On the theatre of marionettes – Heinrich von Kleist
One evening in the winter of 1801 I met an old friend in a public park. He had recently been appointed principal dancer at the local theatre and was enjoying immense popularity with the audiences. I told him I had been surprised to see him more than once at the marionette theatre which had been [...]
Le bon jugement de la tres sainte et gracieuse Vierge Marie
…There is, for instance, one such poem, The Wanderings of Our Lady through Hell, with descriptions as bold as Dante’s. Our Lady visits hell, and the Archangel Michael leads her through the torments… There she sees one noteworthy set of sinners in a burning lake; some of these ‘God forgets’ sink to the bottom of [...]
L’enfant terrible
Rosalinde Haas learned to play the organ at the age of seven, sitting next to her father, playing the pedal parts when her father would perform at church services. After studies at Stuttgart’s Academy of Music, she went on to work with Maestro Fernando Germani at the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, and also [...]
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
Wünschelrute Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen, Die da träumen fort und fort, Und die Welt hebt an zu singen, Triffst du nur das Zauberwort.
Lisbon – The Day After
In 1997 I had to give a talk in Lisbon. I arrived in the twilight of sunset and was impressed – amongst other things – by the large number of statues and monuments all across town, many carved out of white stone. The fin de siecle architecture of the surrounding buildings was accentuated by cast [...]
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
Mondnacht Es war, als hätt der Himmel Die Erde still geküßt, Daß sie im Blütenschimmer Von ihm nun träumen müßt. Die Luft ging durch die Felder, Die Ähren wogten sacht, Es rauschten leis die Wälder, So sternklar war die Nacht. Und meine Seele spannte Weit ihre Flügel aus, Flog durch die stillen Lande, Als flöge [...]
Giuseppe Ungharetti
Tra un fiore colto e l’altro donato – l’inesprimibile nulla.
Mis en bouteille au chateau
In the southwest of France, there is a haunted castle that is said to house in its cellar 391 bottles, mis en bouteille au chateau. The label on each is code for an idea, describing a desire dissolved in red wine, waiting to be reborn. Imagine you are the cellar master, tasked with exchanging the [...]
Mozart himself
As a young boy I used to stand in front of my father’s loudspeakers and conduct the orchestra that was playing for me, just for me, through the broadcast of the local radio station. In my imagination the musicians were exquisitely reactive to any of my desires. On one of these occasions, however, it suddenly [...]