| Page Views: 4,748 Last Visit to Bonn: March, 2006 | Opera in Bonn by Nemorino - last update: Mar 22, 2006 |
| Beethoven sculpture and concert hall |
The composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1857) was born in Bonn and lived here for the first twenty-two years of his life, until he moved to Vienna.
This Beethoven sculpture by Klaus Kammerichs is on the lawn in front of the Beethovenhalle, a large concert hall that was built in 1959. The sculpture is called Beethon, and the fascinating thing about it is that when you look at it from any other angle it just looks like a jumble of irregularly shaped concrete slabs, but when you look at it from straight on, from either direction, those slabs resolve themselves into a vivid portrait of the composer. |
Here at the opera house in Bonn I have seen several fine performances over the past thirteen years, including Salome, by Richard Strauss (1864-1949), in a weird staging by the British film director Ken Russell.
On my most recent visit I saw the two operas advertised in the photo: Cardillac by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) and La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). I have described both of these operas in the General Tips on this page. |
| The Rhine from Alter Zoll in Bonn |
Bonn is located on the Rhine River 37 kilometers south of Cologne.
At last count Bonn had about 314,000 inhabitants, which is not quite half the population of Frankfurt am Main.
When West Germany was established as a separate state in 1949, there was considerable controversy about where the provisional capital should be, since the traditional capital Berlin was located off to the east, behind the new border. It finally came down to a choice between Bonn and Frankfurt am Main, and on May 10, 1949, the Parliamentary Council voted 33 to 29 in favor of Bonn.
After reunification Berlin was declared the nominal capital in 1990, but Bonn remained the administrative capital until 1999, when the seat of government was moved back to Berlin. To this day, however, there are still numerous federal agencies and ministries or parts of ministries in Bonn, and also a number of United Nations agencies and other international organizations. |
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Nemorino's Bonn Travel Tips
 Comments for Nemorino about Bonn | | | | |
alancollins Thu Jun 18, 2009 21:23 UTC
Seeing your tips about the Arithmeum I thought about my engineering days with a slide rule and log tables. | tremendopunto Tue Feb 24, 2009 21:04 UTC
Also your hotel tip, next to the opera, will disappear for another construction (housing) project soon - according to the plans. But things in Bonn change sloooowly, so it might take some more years ;-) | deecat Fri Sep 5, 2008 22:04 UTC
Been 2 years, & it's still just wonderful. New to me was restaurant & Beethoven house. NO OTHER MEMBER OF VT does it any better, Don! Great explanations of the extra photos, summations of the operas, detailed directions, descriptions, terrific photos. | Cristian_Uluru Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:24 UTC
Wonderful page!!! I'll stop there during my trip! Ciao |
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