Fighting for new music? Gustav Mahler and the Second Viennese School

Today, the world knows Gustav Mahler primarily as a composer. During his lifetime at the beginning of the 20th century this was all quite different. Mahler in the first place was known as an internationally respected conductor, while his own ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Do you love fairy tales? Meet Queen Summer

Did you love fairy tales growing up? Perhaps, as an adult, you still enjoy their magic, often brought to life through beautiful illustrations. There are plenty of fairy tales in Europeana Collections, but one, Queen Summer: The Tourney of the ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Gustav Mahler and the Vienna Court Opera

The Vienna Court Opera was the carefully planned highlight of Gustav Mahler’s career as a conductor. On the 11th of May, 1897 he debuted initially as a chapelmaster with Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” (with Hermann Winkelmann as Lohengrin and Louise Ehrenstein ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Is there life on Mars?

Planet from “L’Espace céleste et la nature tropicale…”, The British Library, public domain Today, mankind is reaching further out into space than ever before through our unmanned probes and rovers. This is not a new ambition though – we have ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

One man’s mass production of opera

Around 170 dramatic secular and 40 dramatic sacred works: this is the number of works that Italian composer Antonio Draghi created over the course of 30 years. He is said to have written around 6 operas per year on average – with a ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Get set, #Europeana280 – join us as we celebrate Europe’s art history the digital way

Today, we’re excited to kickstart Europeana 280, our cross-border campaign to get Europe excited about its shared art heritage and celebrate our new site, Europeana Art History Collections. We’re launching our unfolding virtual exhibition, Faces of Europe, bringing together magni … | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

The Latvian “nightingale” Elfrīda Pakule

Historical sound recordings are treasures that, since the end of 19th century, inform us about musical life, about performers and about musical interpretation. We would like to tell you about one of the great 20th century Latvian opera voices, a ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Seeing is believing: the trick of the trompe l’oeil in art

Battle of Livorno, 14 March 1653, an incident from the First Anglo-Dutch War, anonymous. Rijksmuseum, public domain. At first, the painting above looks like many you’ve seen before. A grand, naval scene with clouds billowing above inflated sails. But hang ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Pan: a wayward god in animal form

Meet Pan – god of the forest and fields and patron of shepherds. If you’re startled by his ugly fur-coated appearance, with horns sprouting from his head and goat-like legs, you’re not alone – these always send those who dare disturb ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

How vinyl records are made?

In the French cult film “Amélie” the young heroine imagines how a record is created: like making a crepe, you pour a liquid substance onto a hot, circular surface and smooth out the “batter” of the record with a wooden ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Introducing Europeana 280

What is Europeana 280? In April, Europeana will launch Europeana 280, a cross-border campaign to get people excited about Europe’s shared art heritage by celebrating the diverse and magnificent artworks that are a part of it. We invited all 28 ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

The Greatest Traveller in History? The Life and Places of Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta, or ‘Abu Abd al-Lah Muhammad ibn Abd al-Lah l-Lawati t-Tangi ibn Batutah’ to give him his full name, is a strong contestant for the greatest traveller in history. Not only did he travel a distance greater than the ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

Travelling through Mongolia with two gramophones

Enjoy a guest post by Sabine Schostag, Statsbiblioteket, edited by Imogen Greenhalgh. A version of this post appeared first on February 4, 2016 on Europeana Sounds blog. This is a story about Danish traveller and adventurer Henning Haslund-Christensen and his ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago

The echoes of Verdun

The name Verdun still resonates today with an incredible force almost equal to the violence of the clash at the time. Verdun is not just the name of the charming provincial town it is today, it also gives the name ... | Continue reading


@blog.europeana.eu | 8 years ago