Second appointment: The Appropriate and the Inappropriate in the Theater and Concert Hall

Lecture as part of the series "Opera Satiated!" for the 50th Schwetzingen Mozart Festival. In their equally entertaining and well-informed lecture, Dr. Barbara and Rainer Gilsdorf discuss the "Knigge" on stage and in the audience, thus addressing established customs in the opera and concert world. Rainer Gilsdorf studied singing and vocal pedagogy at the music colleges in Freiburg and Saarbrücken, and has worked for many years as an opera and concert singer both domestically and internationally. Since 2008, he has been practicing as a speech therapist and vocal pedagogue in Heidelberg. Barbara Gilsdorf worked as a professional and semi-professional opera chorus singer at the theaters in Essen, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg during and after her studies. However, she preferred the position of cultural officer in Schwetzingen over an offer to take a chorus position at the National Theatre Mannheim. The Knigge lecture concludes with an excursion on the "Instrument of the Year 2025": the voice. It outlines the development of Belcanto, the phenomenon of castrati, the casting of female singers in so-called "trouser roles," and the currently preferred use of these roles by countertenors.