La traviata
by Nemorino
I have seen several different productions of Verdi's La traviata in recent years, including a traditional one in Hamburg, a despairing interpretation in Darmstadt and an amateurish but fun version at Weikersheim.
My favorite is still the classic Axel Corti staging at the Frankfurt Opera, in which Violetta dies not in her bed but on the floor of the second class waiting room in the railroad station in Orléans while she is trying to flee from the Nazis.
The Bonn production, which was staged by Andreas Homoki (who is now General Director of the Komische Oper in Berlin), takes place on a shiny black surface crisscrossed by white lines. Violetta is standing there alone at the beginning of the overture, but soon fifteen men climb up onto the shiny black surface from behind and come towards her. They seem threatening at first, and she obviously feels beleaguered by them, but of course they adore her because she is the most famous (and most expensive) courtesan in Paris.
We don't see anything of Paris in this production, but they are all wearing period costumes from the middle of the 19th century. The only change of scene is that while Violetta is singing her big aria Sempre libera at the end of act one, white flowers start "growing" up through the floor, so by the end of the aria we are in a meadow of white flowers in the countryside, and they can go right on with act 2.
After the intermission some women in evening gowns emerge and pick all those flowers, so the shiny black surface is a Parisian dance floor again.
Second photo: The audience coming back in for the second half of La traviata.
http://www.r-ds.com/opera/verdiana/
Munsterplatz
by antistar
Flanked by the impressive Bonn Minster and the stern statue of Beethoven, Munsterplatz is one of the main squares of Bonn, and the biggest. It's a great place to navigate from due to the obvious spires of the Minster. Also in the square is the beautiful canary yellow Post Office building and for shopaholics: the huge department store of Galeria Kaufhof.
Old City Hall
by evona
The Old City Hall - Das Alte Rathaus - can you see on the markt square (Markt), on the Eastern edge of the market place. It was built 1737/1738, domaged in the II World War and reconstructed after the war.
Bonn, DE
by dromosapien
"dromosapien"
University
- a.k.a. Kurfurstliches Schloss - prince-elector's palace
constructed: 1697-1705
architect: Enrico Zuccalli (1642-1724)
current use: university, since 1818
location: Hofgarten
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Bonn, population: 318,000 a university town and former capital of the West Germany 1949-1990
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"Koblenzer Tor"
- Koblenz gate
constructed: 1751-57, as the house of Equestrian Order of St. Michael
architect: François de Cuvillies dem Alteren (1695-1768) Belgian
restored: 2006
location: Stadtgarten
"Villa Hammerschmidt"
- building named for, cotton merchant Rudolf Hammerschmidt (-1928) who owned the house 1899-1928. The building became the residence of the German ceremonial president in 1950, and since the office relocation to Schloss Bellevue, Berlin in 1994, it is the president’s secondary residence.
constructed: 1860
architect: August Dieckhoff (1805-91)
builder: Albrecht Troost, merchant
location: Adenauerallee 135
Former Capital
by prleprle
Several years ago I spend whole week in this lovely German town. That time Bonn still was Capital but not for long. It was early spring, still cold a little bit but students’ seminar I attended, beer, charm of the City and all the fun we had there makes me feel great there! :))
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Part of the old city wall, town centre.
Burg Eltz
Beethoven house
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