
Bremen: Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Carmen by Georges Bizet.
Cologne (Köln): Der Koenig Kandaules by Alexander Zemlinsky, and several others.
Darmstadt: Orlando by Antonio Vivaldi, and many others.
Dessau: Der Vogelhaendler by Carl Zeller and Don Karlos (spelled with a K because they sang it in German) by Giuseppe Verdi.
Detmold: Martha by Friedrich von Flotow.
Dresden: Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi.
Düsseldorf: Carmen by Georges Bizet, and a few others. |
| Foyer of the Frankfurt Opera |
Eisenach: Die Zaubergeige (The Magic Violin) by Werner Egk (1901-1983).
Erfurt: Jenufa, by Leos Janacek, and an operetta called Die Dollarprinzessin (The Dollar Princess) by Leo Fall.
Essen: Aida by Giuseppe Verdi and The Italian Girl in Algiers by Gioacchino Rossini.
Frankfurt am Main: I've seen LOTS of operas here in Frankfurt am Main (I live here, after all), so I'll just list the ones I have made tips about: L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann and The Journey to Reims by Gioacchino Rossini.
Freiburg in Breisgau: Werther by Jules Massenet.
Gelsenkirchen: Turandot by Giacomo Puccini and the first version of Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi.
Gera: Viva la mamma by Gaetano Donizetti.
Giessen: L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti.
Hagen: Die tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Halle (Salle): L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti.
Hamburg: Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, and several others.
Hannover: The Bartered Bride by Friedrich Smetana, and a few others.
Heidelberg: Salome by Richard Strauss.
Hildesheim: Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Kaiserslautern: Jonny spielt auf by Ernst Krenek and Der Koenig Kandaules by Alexander Zemlinsky.
Karlsruhe: Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito, and Norma by Vincenzo Bellini.
Kassel: Il trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi.
Koblenz: Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, and Die lustigen Niebelungen by Oscar Straus (no relation). Also Die weiße Rose by Udo Zimmermann.
Leipzig: Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, and several others. |
| Bicycles at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich |
Magdeburg: Wiener Blut by Johann Strauss.
Mainz: Lady Macbeth of Mzensk by Dimitrij Schostakowitsch, and several others.
Mannheim: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and several others.
Munich, Bavarian State Opera: I puritani by Vincenzo Bellini (with Edita Gruberova as Elvira). Also La clemenza di Tito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and many others.
Munich, State Theater on Gaertnerplatz: Manon by Jules Massenet.
Münster: The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek.
Nordhausen: Frida (based on the life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo) by Robert Xavier Rodriguez, and The Abduction from the Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Christine Graham as Blonde.
Nürnberg: Iphigenie in Aulis by Christoph Willibald Gluck, and several others.
Passau: Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi.
Pforzheim: The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Regensburg: Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach.
Rostock: Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach.
Saarbrücken: Elektra by Richard Strauss.
Schwerin: Salome by Richard Strauss, with Zehra Yildiz in the title role. (See my Heidelberg page for the story of this.)
Stuttgart: Doktor Faust by Ferruccio Busoni, and many others.
Trier: Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr. (Many years ago!)
Ulm: Aida by Giuseppe Verdi.
Wiesbaden: Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti, and many others.
Würzburg: Werther by Jules Massenet (1842-1912), based on the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by none other than Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
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| View from the upper foyer |
Quiz results
Congratulations to the winners of the two quizzes that I conducted when I first joined VirtualTourist to celebrate the Grand Opening of my New Homepage.
As a PRIZE, each winner will receive a free ticket to the Frankfurt Opera (third balcony) for a performance of her choice within the next twenty years -- preferably on a day when I am in town so I can come along.
Quiz #1
The QUESTION for Quiz #1 was:
What is the origin of my member name "Nemorino"?
The winner is lacristina of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who wrote: Guten tag, buon giorno, and I'm sure it has been a beautiful day in Chicago. Are you fond of Donizetti? And elixers? Do they sing Italian opera in Italian or German in Frankfurt? Have I found you out?
Which indeed she has, since Nemorino is a character in Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera L'elisir d'amore, which I have seen numerous times here in Frankfurt am Main (also in Darmstadt, Gießen, Halle, Paris and Vienna) over the past few years.
Nemorino in this opera is a guy who does everything wrong but gets the girl anyway, which is more or less the story of my life up to now, so I decided that might make an appropriate member name.
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Quiz #2
The QUESTION this time was:
What is the origin of my motto?
My motto at that time was: It’s a beautiful day in Chicago!
This one took a bit longer, so I eventually dropped a hint on my Chicago page: "It comes from the most popular program in the history of American radio."
Shortly after that I got some answers, and the winner was tini58de of Karlsruhe, Germany.
A mere two and a half years later -- well within the twenty-year time limit! -- she came to Frankfurt with her husband Heinz (Madschick) and we went to Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. Christine has posted a travelogue about this called 2007: Magic at the Opera.
Back in 2004 she won the prize by writing: I used your pages and hints, google and especially American friends' help from another forum. And this is what we found out: Everett Mitchell, who more than sixty years ago began a radio broadcast with these famous words: "It's a beautiful day in Chicago!"
Yes, indeed. Everett Mitchell was the host of the nationally broadcast NBC radio program called (deep breath here) THE NATIONAL FARM AND HOME HOUR. It came on every Saturday at 12 noon and was broadcast live from WMAQ's legendary Studio A on the twentieth floor of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, with a live band and a studio audience.
The ritual was that after the band had finished playing their opening march music -- The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), a march better known to us grade-school twerps as Be kind to your web-footed friends for that duck may be somebody's mother -- Everett Mitchell would step up to the microphone and say:
"It's a beautiful day in Chicago!"
Of course he would usually have to qualify that in some way, for instance:
"Well, it is a bit on the cloudy side, and there's some rain and thunder and sleet and hailstorms and gale-force winds and slush piling up on the streets" or whatever the weather was like in Chicago on that particular day. Then he always said:
"But it's a great day to be alive, and we hope it's even more beautiful wherever you are."
At which point I usually turned off the big Zenith radio in the living room and went outside to play, since I was a suburban child with absolutely no interest in the week's agricultural news, I just wanted to hear the opening ritual.
When I was six or seven years old I pestered my mother for weeks about it, and she finally took me down to the Merchandise Mart on the El (we lived in Evanston) so I could be in the studio audience and see a live performance of the show. Everett Mitchell was rather more corpulent that I had imagined, but otherwise I was very impressed. From that day on I was determined to be a radio announcer when I grew up, and in fact I later did spend several years working as the news director of a California radio station.
For more information on Everett Mitchell and the National Farm and Home Hour, have a look at my Chicago page.
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 Nemorino's Albums | | | |
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 Comments for Nemorino | | | | |
hopang Thu Jul 2, 2009 14:22 UTC
Hi Don, Thanks for visiting our Netherlands page and thanks for your nice comments. The city of Amsterdam has been a great tourist destination in mainland Europe! ~ho & pang | pfsmalo Thu Jul 2, 2009 08:31 UTC
Hi Don, many thanks for the visit to my Mali pages and your nice comments. In fact I went back again to find her this year but this time the village elder would not let us into the Islamic part of the village. Shame. Cheers Paul | ValbyDK Wed Jul 1, 2009 13:23 UTC
Hi Don. Thanks for visiting my HCMC page. Greetings from Copenhagen / Klaus | cjg1 Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:57 UTC
R&R from Vietnam.....not exactly fun huh? |
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