| Page Views: 2,136 Last Visit to Eisenach: June, 2005 | From Bach to Egk by Nemorino - last update: Jan 14, 2006 |
In this photo, which I took in 2005, the Theater in Eisenach is advertising their new production (by a young stage director named Vera Nemirova) of the most popular and most often performed opera in Germany, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
When I was here in 2001 I saw a different "magic" opera in this theater: Die Zaubergeige (The Magic Violin) by the German composer Werner Egk (1901-1983). It is a sort of fairy tale in which the character Kaspar is given a magic violin, which enables him to have a brilliant career as a virtuoso, but nearly costs him his life before all the conflicts are resolved.
Since I didn't know anything about Werner Egk at the time, I found it very useful that they had a comprehensive exhibition about his life and work spread out through all the lobbies of the theater. It turns out that The Magic Violin had it's world premiere in Frankfurt am Main on May 22, 1935, and that it was Egk's first major success as an opera composer. He also wrote several other operas, such as Peer Gynt, which was also performed recently here in Eisenach. His operas were often played until well into the 1970s, but not so often since then. (He was not a Nazi, by the way, even though he stayed in Germany during the Nazi period and did not go into exile like his friends Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.)
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| In the Bach House, Eisenach |
Three centuries earlier, Eisenach was the birthplace of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). He was born here as the youngest of eight children, and lived in Eisenach for the first ten years of his life, until his parents both died and he went to live with relatives in the nearby town of Ohrdruf. He spent most of his adult life in Leipzig, where he was the cantor at St Thomas's School and the city's director of music.
The Bach House in Eisenach is a good place to get acquainted with Bach and his life and work, since the admission price includes an introductory music lecture with examples of his music played live on five historical instruments (two organs, a harpsichord, a spinet and a cembalo), as well as two recorded selections with a chorus and orchestra. |
| In the Bach House, Eisenach |
The lecture I heard there recently was in German, but they will lend you a written summary in Japanese or English, and I suppose also in other languages. (The tourist attractions in Eisenach are very well signposted, by the way, in both German and Japanese.)
The instruments and furniture in the Bach House are old, but probably not old enough to have been used by the Bach family. This was not his baby bed, for example. They aren't even sure he was born in this particular house, but it was in this neighborhood, in any case. |
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 Comments for Nemorino about Eisenach | | | | |
scottishvisitor Sun Sep 27, 2009 20:43 UTC
Nice info on Bach & Martin Luther = seems like a nice place to visit! | LoriPori Mon Jul 13, 2009 22:32 UTC
Eisenach looks to be a great town to visit esp. during the Street Festival. | HORSCHECK Sun Apr 5, 2009 15:40 UTC
Don, I just had to revisit your Eisenach page. Last Thursday we spent about 3,5 h here on our long weekend trip through Thuringia (Eisenach, Weimar, Apolda and Erfurt). We didn't manage to get to the Wartburg either. | risse73 Sun Mar 8, 2009 22:20 UTC
Don, thanks for visiting my Puno page. I'm intrigued by the Wartburg castle. So far, I've learned from you that Einstein & Bach are both March birthday celebrants. Cheers! -Marissa- |
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