BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, November 29, 1825

Today, Beethoven is one of fifteen men elected to honorary membership in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna by the directors. The others so honored include Cherubini, Spontini, Spohr, Catel and Weigl. The election will be confirmed by the full society on January 26, 1826, but the diploma conferring the benefit will not be issued until October 26th. Thayer/Forbes pp.968-969.

At the Park Theatre in New York City, Rossini’s Barber of Seville is staged today, the first appearance of an Italian opera in Italian in the United States. Lorenzo da Ponte, librettist of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, based on the same source material, is in attendance.