You Go Nate!

The Munich Opera House

Musical Munich

Munich has a rich history of music. Mozart performed here often in his earlier days at the court of the Elector of Bavaria. Richard Wagner was good buddies with Ludwig II of Bavaria (the same who built Neuschwanstein Castle). He premiered several of his operas including Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger at the Munich Opera House. Richard Strauss, another great composer, was born here and had a long history with the Munich Opera House. He was devasted when it was destroyed after World War II. The great symphonist Gustav Mahler gained much of his initial notoriety with the Munich performance of his Second Symphony. It was here that Mahler conducted the premiere of his Eighth Symphony, nicknamed "The Symphony of a Thousand" because of its daring use of an extended orchestra, two choirs, and several soloists. The performance was an enormous success marking one of the great triumphs of his career. Carl Orff the renowned music educator and composer of the secular cantata "Carmina Burana" was also born in Munich. "Carmina Burana" actually means, "Songs of Bavaria" and is actually a collection of medieval songs and poems from this region.

This musical tradition continues today as the opera house has been rebuilt from the ruins of war and there are posters advertising concerts and recitals with everything from the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, to Neil Diamond and Smashing Pumpkins. (That's four different acts by the way, though I'd like to see Neil Diamond team up with the S.P.)

Today I decided to go to one of the major bookstores to see if they had an English Lonely Planet book on Hamburg. Sure enough, they did and I spent some time getting some info and perusing the other travel books. While I was looking through these books I all of a sudden heard a smattering of applause. I looked behind me and saw a small crowd of people gathered around a makeshift podium at the center of the store. There were three people standing on it. One was talking on a microphone and it was obvious she was introducing someone. Then I caught the name, "Anne Sophie Mütter." I realized I had seen a poster on the entrance of the store with her name and picture as she has just written a book of her memoirs of Herbert von Karajan. Who are these people, you ask? Anne Sophie Mütter is one of the great German violinists of our time. She is renowned throughout the classical world. Herbert von Karajan is one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century who died in 1989. So I stood and listened for a bit as she talked about her book and I didn't understand a word of it. So I took a picture and left feeling quite lucky for my serendipity.

This is why Europe is so cool.