Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Düsseldorf
The series about historical places of opera art & culture. Get to know exciting excursion and travel ideas for opera lovers. This time: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Düsseldorf.
All Destinations on google maps with links to detailed Blogposts:
Mendelssohn in Dusseldorf
The 2-year stay in Düsseldorf (1833-1835) must have cost Mendelssohn a lot of nerves. His first encounter with Düsseldorf, however, was gratifying. The performance he conducted at the Lower Rhine Music Festival in May 1833 was so acclaimed that he was immediately offered the position of music director. Mendelssohn accepted and began his duties in September. However, the ambitions of the town of 30,000 souls at the time were greater than his means. So it came thick and fast for Mendelssohn. First, he quarreled violently with his co-director, the theater director Immermann. In addition, he had to deal with amateur orchestra musicians (” stupid musici”) whose skills did not meet his expectations, who had a tendency to brawl, and who cost him a great deal of administrative support. As if that were not enough, he had choristers at his disposal who showed up drunk for duty.
The first theater performance, a “Don Giovanni”, staged by Immermann and conducted by Mendelssohn, became a scandal, the audience jeered and whistled because of the increased ticket prices. Mendelssohn raged, but the audience listened reverently until the end. Mendelssohn soon had enough of the theater and turned increasingly to church music, the cultivation of which was also part of his office. The result during this time was, among other things, the composition of his first masterpiece of church music, “the Paulus Oratorio,” which he premiered at the Lower Rhine Music Festival in 1836.
So Mendelsohn was happy when an offer from Leipzig beckoned him. He accepted and left Düsseldorf, to which he remained attached and subsequently returned three more times to later Lower Rhine Music Festivals.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Destination Tonhalle Düsseldorf
The original Tonhalle, where Mendelssohn performed his Paulus oratorio, no longer stands; like so many other buildings, it fell victim to the Second World War. After the war, a new building was erected on a different site (“New Tonhalle”) whose large hall is called “Mendelssohn Hall” in honor of the composer. The building has a circular architecture, whose unusual and spectacular shape also characterizes the Mendelssohn Hall.
Since the improvement measures of the acoustics in 2005, this hall also belongs to the acoustically best halls in Germany. Taking a guided tour (including the integrated planetarium) or attending a concert is recommended.
Interior of the new Tonhalle Düsseldorf:
Destination Maximilian Church
In his function as Düsseldorf’s music director, Mendelssohn was also responsible for the church music in the Maximilian Church. But in October 1834 he wrote to the mayor, exasperated: ” Your Honor, I must request … that you employ a different organist than the one who served at today’s Mass in the Maximilian Church. His incompetence makes any success of such a performance impossible…”.
Maximilian Church:
The Maximilian Church is known for its high quality church music. You can find the program on the website:
https://www.musik-maxkirche.de/veranstaltungen/musikprogramm/
Destination Opera House and Mendelssohn monument
An important concert venue was the old theater, which Immermann built up into a model theater. The “Don Giovanni” performance also took place here. The theater later gave way to a larger theater building, which was rebuilt after a bomb hit during the Second World War, but had to make way for a new building in the 1950s. Today this house is a renowned 2-section theater.
https://www.operamrhein.de/de_DE/opernhaus-duesseldorf
Auditorium Opera House Düsseldorf:
Today, statues by Mendelssohn and Immermann commemorate this time of artistic awakening in Düsseldorf.
Mendelssohn statue:
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