Composers' Houses

This is a guide to the homes of famous composers from around the world. It takes the reader from Mozart's house in Salzburg to the house in Nohant where Chopin conducted his passionate affair with George Sand. This glimpse into the world of composers also includes the houses of Elgar, Verdi, Beethoven and many others. The book reveals Wagner's "Haus Wahnfried" at Bayreuth, where Adolf Hitler was a frequent guest, and Puccini's luxurious villa at Torre del Lago, its walls still lined with photographs of great opera stars and conductors. It also travels to the "Villa de Sant Agata" where Verdi wrote most of "Nabucco", "Otello", "Rigoletto" and "Aida". The houses are filled with period instruments, mementoes, musical scores, contemporary marble busts and paintings. From Brahms' spartan two-room apartment to the extravagant Moorish palace that Ole Bull built on a tiny island in a Norwegian fjord, each house evokes the private life of the composer.