London – Travel guide for opera, classical music and culture
London: A travel guide for music fans
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Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
CHURCHES
Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
HOUSES AND APARTMENTS OF ARTISTS
Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Georg Frederic Handel
Handel arrives in London
When Handel arrived in London in November 1711, he made the acquaintance of Aaron Hill, the only 24-year-old manager of the Queen’s Theatre in Haymarket, who as its tenant and impresario planned to bring Italian opera to London. When he heard that Handel had come to London, he proposed a joint project to the Saxon: to establish Italian opera in London with a bang. Handel was enthusiastic, and the two created the opera “Rinaldo” in a very short time.
Triumphs and tragedies as entrepreneur
The first production hit like a bomb. Handel managed a collection of big hits with this opera (including “Lascia ch’io pianga”) and Hill came up with a series of crazy special effects. More about this in the excursus below on the opera “Rinaldo”. Handel subsequently remained in London throughout his life and experienced a moving artistic career.
Handel achieved great triumphs with his opera companies and three times went bankrupt due to changing fashions. In addition, he wrote, among others, the Fireworks Music and the Water Music for the King, as well as oratorios, the last of which was the famous Messiah. Piquantly, in 1714 the Hanoverian George was elected English king , in whose service Handel had once been as court conductor, and he had absconded to London without permission. George I forgave the Saxon, reconciled not least by Handel’s Water Music for the Thames boat trips, and became an important patron. 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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Search for performance opportunities
When the Mozarts arrived in London, Wolfgang was 8 years old. In Calais they saw the sea for the first time and despite seasickness the crossing was calm. The father begins to organize the first concerts, but becomes seriously ill. As a result, concertizing comes to a standstill, Mozart finds time to compose and writes his first symphony. The father gets the public performances going with many advertisements, but their income does not meet expectations.
Early the Mozarts got an audience with the German-born and music-crazy royal couple Georg (from the Hanover line) and Sophie Charlotte (from Mecklenburg), where Mozart was extensively tested by the monarch with musical tasks to his satisfaction. The two were delighted and Mozart visited them several times in the so-called Buckingham House, the forerunner of the Palace of the same name.
Johann Christian Bach
In London, the Mozarts met the local musical elite, including Bach’s son Johann Christan, the queen’s personal music teacher. Wolfgang studied the latter’s works in depth, and the two played music together before the Queen, as Frederick Grimm recorded: “Bach took him on his knees, and the two thus played alternately on the same piano for two hours in the presence of the King and Queen.”
In total, the Mozart family’s stay in London lasted over 18 months. Of the Mozart places, 180 Ebury St, Belgravia and Cécil Court are still standing.
TO THE COMPLETE MOZART BIOGRAPHY
Felix Mendelssohn
Smog
Mendelssohn visited the British Isle ten times, and from the beginning it was mutual love that the British and Mendelssohn felt for each other. Only the smog and the size of London (“a monster”) bothered Mendelssohn. The first stay in 1829 had been scheduled by his father and was part of the educational tour that took Mendelsohn through many countries in Western Europe.
Already during his first stay as a 19-year-old, Mendelssohn was celebrated, performing his own and other people’s works there. Among other works, he played his first symphony and the Summer Night Overture. An anecdote says that on his return from the concert he left the score of the overture in a cab, whereupon he wrote it down flawlessly from memory.
Affair with Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn met many celebrities such as Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, for whom he played music several times (see below). A secretive relationship with the famous opera singer Jenny Lind culminated in London in 1847. The two had met in Germany as early as 1844 and possibly fell in love. The married Mendelssohn is said to have written her hot-blooded letters, even threatening suicide. However it is not completely certain, the letters were destroyed. On his last London trip he saw her in Convent Garden and (one is not sure) also in Belgravia House. Mendelssohn’s death shortly thereafter put an end to the relationship. Bad luck stuck to the Lind’s feet, for a little later Jenny Lind sought solace with another famous composer, who also died shortly thereafter.
The concert halls where Mendelssohn conducted in London have largely disappeared, only St. Paul’s Cathedral can still be visited, where Mendelssohn excelled as an organ virtuoso.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Jenny Lind:
Frederic Chopin
A journey out of necessity
Chopin’s trip to Great Britain was an on-the-spot solution. The July Revolution had broken out in Paris, the king was overthrown and the royal family fled to England. The rich families also left Paris and Chopin suddenly found himself without a piano pupil, without savings and in poor health. It suited him that Jane Stirling, a former piano pupil (she must have been quite talented, he had dedicated 2 Nocturne to her), offered to organise piano pupils and performances in London.
Health problems
He arrived in London in February 1848, where he was initially quite well off, living in Dover Street (the house was a victim of the Second World War), giving semi-public concerts (see below) and giving lessons, though he suffered from London’s constant fog. As summer approached, the rich people left the city and Chopin found himself without a means of earning a living. Jane Stirling stepped in again and organised a tour of Scotland, but it took its toll on him physically. When he returned to London he was left to give his last concert at the Guildhall. He returned to Paris on 23 November in very poor health.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF CHOPIN
Henry Purcell
Royal Chapel
Much about Henry Purcell’s life is obscure. Born in 1659, he became a choirboy at an early age at the Royal Chapel (where his father was a member) and he also received his musical training there. He became organist at Westminster Abbey and then also at the Royal Chapel. Purcell spent his life in London, wrote some masterpieces (for example the “Te Deum” “Dido and Aeneas” or “The Fairy Queen”) and died already at the age of 37.
Anecdote around his death
Purcell’s death is attributed by some sources to a cold he caught in November 1695. It is assumed that his wife forbade her maids to admit the notorious pub visitor after midnight. Unfortunately, the inebriated Purcell is said to have caught the cold on a November night when he found himself locked out of his house, heavily drunk.
Luisa Tetrazzini
Catfight with Nellie Melba
Luisa Tetrazzini was one of the great stars of the opera world of the early twentieth century. She was a gifted coloratura soprano and the great rival of Nellie Melba.
In 1907 she sang a surprise debut at Covent Garden that caught her Australian rival on the wrong foot. Nellie Melba then taunted her full-figured rival at a party by getting down on all fours and showing how the horse in “Les Huguenots” had to fight to carry Luisa Tetrazzini. Tetrazzini commented dryly, “Some have the figure, others have the voice.”
Carl Maria von Weber
Money troubles
In 1824 von Weber received an invitation to write an opera for London and to conduct it himself. Weber accepted and traveled to London in 1826, although he was already ill with tuberculosis and no longer able to travel. He needed the money and decided to go to London via Paris (where he met Rossini and talked about opera projects).
Health problems
Already in poor health, he conducted the celebrated first performance at Convent Garden in April, but was unable to conduct the following performances himself as his condition deteriorated drastically in May. He planned to return, but died at the home of musician and friend George Smart on June 5. He was given a ceremonial burial in London and his body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.
Gioachino Rossini
Disappointing performances
The 31-year-old Rossini was invited by Benelli, the impresario of the King’s Theatre in London, to come to England and write an opera for London (Ugo re d’Italia). Rossinis wife, the aging prima donna Isabelle Colbran was to sing. However, the visit of the two in 1823 remained artistically unproductive, Rossini did not fulfill his duties and Colbran disappointed with her performances, the voice was already in decline.
The nobility was crazy about Rossini
Rossini took advantage of the time to make a side trip to Brighton, where he met the king in the spectacular pavilion (see below).
Nevertheless, the nobility was crazy about Rossini. The ladies and gentlemen of high English society were willing to pay any price for singing lessons, small performances, etc., and the newly married Rossini couple could really cash in in England. After 5 months the dust had settled and Rossini left the island, he never came back.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
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