Dr. Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma
Do you know the story of the admirably accomplished Hofrat Dr. Alois Obrist? As a teenager in the 1880s, he studied at the conservatory in Weimar, where he fell under the spell of the Liszt circle, especially the composer Eduard Lassen. The serious Swiss excelled in many areas of music. He continued his composition lessons … Read more
The Singakademie’s last subscription concert, conducted by Georg Schumann, has five Bach cantatas on the program: “Der Geist hilft,” “Aus der Tiefe,” “Dem Gerechten muss das Licht,” “Ich elender Mensch,” and “Nun ist das Heil.” The other concert is the Chorus of the Königliche Oper, conducted by Hugo Rüdel, with soloists Emmy Destinn, Robert Philipp, … Read more
Mascagni as one of Vanity Fair’s “Men of the Day” in 1912 Pietro Mascagni in Berlin On the occasion of tonight’s concert of the Philharmonic, the Tageblatt has a piece about the composer and conductor Mascagni’s long history with Berlin. It was back in 1892 when he watched three of his works, Cavalleria Rusticana, L’Amico Fritz, … Read more
The only concert tonight is a popular concert of the Mozart-Saal Orchestra. The program is all Beethoven: Overture to the Creatures of Prometheus, the third Leonore Overture, and the complete music to Goethe’s Egmont. The Philharmonic did the Egmont music on a popular concert just two days ago! I wonder what is going on. (The … Read more
The Königliche Oper’s production of Salome is being performed tonight. The Paris premiere of the opera next month will also have Emmy Destinn in the title role and Strauss as the conductor. The Komische Oper has already departed for London, where they will give a run of Hoffmanns Erzählungen. Arthur Abell had some final gossip … Read more
OPERA NEWS As I predicted, last night’s premiere of Théodora by Xavier Leroux was not a success. Leopold Schmidt mentioned the costumes and sets, the interesting portrayal of Justinian by Renaud, and the presence of an animated Kaiser in the royal box, again with Prince Albert of Monaco. But Max Marschalk did not hold back … Read more