Livia-Salon! Mit Gesang, Gespräch und Getränken

In the organizer's words:

A touch of sophisticated salon atmosphere will be spread in the Alte Handelsbörse on Sunday, June 2, 2024. A "Livia Salon" will be held there in the afternoon at 3 p.m. with music, talks and drinks - in the spirit of this important singer of the Romantic era: Livia Frege.

She already had an extraordinary soprano voice at the age of 14. Four days before her debut at the Gewandhaus on July 9, 1832, she was announced in the Leipziger Tageblatt as a "young talent of our city" who "justifies the most beautiful hopes". Livia Frege sang in a "Musical Academy" organized by the pianist Clara Wieck - and was still called Livia Gerhardt at the time. She was at the very beginning of her career. Four years later, she married. Her husband Woldemar Frege came from a wealthy Leipzig merchant family, which is still commemorated today by the elegant Fregehaus in the city center.

"Dr. Frege" ended her career as an opera singer, as this was not befitting of a modest wife. But she did not give up singing. She gave successful private concerts in the Gewandhaus and in churches, and organized private music salons in her villa. These receptions were social events. The "Livia Salon" is a reminder of this: Songs, oratorio arias and other pieces that were either dedicated to Livia Frege or that she is known to have sung will be performed.

Soprano Lorraine Pudelko sings and is accompanied on the Blüthner grand piano by pianist Sung Ah Park. Kerstin Sieblist, curator of music and theater history at the Leipzig City History Museum, and musicologist and museum director Dr. Anselm Hartinger will be in conversation with each other.

The event organized by the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig is part of the project "Stark! Female Lifeworlds in Leipzig's Music Museums" with the kind support of the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Sparkasse Leipzig. It will be followed by a visit to the new "Livia Frege" station of the MXM digital tour in the Old Town Hall.