100 TOMBS OF FAMOUS MUSICIANS from opera and classical music – travel tips

In Aldeburgh Cemetery, the graves of Pears and Britten are next to each other. Pears outlived Britten, who died in 1976, by 10 years.

Graves of Pears and Britten:

Lehár bought a villa in the Salzkammergut in 1912 and spent many summers here. According to his own statement, he wrote about 30 stage works in this gem. In accordance with his testamentary wishes, it has been transformed into a museum since his death in 1948.

Franz Lehár died in Bad Ischl on October 24, 1948 at the age of 78. He was buried in the Bad Ischl cemetery.

Gravesite in the cemetery Bad Ischl:

Sant’Andreu Cemetery

The famous Spanish singer Montserrat Caballé died on October 6 at the age of 85 in the hospital of Barcelona. Already 6 years earlier she had to visit the hospital during a tour of Russia because of a stroke.

She was buried in the family grave in the Sant Andreu cemetery in Barcelona. The ceremony was attended, among others, by the Prime Minister and the Queen.
Caballé was a very humorous person, her voice coach told at the ceremony that she laughingly said to him that she would probably make it to heaven with all the Ave Marías she had sung. Fittingly, a recording of her Ave Marías also rang out on the occasion.

Donizetti spent his childhood in Bergamo in poor conditions. Thanks to the support of the director of the church music school, the German Simon Mayr, Donizetti received a solid musical education in Bergamo. After interludes in Milan, he left his native Bergamo for Naples at the age of 24 after his first major success in Rome.

In 1840, as a celebrated opera composer, he returned to his hometown for a visit that celebrated its son with a gala opera performance, which was among his greatest satisfactions.

He returned 25 years later a gravely ill and severely mentally deranged patient. The illness was due to his severe, advanced gonorrhea. In 1848, he died at the age of 51 in Bergamo.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF GAETANO DONIZETTI
Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore

This basilica is very unusually built and was created out of gratitude after the plague period of the 12th century. They Donizetti and his teacher Simon May received an honorary tomb in it. His coffin was solemnly escorted to the burial place three days after his death by 3 choirs and 400 torchbearers and buried in the cemetery of Valtesse. In 1875 his body was laid to rest in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore next to the coffin of his teacher Simon Mayr.

Donizetti’s tomb is worthy of a closer look. In the upper part we see the goddess of music with a lyre. She is sad because she can’t play it anymore, because the instrument has no more strings, because Donizetti died. In the lower part we see seven children representing the seven notes. They are disintegrated because without Donizetti they no longer know what to do.

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Grieg on the grounds of his house

Grieg lived in this house, built in 1885, for 22 years and composed many of his best-known works there in the garden cottage. It is lovingly situated by Lake Nordåsvannet and is still furnished as it was in 1907, the year of Grieg’s death.

In a rock wall by the lake is also his grave, which he shares with his wife Nina.

Dorotheenfriedhof

Otto Nicolai, born in what was then Prussian Poland, came to Berlin at the age of seventeen to study music and left at 23 with a contract as Kapellmeister of the German legation in Rome.

After many years in Italy and years in Vienna, he returned to Berlin as Kapellmeister of the Royal Court Opera with his most famous work, the “Merry Wives of Windsor.” There he personally conducted the first performance of his work. To his disappointment, it was a flop and had to be cancelled in 1849 after 3 performances. He died 4 months later of cerebral hemorrhages and was buried in the Dorotheenstädtische Friedhof.

Monumental cemetery Certosa Bologna

Janáček came to the Moravian city of Brno as a teenager. After briefly studying music in Prague, he settled in Brno. He married a former piano student and became the director of a music school.

Success in the last decade of life

He composed alongside his profession; he began his first masterpiece, the opera “Jenufa,” in 1894, but did not finish it until 1904, when it was premiered at the National Theater in Brno. It remained largely unnoticed, however; only a 1916 version made the work known (along with an essay by Max Brod in Germany), and the now 62-year-old received wider attention for the first time. All the remaining masterpieces (Tara Bulba, Sinfonietta, The Cunning Little Vixen, Katya Kabanova, etc.) were written in the last decade of his life.

A young muse

In 1917 he met the 26-year-old Kamila Stösslova, who became his (platonic) muse, which put a strain on his marriage. With the Sinfonietta (originally a one-movement commissioned work), he wrote a monument to the city of Brno with the movement titles “Fanfares, Castle, The Queen’s Monastery, Street and City Hall,” which he later retracted. Ironically, the Sinfonietta was the only one of Janacek’s larger works not to be premiered in Brno. Janáček died in 1928 in a hospital in Ostrava.

The funeral

The coffin was first laid out in the Municipal Theater (today’s Mahen Theater), from where the funeral procession moved to the Central Cemetery. On the tombstone are verses from his choral piece ” The odyssey of the fool”.

Alter katholischer Friedhof (old catholic cemetery)

Since the age of one, Carl Maria von Weber was on the road, whether in his parents’ company, searching for the ideal job, or traveling as an artist to pay off his debts in Stuttgart. In Dresden, he found the long-awaited position in an artistically superior environment, and he shared the directorship and kapellmeistership of the Dresden Court Opera with the Italian Morlacchi.

Here he married the singer Caroline Brandt and the 31-year-old found some peace for the first time, and the workaholic had artistically productive years despite a heavy workload. In particular, his summer home in Hosterwitz and the spectacular surroundings of Dresden inspired him to write the “Freischütz”. However, two important events took place outside of Dresden during Weber’s final years, the premiere of Freischütz in Berlin and his passing in London.

Weber died in London and was given a ceremonial burial there. His body was transferred to Dresden 18 years later on the initiative of Richard Wagner.

Cimitero Centrale Pesaro

He was one of the great tenors of the post-war period. Admittedly controversial, since he only knew the performance drawing “forte” and could never sing softly. “Golden roar” was the unflattering description. The voice had brilliance and passion. He was hot-blooded and many a performance became a duel with the diva (listen to an excerpt from “Andrea Chénier” with Mario del Monaco and Maria Callas):

https://opera-inside.com/andrea-chenier-by-umberto-giordano/#Ora

Hardly any role is as difficult to cast as that of Otello. Mario Del Monaco sang it 427 times. He did not play Otello, but he was Otello. His age-related departure from the stage was the darkest day of his life. When he died in 1982, his last wish was to be buried in the costume of Otello.

Alter Friedhof Bonn (Old Cemetery)

Bonn is located 80km from Düsseldorf. Schumann spent his last two years there in the modern Endenich mental hospital. His condition improved markedly in the first year and he began to compose again, but Clara refused to take Robert back. Eventually he sank into lethargy, and on Clara’s last visit he was unable to speak. At last he refused to eat and died on July 29, 1856.

He was buried in the Old Cemetery in Bonn. The large monument was unveiled 25 years later, and a Schumann Festival was organized to finance it. The monument shows a relief of Schumann, at whose feet sits Clara, who hands Robert the wreath of immortality. Next to it are two turkeys, representing the two arts of literature, respectively singing and music.

By the way, the grave of Matilde and Otto von Wesendonck is also located in this cemetery.

Farkasréti Cemetery

Béla Bartók lived in Budapest for most of his adult life. There he was a professor at the Conservatory for 30 years.

In addition to composition, he also devoted himself to folk song. Legend has it that he was inspired by his housemaid, who hummed songs from her homeland while she worked. He made countless journeys to explore the songs, often together with his friend Zoltán Kodály.

At the end of the 1930s he emigrated to the USA, where he died in 1945.

Bartók’s grave is located in Farkasréti Cemetery, about 3 km outside the city center on the Buda side. His body was moved there in 1989 after the fall of the Iron Curtain, as he died and was buried in exile in the United States.

Bartók’s grave:

This cemetery is famous for the beautiful view of Budapest and the beautiful park area, which invites you to take a walk. Also worth seeing is the Farkasréti Funeral Chapel, which was inaugurated in 1980.

Farkasréti Burial Chapel:

Bellini, born in 1801, spent his first 18 years in Catania. Raised in a musical family of 6 brothers, he received his first lessons from his grandfather and progressed rapidly, starting to play the piano in the salons of Catania at the age of 12 years. At 19 years old he left Catania for Naples, where he studied at the conservatory. In 1832 his hometown welcomed him triumphantly.In 1835 he died unexpectedly young in Paris. In 1876 his remains were solemnly transferred from Paris to Catania.

Cathedral of Catania (tomb of Bellini)

Since 1876, the remains of Bellini rest in the Cathedral of Catania. On his sarcophagus are engraved as an inscription the notes and the words of the famous melody of the opera “La sonnambula”: “Ah, I did not think to see you, so soon extinct, o flower!
Cattedrale Sant’Agata:

http://www.cattedralecatania.it/

Gravesite in Blevio

The singer Pasta spent the second half of her life in the villa, died on April 1, 1865 at the age of 67 and was buried in the small cemetery in Blevio.

With the proceeds from his famous “Manon” and “Werther”, the French composer Jules Massenet bought a castle with a large park in 1912 and had it renovated. The castle was his second home and eventually became the family residence, in 2001 the last descendant moved out. However, the descendants’ wish was that the municipality build a musicians’ house there in memory of Massenet. When Égreville communicated that they were financially unable to do so, the villa was vacated along with the memorabilia.

He died of cancer in a hospital in Paris.

Massenet and his château:

Massenet’s tomb in the cemetery Égreville (petit cimetière communal):

The Mountain Church is part of a project of the Esterhazy princes, which was once planned with gigantic dimensions. The present church originally corresponded to the chancel and was to become a huge pilgrimage church, hence its unusual round shape. The church is an annex to the so-called “Calvary” (Latin translation of Golgotha, where Christ was crucified). Calvary is a hill artificially raised at the beginning of the 18th century with grottoes and stairs representing the Passion of Christ. The statue of “Mary with the Child” is a special destination of pilgrims.

In the mountain church there is the Haydn mausoleum. His body was moved from Vienna to Eisenstadt in 1820 and in 1932 a mausoleum with a monumental marble sarcophagus was built in the church. On the wall of the mausoleum one can see figures that are supposed to represent his oratorio “the Seasons”.

In the Mountain Church (and in St. Martin’s Cathedral) there are organs that were built according to Haydn’s specifications and that is why they were called “Haydn organs”.

Mountain Church:

Haydn Mausoleum:

Rossini’s medical record at the end of his life was very thick. The basic cause of his many ailments was gonorrhea, which he contracted relatively early in his life. In his Paris years, from the age of 35, the ailments became increasingly chronic and sometimes very painful. These included abdominal complaints, bronchitis and heart weaknesses, which were aggravated by obesity. Rossini had, probably triggered by the chronic pain, sometimes severe depression and suicidal thoughts. In order to find relief from his pain, Rossini often went to Spas.

Rossini finally died in 1868 at his home in Plassy as a result of an operation for rectal cancer. He was given a grave of honor in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Florence had offered Rossini a certain amount of time as a refuge after his troubled time in Bologna, but otherwise did not play a major role in his biography. However, for propaganda reasons, the young Italian state wanted to bring the famous son home 20 years after his death, and his body was transferred from the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris to Florence. Since then he rests in the church “Santa Croce”, the Italian Parthenon, where also the famous Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Galileo and many others lie. Francesco of Assisi is said to have laid the foundation stone of this church.

The funerary monument was made possible by private donations in 1902 and was unveiled with the musical accompaniment of 30 violins playing “the prayer” from Moses from Egypt conducted by Pietro Mascagni. It is created from marble stone and decorated with gold. It depicts Italy in mourning, personified by a woman.

Rossini’s tomb:

http://www.santacroceopera.it/it/default.aspx

The Finnish composer became world famous for his violin concerto, his symphonies and his symphonic poem Tapiola. His music was more popular in the USA than in Europe. When he had his stately dream house built in Javenpäa near Helsinki, he fell heavily into debt and he struggled with money worries throughout his life. Added to this was his addiction to drink and frequent tobacco consumption, which took its toll on his health.

He died in 1957, and his house is now a museum and his grave is on the grounds of his house, which is picturesquely situated by a lake and named after his wife’s name “Aino” Ainola.

His career

Lauritz Melchior was born on 20 March 1890 in Copenhagen. His career made its first leap when he got a commitment for a performance at one of the first radio broadcasts as a partner with Nellie Melba. His career developed and he became a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival in the 20’s. Cosima Wagner called him “the great Dane”. Melchior boycotted the festival from 1931 on because of their entanglements with the Nazis. He celebrated triumphal successes at the Met starting 1929, where he subsequently had the focus of his artistic activity.

Melchior sang the great heroic tenor parts incredibly often. For example 223 times Tristan, 183 times Siegmund, 144 times Tannhäuser. This resulted in a total of over 1000 Wagner performances ! He also sang the Othello, Radames and the Canio several times. His most important partners were Frida Leider, Kirsten Flagstadt and Lotte Lehmann. Many of the resulting records are still reference recordings.

During his career he had no competitor to fear in the Heldentenorfach, even though his acting skills stagnated towards the end of his career.
His stage farewell took place in 1950 with Lohengrin. Melchior also sang demanding roles excellently in his advanced age. For example he sang Siegfried and Othello at the age of 70, which are documented in recordings.
TO THE PORTRAIT OF LAURITZ MELCHIOR

Significance

Lauritz Melchior is considered the “heroic tenor of the 20th century”. To this day he has not found a successor.

Bach’s tomb in St. Thomas church:

The choir room of the church has been the final resting place of Bach’s tomb since 1950, whose bones came here in a roundabout way. When Bach died, he was buried without a gravestone in the cemetery of the Church of St. John. After the Bach Renaissance of the 19th century, triggered by Mendelssohn, they wanted to exhume his body and rebury it in the neighboring church. The only information about the exact location of the grave was the surviving statement “six steps straight ahead from the door on the south side”.

There is some controversy as to whether the exhumed body is really that of Bach. However, the fact that the body was in an oak coffin is an important argument in favor, as this was true in only 1% of burials at the time. A definitive clarification would be given by DNA analysis. St. John’s Church was bombed during the Second World War and the bones had to be taken out from under the debris to eventually be placed in St. Thomas Church.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF BACH

Bach monument in front of St. Thomas churceh:

The bronze Bach statue stands in front of the Bach window of St. Thomas Church. In the course of the exhumation of Bach’s body in the 19th century, an impression of the skull had been made, which was used as the basis for the design of the monument. The monument shows Bach conducting (why he has rolled up music paper) in front of an organ.

St. Floriansstift (St. Florian near Linz)

This monastery became famous not least because of Anton Bruckner. Bruckner was 14 years old when his father died. At the request of his mother, he was admitted to the St. Florian monastery, where he became a member of the choir of the Boys’ Choir because of his beautiful soprano voice. While there, he also received instrument lessons, including improvising on the organ. He left St. Florian to learn the teaching profession at the Preparatory School in Linz.

By the time he was 20, he had passed the teacher’s examination and was employed as an assistant teacher in St. Florian, where he remained until the age of 31. He began composing his first serious works. In 1855 he moved to Linz, where he was able to devote himself fully to music as cathedral organist.

Bruckner never forgot his time at St. Floriansstift, and as he grew older, it was the deeply religious Bruckner’s fervent wish to be buried at St. Floriansstift. This wish was granted to him.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF BRUCKNER
The monastery is magnificent and can be visited on guided tours.

Marble Hall:

http://www.stift-st-florian.at/en/home.html

The great organ of the collegiate church was extended and overhauled for the first time in 1874. Naturally, Bruckner played on the inauguration occasion of this organ. The console can be seen today in the Bruckner Museum in Ansfelden. Further adjustments and overhauls have been made since then, but a part of the organ is still faithful to the original and bears the name “Bruckner organ”. The Bruckner organ can be heard regularly, please see the website for details.

The Bruckner organ:

At his own request, Bruckner was buried on October 11, 1896, in the crypt of the Collegiate Basilica directly beneath the great organ. On the pedestal of the sarcophagus is the inscription “Non confundar in aeternum” (In eternity I will not be ashamed), it is the closing line of his Te deum. According to his own statement, the “Te Deum” was the pride of his life and it was important to him that he did not waste the talent that he had received from God. He thus hoped that he would find in God a gracious judge.

The Bruckner Sarcophagus:

Bruckner Memorial Stone:

Novodevichy Moscow Cemetery

Shostakovich was not buried in his native St. Petersburg, but in the Russian National Cemetery Novodevichy (Section 2, No 39). He had spent the last years of his life in Moscow.

On his grave there is the note motif D, Es, C, B. It symbolizes his German initials (D.Sch), which he had used several times in his compositions.

The grave of Shostakovitch:

Cimetière Levallois-Perret

In 1921, the 46-year-old Ravel bought a house in Montfort near Paris. He wanted to escape the noise of the capital Paris. He who had lived for a long time with his mother and later with his brother was a loner (probably a repressed homosexuality) and he found here the peace to compose.

Cemetery Vyšehrad

Born in 1841 in rural Bohemia, Prague became the center of his life from the beginning of his music studies in 1857. For 20 years he lived in the Czech capital as a mouse-poor student and orchestral musician.
In 1877 the breakthrough came with the honorable mentions first by the famous critic Hanslick and then mainly by the encouragement of Johannes Brahms. However, it was also during this period that the tragedies of the two child deaths occurred, which shook him while he was working on the Stabat Mater.

In the 80’s concert tours to England helped him to prosperity and in the beginning of the 90’s the 2-year stay in the USA took place with the acclaimed premiere of his 9th symphony in New York, which helped him to fame. Dvořák died in Prague in 1904.
Dvorak was buried in this cemetery on the grounds of the castle, thousands of people accompanied the body on the way to the cemetery.

The chapel in his former house in Torre del lago

In his final period Puccini was composing “Turandot”. Already terminally ill, Puccini could no longer complete the opera. He went to Brussels on November 24, 1924 for a risky operation on his throat cancer (Puccini was a heavy smoker). He still had to tackle the difficult final duet and wrote on the sketches of this duet: “Poi Tristano”. Five days later he died.

By decision of his publisher Ricordi, Puccini’s family and Arturo Toscanini, the composer Franco Alfano was commissioned to complete the work. The premiere took place in Milan 1 1/2 years after Puccini’s death. Arturo Toscanini, the conductor of the premiere, stopped the premiere in the third act after Liù’s death music with the words “Here ends the word of the master.” The curtain closed. Silence spread at first, until the audience broke into a never-ending ovation for the late master.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF GIACOMO PUCCINI

The last honor in the cathedral of Milan

In 1924, Arturo Toscanini conducted the funeral ceremonies for the late Puccini in Milan Cathedral. Toscanini bore a heavy burden, for 23 years earlier he had conducted the ceremonies for Verdi, and now it was his friend and companion Puccini’s turn. The speech was given by none other than Benito Mussolini, who tried to exploit the death of the now national saint politically.

With the income from the “Bohème” he bought the tower in Torre del Lago, renovated it and expanded the estate into a stately residence. He composed many of his operas (Tosca, Il Trittico, La Rondine and Fanciulla del West) in this Art Nouveau villa, which has become an inspiring museum.

The chapel also houses the tomb of the master.

San Michele Cemetery

At his own request, he was laid to rest next to his wife in this island cemetery in 1971, so that music lovers from all over the world could visit the grave.
TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF IGOR STRAVINSKY
Coincidentally (or perhaps not?), a few meters from Stravinsky’s grave stands that of Sergei Diaghilev, the famous impresario of the Ballets russes, who died in Venetian exile in 1929. At the beginning of his career, Stravinsky was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose his most famous works, the ballet The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), Le sacré du printemps (1913) and Pulcinella (1920).

Stravinsky and Diaghilev:

Strawinki’s tomb:

Her career

Birgit Nilsson was the dominant “Hochdramatische” (Dramatic Soprano) in the post-war years. Her voice had the greatest vocal penetrating power and her glistening high notes are inimitable.

Isolde, Turandot and Brünnhilde were her most famous roles. Brünnhilde in particular is, along with Isolde, the “highly dramatic” role par excellence in the Wagner repertoire. She constantly has to sing against a giant orchestra. This did not deter Birgit Nilsson, for she was a vocal wonder. “Vocal cords of steel” and “trumpet” were attributes often heard when she outshone other singers and the orchestra with her voice. During the recordings of the Ring in the famous Solti recording, it is said that the loudspeaker often sounded “Please take three steps back when you hear high notes, Ms. Nilsson,” as the sound waves overwhelmed the microphones.

She was a humorous person and many anecdotes surround her relationship with money. When asked if the Nilsson was difficult, former Met director Rudolf Bing once replied, “Not at all, you put enough money in and a wonderful sound comes out.”

She died in 2005 and was buried in the cemetery of her birthplace, Västra Karup, next to her parents.

Her career

In 1942 she was engaged at the Vienna State Opera. In 1946 she auditioned with Walter Legge, the later famous producer and husband of Schwarzkopf, and Herbert von Karajan, which became an anecdote. Her career picked up speed. Legge, who later became her husband, planned this thoroughly. “It consisted of three pillars: the well-dosed opera performances at exclusive houses in the world, the best possible recordings and a lively concert and recital activity. (Fischer, grosse Stimmen)

The famous Mozart ensemble in Vienna was brilliantly put together by Josef Krips. The great Ljuba Welitsch, Irmgard Seefried, Hilde Güden and Sena Jurinac sang in the ensemble and their work is documented on various recordings.

It has become a legend how Schwarzkopf, supervised by Legge, studied many old masters (Ponselle, Melba, Seinemeyer…) and adapted from each the best. She was occasionally accused of this by her envious ones, but the result in the operas of Mozart and Strauss was captivating. She was a kind of Maria Callas of the German repertoire. And like Maria Callas, she was a controversial figure who attracted both critics and fervent followers.

Her voice

Schwarzkopf’s voice was a lyrical soprano. She herself said that her strongest weapon was that “she only sings colours”. But color is not only a surface, it also contains a spectrum of emotions (from sensual and beautiful to dramatic and exciting).

She is regarded as one of the leading sopranos of the second half of the 20th century. Her Marscahllin and countess became style-forming for a whole generation. Her operettas also became references “whose rank has not been regained until today” (Fischer).

Her importance as a singer of songs is eminent and her 4 last songs by Strauss are of lasting value.

She is buried next to her husband in the cemetery of Zumikon (near Zurich), where she had lived from 1982-2003.