BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, October 17, 1822 (approximately)

1828 Oil on Canvas Portrait of Katharina Sigl-Vespermann by Karl Joseph Stieler (1770-1858), Bavarian State Painting Collections, WAF 1047.

At some point between October 16, and October 21, 1822, Beethoven meets with soprano Katharina Sigl (1802-1877) from Munich on one of his periodic visits to the City. Her good friend Anton Schindler had given her a letter of introduction to Beethoven. Earlier in the summer, Sigl had been engaged for guest roles in Vienna, where she sang the Queen of the Night and Donna Elvira, as well as Almenaide from Rossini’s Tancredi. She has just returned to Vienna on October 16 from a tour to Pesht, and will depart for home on the 21st, according to the October 23rd Wiener Zeitung, so this meeting could occur almost any time in this six-day span.

Sigl’s meeting with Beethoven will make a great impression upon her. She will write an enthusiastic letter to Schindler about it soon after her return to Munich.