Lectures

Musical lectures / Lectures on composers e.g. with the following topics:

• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Bach’s sons – the children of a genius and their different lives
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• The piano music by Ludwig van Beethoven
• Giuseppe Verdi and the Risorgimento – the importance of opera during the Italian movement of unification
• "Sono il factotum della città" – the subject of Figaro in literature and music, with examples from operas by Mozart and Rossini
• "Music in Sanssouci" – Frederick the Great of Prussia  as musician and patron
• "Music in Sanssouci" part 2 – musical women at the Prussian Court
• "Evviva il belcanto" – Italian  opera of the 19th century
• "Lascia ch'io pianga" – Italian opera of the 17th/ 18th  century

Each of these presentations consists of a lecture about life and work of the respective composer/composers.The lecture is completed by examples of music and/or live piano pieces.

"Great voices of the past " – portrais of opera singers  in sound and vision:

In these lectures I want to honor those whose exceptional voices shaped the world of opera.

• Ettore Bastianini
• Piero Cappuccilli
• Cesare Siepi
• Franco Corelli
• Enrico Caruso
• Helge Rosvaenge
• Giulietta Simionato
• Birgit Nilsson
• Renata Tebaldi

 Famous wives of composers – portraits of interesting women

• Giuseppina Strepponi–Verdi, an extraordinary woman at Verdi’s side
• Clara Wieck-Schumann – concert pianist, mother and wife (this lecture includes live piano pieces, played by myself) 
• Cosima Liszt–Wagner, the woman at the side of a capricious genius and co-founder of the  Bayreuth Festival

Date, duration and fee are subject to negotiation.