May 1849 wagner the revolutionary flees dresden to avoid arrest

Nineteenth-century opera is packed with scenes of fiery confrontation, from the red-hot love entanglements in Bizet’s Carmen to the apocalyptic clashes between gods, demigods and humans in Wagner’s Ri

Before the sun rose over the windswept pampas on the morning of 20 September 1835, the stillness of Porto Alegre was broken by the thunder of hooves and gunfire. A band of rebels launched a daring ass

FT has covered these a number of times, with one of the earliest and most disastrous examples taking place in Hammersmith in 1804 (see FT296:42-45, 310:30-35, 452:16-18). Then a semi-rural village on

‘I am toying with the boldest of plans.’ With these words, in September 1850, Richard Wagner first articulated a grand idea which took a quarter of a century to come to full fruition: the building of

I must admit I am fortunate. This is my fourth visit to Vienna in eight years, but it’s a city that never fails to excite me, surprise me and nourish me. The Austrian capital has many faces and the ri

Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMM902752 49:20 mins Those of us lucky, as I was at both their Ragged Music Festival and