Advent starts early this year: November 27. Here in Germany, we are just days away from the building phase of Weimar’s delightful Christmas Market. It takes a surprisingly long time to lay out the boards, brackets, and electric wiring that transform this quiet town into … Read more
As if you needed another reason to attend the Classical Consortium Conference in Louisville . . . Wendell Berry, a noted novelist, poet, farmer, and essayist will be the featured speaker at our Friday evening dinner on January 20, 2017. The author of more than 40 works … Read more
Dukas, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice We are in Germany, Halloween is upon us, and Goethe’s house sits 100 yards away. So what makes more sense for this week’s pick than The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a poem by Goethe set to music by Paul Dukas? Goethe’s poem, Der Zauberlehrling, … Read more
Every port we visited this month, sailing from Venice to Lisbon, had a few shops decked out with American Halloween paraphernalia. Granted, none of them took it to the extremes of US stores—not yet! But you can see the power of global marketing making inroads. … Read more
The Cuckoo in the Grove, Traditional Scottish Air Do people ask you to name your favorite song or composer? I get that question frequently, and I can never answer it. It upsets my daughter that I don’t have favorites in virtually any category: music, food, … Read more
Modern travel can be confusing, especially by ship. Ships are luxurious and convenient, but they don’t remain long in any given place. A ship may dock at 7:00 a.m., and by 8:00 guests are pouring off onto buses for organized excursions led by knowledgeable guides. … Read more
Offenbach, Barcarole from The Tales of Hoffmann Operas are full of hit tunes—at least, that’s the hope of the creators, directors, and financial backers. If you consider how people today enjoy the songs from Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and musicals like Guys and Dolls, … Read more
“What do monks do all day?” That question popped out casually from one of the men in our group. We stood at the top of the stairs at the Abbey of Monte Cassino. Leaving our cruise ship early, we’d bussed for ninety minutes through the … Read more
Wagner, Siegfried Idyll If you wake up on Christmas morning in a Swiss villa with an orchestra at the foot of the staircase playing Siegfried Idyll, you’ll have something in common with Cosima Wagner. She had that experience in 1870. Richard composed the work as a little Christmas … Read more
Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice played an important role in music of the late Renaissance. Here Alessandro and Giovanni Gabrieli took advantage of the architecture by placing separate choirs of instrumentalists across from each other and thus pioneered a new antiphonal sound. Listen to my … Read more
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