The places where famous opera and classical music artists died.
An overview by city and background information.
Franz Liszt Museum Bayreuth
After Wagner died in 1883, his daughter Cosima took over the responsibility for the festival and again she called for Liszt, because the pressing financial obligations weighed on her and she wanted to make use of her father’s glamorous name once again. However, she did not want the now infirm man in the Villa Wahnfried and put him up in the house next door. When Liszt arrived, he was already seriously ill. Nevertheless, he patiently attended the events. Towards the end of July he became bedridden, but Cosima had little time to care for her father. So he died lonely in his room of pneumonia, not even the last rites could be received by the faithful Abbé Liszt. Cosima kept Liszt’s death a secret until the festival was over. For prestige reasons, she ignored Liszt’s wish to be buried in Hungary and had him buried in Bayreuth (though there is a major controversy about this). The funeral mass in the Catholic church in Bayreuth was attended by 2000 people, Cosima did not think it necessary to be there.
In 1993, the city of Bayreuth was able to take over a bequest from the pianist Ernst Burger, who owned a Liszt collection comprising several hundred pieces. It set up a Liszt Museum in the house where Liszt died, next to Villa Wahnfried. Liszt was a guest there several times and occupied the mezzanine floor.
Liszts deathplace:
https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/en/places-of-interest/museums/franz-liszt-museum/
Richard Strauss
The villa on Zoeppritzstraße is still inhabited by the descendants of the family and cannot be visited. From the outside, one can recognize the bay window where Strauss used to make his beloved skat rounds (Hans Hotter was a frequent guest), a metal bird with the same name (Strauss = english ostrich) sits on the garden house and the garden gate bears Strauss’ initials.
After the Second World War, Strauss, who was in poor health and financially strapped, left Garmisch for Switzerland for fear of denazification, where he was supported by patrons and lived in hotels. In the end, he returned to his beloved home. On 8 September 1849, the last great opera composer in the history of music died in his bed after a severe heart attack he had suffered a month earlier.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD STRAUSS
Richard Strauss’ Villa:
MORE LEIPZIG TRAVEL TIPS FOR OPERA AND CLASSIC LOVERS
Mendelssohn House
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
https://www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de/
The Mendelssohn House, where he lived and died from 1845-47, has been used as a music salon since 1997 and is the only Mendelssohn museum anywhere. The salon has been faithfully recreated and houses many memorabilia. It also hosts regular concerts and even a piano festival in the summer (see website for programs).
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn’s study:
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LONDON
Händel House Brook Street (Handel and Hendrix)
The Händel Museum
Handel lived 36 years until his death in the house in Brookstreet and wrote there many operas, his Fireworks Music and the Water Music. Handel remained loyal to London, occasionally visiting the Continent, mainly to recruit singers or in later years to take cures for his failing health. Handel died in 1750 as a wealthy but blind man in his Brook Street home, a year after the unspeakable eye operation by the quack Taylor.
In 2001 the house was turned into a museum and can be visited, for Handel fans of course a must. With the entrance fee you can also visit an apartment where Jimi Hendrix lived for a few weeks, that’s why the house is called Handel-Hendrix House.
The music room in the Handel House:
The house where Carl Maria von Weber died
There is a Memorial plaque at the death house at W1, Great Portland Street, 103:
MUNICH AND BAVARIA
Franz Liszt Museum Bayreuth
In 1993, the city of Bayreuth was able to take over a bequest from the pianist Ernst Burger, who owned a Liszt collection comprising several hundred pieces. It set up a Liszt Museum in the house where Liszt died, next to Villa Wahnfried. Liszt was a guest there several times and occupied the mezzanine floor. Many documents, valuable Liszt portraits, busts and also Liszt’s silent piano, which he often had with him on his many journeys, await the visitor there. The rooms of the museum are arranged chronologically, very informative and the place is absolutely worth visiting.
Liszts deathplace:
A look into the museum:
https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/en/places-of-interest/museums/franz-liszt-museum/
Richard Strauss Villa in Garmisch
Die Villa an der Zoeppritzstraße ist noch heute von den Nachfahren der Familie bewohnt und nicht zu besichtigen. Von aussen erkennt man den Erker, wo Strauss seine geliebten Skatrunden machte (Hans Hotter war öfters Gast), auf dem Gartenhaus sitzt ein metallener Vogel mit gleichen Namen und das Gartentor trägt die Initialen Strauss’.
1923 wird seine bürgerliche Oper Intermezzo uraufgeführt. Strauss schrieb Libretto und Musik gleich selbst, da es sich um eine autobiografische Komödie handelte, die in der Villa des Hofkapellmeisters Storch spielte. Der Erker der Villa wurde berühmt, als er in der Skatszene der Uraufführung im Bühnenbild nachgebaut wurde. Dabei komponierte er ein Fortissimo in G-Dur für ein starkes Blatt!
Richard Strauss’ Villa:
Richard Wagners Villa Wahnfried
From 1874 Bayreuth and the Villa Wahnfried was the center of life for the Wagner family. It was built according to the wishes of Richard Wagner. After his death it remained the ancestral home of the Wagners. After Siegfried Wagner’s death, his English-born wife Winifred took over and received Adolf Hitler there, among others. It was damaged during the war and served as a US Army quarters for a few years. Afterwards, it was again inhabited by the Wagners for a few years. Later it became the property of the city of Bayreuth, which made the place accessible as the Richard Wagner Museum.
Villa Wahnfried:
PARIS
Deathplace Vincenzo Bellini
Puteaux
Well, this place, where Bellini died in Villa Levy, no more deserves the name “destination”, meanwhile this section belongs to the greater Paris region and has turned into a faceless banlieue, dominated by traffic and ugly high-rise buildings. On the wall of such a skyscraper and in the midst of garbage containers, the composer was granted a memorial plaque model “very affordable”, on a street and in a neighborhood that bears his name.
The mysterious death
Bellini wrote “i Puritani” as a guest at the home of the mysterious Salomon Levy in Puteaux, near Paris, where he retired during the summer months. In the summer of 1835, the intestinal problems from which Bellini had suffered since 1828 intensified. Friends who wanted to visit him were turned away by the gardener. The friends organized the visits of official doctors who demanded admission and met a weakened composer. Despite treatment, his condition did not improve and again the ominous gardener denied access to visitors. On September 23, Bellini, who was only 34 years old, died, with only the gardener said to have been at his bedside. Immediately the suspicion of poisoning arose in connection with Levy’s financial machinations. Rossini pushed for an autopsy of the corpse. This well-founded autopsy gave amoebic dysentery as the cause, caused by inflammation and deposits in the intestines and a fist-sized abscess on the liver.
Commemorative Plaque in Puteaux:
Deathplace of Georges Bizet
Bougival
The house is located directly on the Seine and Bizet, who was ill with angina, swam there, which hastened his death in this house. The future of the house is unclear, the municipality has so far managed to prevent its sale and is trying to create a music center out of it. Donations are welcome.
There is a plaque on the wall of this picturesque house.
https://www.tourisme-bougival.com/en/visit-bougival/georges-bizets-house/
Apartment of Maria Callas
36, Avenue Georges Mandel
allas lived in this apartment for the last 9 years of her life. An insight is given by the interview that Lord Harewood had made for BBC in 1968. She lived there in seclusion with servants and the two poodles. She died of a heart attack alone in her apartment on September 16. A plaque on the building commemorates the famous resident and a middle street of Avenue Georges Mandel was named after her (Allée Maria Callas).
Callas in her apartment:
https://www.tourisme-bougival.com/en/visit-bougival/georges-bizets-house/
Apartment of Maria Callas
Early death at 37
Chopin remained faithful to Paris until his death, but made important trips to Germany (where he met Schumann and Mendelsohn), to Carlsbad (where he saw his family again), had a winter stay in Mallorca (with Georges Sand) and various summer holidays in Nohan (with Georges Sand). The last trip took him to England with Jane Stirling and took its toll on Chopin’s fragile health. He did not have much time left after that. During a few performances at the beginning of 1849 he even had to be carried up the stairs and he died in the same year in his apartment in the Place Vendôme.
12, Place de la Vendôme
When Chopin’s sister rushed to Paris to help her brother, they moved into a seven-room apartment together at 12 Place Vendome in September 1849. He was financially supported by his friends, especially Jane Stirling. His agony lasted a month. When he died on October 17, six friends sat around the bed. Chopin died of pericarditis caused by tuberculosis (as did many of his relatives, including his father).
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
The rooms were luxuriously renovated and are now used commercially.
House of Debussy
Avenue Foch 80 (former Avenue Bois de Boulogne)
Debussy lived here from 1904 until his death. It was the villa of his second wife Emma Bardac. The house is located in a posh residential neighborhood and can not be visited.
Stravinsy in Debussy’s house:
Deathplace of Lully
45 rue des Petits-Champs
In this house Lully died perhaps the most famous composer’s death in the history of opera . Lully had a large house built in the first arrondissement, where he lived with all his relatives according to Italian custom. The size of the building was supposed to demonstrate his wealth; Molière lent him 11,000 livres for the 44,000 livres building. In his time the house was detached, later houses were added. The facade is original, the interior (partly open to the public) has been heavily modified.
The famous death
At some point, Lully fell out with the king, and Lully wanted to straighten out the relationship.He saw an opportunity, when the king had again survived one of his many cruel operations (depending on the source, it was after the removal of a fist-sized abscess on the buttocks or after the unsuccessful extraction of a tooth, during which the palate was torn out and the bleeding in the throat was stopped with a hot iron), Lully wrote a “Te Deum” for 150 musicians, and had it performed at his own expense in the presence of the king in a church. He saw an opportunity, when the king had again survived one of his many cruel operations (depending on the source, it was after the removal of a fist-sized abscess on the buttocks or after the unsuccessful extraction of a tooth, in which the palate was torn out and the bleeding in the throat was stopped with a hot iron ), Lully wrote a “Te Deum” as a mass of thanksgiving for 150 musicians, and had it performed at his own expense in the presence of the king in a church. While conducting, he rammed the two-meter-long tambour stick with its tip into his big toe. The toe became infected and Lully refused amputation and died of blood poisoning.
Deathplace of Rossini
Passy
Rossini lived in a villa on the edge of Passy Park in the 16th arrondissement during the summer months from 1857 onwards. He died there in 1868 as a result of an operation for rectal cancer. He was given a grave of honor in the Père Lachaise cemetery. The house is now no longer standing, the exact location was 2, Avenue Ingrès.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF ROSSINI
Historical photo of the Maison Rossini:
Rossini in Passy, 1862
ST. PETERSBURG
Tschaikowsky-s Deathplace
Many books have been written about the mystery of Tchaikovsky’s cause of death. Was it the glass of water with which he had involuntarily contracted cholera, which was rampant in St. Petersburg, or was it a court of honor whose verdict he had bowed to and swallowed arsenic? Nowadays the opinion prevails that the former is true. Anyway, the building where he died still exists, his death room can even be booked (Tchaikovsky Suite), it is a hotel called Tchaikovskyhouse. It was the apartment of his brother Modest at that time. In the photo below you can see the death room framed in blue.
Tschaikowski-House:
VENICE
Palazzo Vendrmin
In the winter of 1882/83, the Wagner family spent several months in the lagoon city. Wagner was in poor health and died in the palazzo on February 13, 1883. In the meantime, the palazzo belongs to the city of Venice and it runs a casino there. There is a small Museo-Wagner in the side wing. In the garden there is a memorial plaque made by Gabriele d’Annunzio.
https://www.casinovenezia.it/it/museo-wagner
Palazzo Vendramin:
Canaletto’s Painting of the Palazzo Vendramin:
Richard Wagner Museum in Palazzo Vendramin:
VIENNA
Haydn Museum Haydngasse 19
Here Haydn spent his last 12 years until his death at the age of 77. He was able to finance this stately home with his earnings from his London stays. He was a European celebrity and received many visitors here, but as time went on, more and more ailments of old age made themselves felt. Nevertheless, Haydn had a productive time here and wrote works for his old age, such as the oratorios “The Creation” and “The Seasons.” In the last years of his life he was no longer able to compose.
He died of old age in this house in 1809. On the day of his death, cannon shots could be heard coming from the approaching Napoleonic armies. Still on his deathbed Haydn tried to calm down his servants.
There are all sorts of memorabilia on display in the Haydn House. The highlight is two of Haydn’s keyboard instruments, one of which belonged to Johannes Brahms in the meantime. The Haydn House also includes a room dedicated to Brahms, who had made exemplary efforts to preserve the memory of Haydn.
This beautiful city villa of Haydn’s also includes a beautiful garden, laid out in the style of his time.
Haydn House:
https://www.wienmuseum.at/en/locations/haydnhaus
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Dying place Kettenbrückengasse
The last months before his death Schubert lived in the apartment of his brother Ferdinand. This was slightly outside Vienna, the doctors recommending that he stay outside the city because of the better air. Schubert’s cause of death was not syphilis, but it is assumed that he died of the rampant typhoid fever, due to the typical phantasia (“nervous fever”) which became noticeable earlier.
The death residence was made into a memorial where you can see some memorabilia and learn about his work musically.
View of the exhibition:
https://www.wienmuseum.at/en/locations/schubert-sterbewohnung
Bruckner: Kustodenstöckl Upper Belvedère
In Währinger Straße 41 he lived for 8 years on the 3rd floor, a memorial plaque commemorates it, there he composed the symphonies 2-5.
In Hessgasse 7 he lived for 18 years, here he composed Symphonies 6-8 and parts of the Ninth (in fact the pieces were partly composed during the summer stays in Steyr). The apartment on the 4th floor was given to Bruckner free of charge by the owner of the house, one of his university listeners. A memorial plaque commemorates the famous resident.
In the middle of 1895, Bruckner moved into the “Kustodenstöckl” at Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 27, an apartment in the Custody Wing of the Upper Belvedere. It was made available to him by the emperor, as climbing the stairs in Hessgasse became too strenuous for him. There the composer succumbed to a heart ailment on October 11, 1896. There is also a memorial plaque here.
Custodian’s Stöckl:
Gluck: Wiedner Hauptstraße 32
In 1784, his wife bought a house at Wiedner Hauptstraße 32, now the Gluck House. Gluck lived there for 4 years and died in this house in 1887. A memorial plaque from 1865 commemorates the famous resident.
Gluck House:
Mahler Dwelling at Auenbrugggergasse 2 and death house at Mariannengasse 20.
Mahler lived here almost the entire Viennese period. First with his sister Justine and then with his wife Alma Mahler, whom he married in 1901.
Mahler fought against the conservatism of the Viennese authorities. When Strauss premiered his Salome in Dresden, Mahler wanted to bring the opera to Vienna, but the censorship authorities refused to allow a performance of the scandalous opera. For more than ten years, the Viennese quarelled with the Jew (who was baptised earlier in Hamburg), until Mahler, exhausted by his duties and the many concert tours, left the court opera for New York.
Mahler remained in the United States for three years, with interruptions, and returned to Vienna in 1911, terminally ill, where he died in the same year.
The house is still inhabited, a plaque commemorates the famous resident.
Auenbruggengasse 2 (crossing Rennweg):
Mahler died at Mariannengasse 20, where the Löw Sanatorium was located at the time. A memorial plaque at the place of death commemorates the famous patient.
Mariannengasse 20:
Interesting blog, it reminds me of Giuseppe Verdi, one of his most successful opera is La Traviata, which means “the fallen woman” or “the one who goes astray” and in context it connotes the loss of sexual innocence.
I tried to write a blog about Verdi , hope you also like it: https://stenote.blogspot.com/2019/06/an-interview-with-giuseppe.html