Richard ist Leipziger

Mention Leipzig in a conversation and someone is bound at some point to close their eyes, sigh and say "Ah yes,

the divine Johann Sebastian - the city of Bach." Well, yes and no, Bach was born in Eisenach. His greatest champion, Felix Mendelssohn,  is another name associated with Leipzig. He was born in Hamburg.  But there's another composer whose name does not seem to be instantly associated with Leipzig - and he was born there.

Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig on 22 May 1813. His birthplace has long since disappeared and in its place now stands a shopping mall known to Leipzigers as 'the tin can' because of its shiny, sheet metal exterior. When I visited a couple of weeks ago, I wandered through the mall and tried to calculate exactly which shop was located on the spot where he was born. As far as I can make out, there's either a chocolate shop (Arko) or a juice bar marking the place where the man who was considered one of the greatest geniuses of the 19th century entered the world.
"Richard ist Leipziger" Thomas Krakow, head of the Leipzig Wagner Society and the composer's tireless local champion, likes to remind us. Yes, Wagner left for Dresden at a young age and yes, once a grown man he was endlessly on the move, fleeing creditors, chasing unfulfilled dreams of success in Paris and going on to  find immense fame throughout the western world.

Last year's 200th anniversary of his birth gave Krakow and his fellow Leipzig Wagnerians a chance to remind the world that this attractive, dynamic city is Wagner's home town. A Wagner Symposium was held, his early opera "Die Feen" was performed and on 22 May itself, a big outdoor party was held on Richard Wagner Platz just yards away from the chocolate shop.

A new statue was erected just around the corner from Richard Wagner Platz.It's an interesting and unusual work - with a very young Wagner in a blue frock coat standing in front of a vast dark silhouette of himself - a shadow. Of the immense reknown that was to be his? Of the immense talent contained inside that small frame? Or of the man's own shadow side? Of his reputation as an anti-Semite who work would be hijacked by the Nazis years later? Only the viewer can decide. I'd be interested to hear your views.
I was in Leipzig on February 13th and had the good fortune to join Thomas Krakow, when he and the other local Wagnerians laid a wreath in the composer's favourite fuschia colours in front of a bust of Wagner behind the Leipzig Opera House.
 But for a music lover with tastes broad enough to embrace both Bach and Wagner, perhaps the most moving moment of a visit to Leipzig is a visit to Bach's tomb in the St Thomas Kirche. Just a few feet away is the font where  Richard Wagner was baptized....

Oh yes, there is also a Wagner Café right on Richard Wagner Platz. There's a Lohengrin figure in full chain-mail waiting to greet customers, and big paintings of Wagner on the walls. Alas, the new owner, a Polish lady, prefers Michael Bublé