In addition to the high-quality museums and galleries, Zurich has one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world and high-calibre chamber and symphony orchestras. Richard Wagner lived in Villa Wesendonck (now part of the Museum Rietberg). Fuseli, the pre-Romantic painter, also made his home in Zurich, and it was in Zurich that Tristan Tzara and the other Dadaists put together their ideas in the Cabaret Voltaire on Spiegelgasse in 1916.
There is an online guide to concerts, theatre and cinema (website: www.kulturinfo.ch). Tickets for events are available from Billettzentrale Zürich (BIZZ), Bahnhofstrasse 9 (tel: (01) 221 2283), also at Jecklin, Rämistrasse 30/42 (tel: (01) 253 7777), Musik Hug, Limmatquai 28-30 (tel: (01) 269 4141) and UBS TicketCorner (tel: (0900) 800 800).
Cultural Events
The most traditional events on the Zurich calendar are Sechseläuten, Zurich’s Spring Festival, on the third Monday of April, and Knabenschiessen, over the 1st weekend of September. Sechseläuten involves guild members parading in historic costumes and the Böögg (a mock snowman filled with fireworks) being burned to symbolise the end of winter, while the Knabenschiessen festival is a folk festival featuring shooting contest for boys, complete with a market, funfair and concerts. The Zürcher Festspiele takes place from mid June to mid July, with opera, ballet, theatre and concerts at stages around the city. During the Züri-Fäscht every 3rd year, the city of Zurich is transformed into a gigantic festival site, with the celebrations culminating in an impressive fireworks display over Lake Zurich. The next festival takes place 6 to 8 July 2007.
Literary Notes
 James Joyce worked on Ulysses in Zurich, at the same time as the Dadaists were creating at the Cabaret Voltaire. Joyce died in Zurich in the year 1941 and lies buried in Fluntern Cemetery. Strauhof Zürich, Augustinerstrasse 9 (tel: (01) 216 3139), has a library and organises readings of works by Joyce and many other modern writers.
Thomas Mann lived in Zurich before World War II and again in the 1950s – the Thomas Mann Archiv, at the Federal Institute of Technology, Schönberggasse 15 (tel: (01) 632 4045), houses his manuscripts, library and study. He died in Zurich in 1955 and is buried in Kilchberg, which is to the south of the city.
Georg Büchner, the German playwright, lived and died at Spiegelgasse 12.
Another of Zurich’s literary residents, 19th century poet Gottfried Keller is best known for his 1876 novella, Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (Romeo and Juliet in the Village), which transposes Shakespeare’s famous tragedy to a very small Swiss village.
The playwrights Max Frisch, author of I’m Not Stiller (1958), and Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who penned The Visit (1955), are the more famous literary Zürchers.
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