•
April 16 –
Giacomo Meyerbeer's grand opera
Le prophète is premièred (after a decade in preparation) by the
Paris Opera at the
Salle Le Peletier with
Pauline Viardot (who has collaborated extensively in the production) in the mezzo-soprano role, her first with the Opera. Stage effects include electric light, ballet on roller skates and the use of
saxhorns. The audience includes
Napoleon III (new Emperor of France),
Berlioz, the
terminally ill Chopin, and
Turgenev. Its world tour begins on July 24 in London. •
May 3–
9 –
Richard Wagner is an active participant in the
May Uprising in Dresden, suppressed by the
Kingdom of Saxony, and is forced to flee to
Zürich. •
September 22 –
Johann Strauss I fails to turn up to a banquet in honour of Field Marshal
Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, where he is expected to perform a new work. His absence is explained by the fact that he had contracted scarlet fever from one of his illegitimate children while working on the new composition; he dies a few days later in Vienna aged 45. •
October 30 – Funeral of
Frédéric Chopin (who has died aged 39, probably of
pericarditis aggravated by
tuberculosis) at
La Madeleine, Paris, followed by burial of his body at
Père Lachaise Cemetery. • November – Hungarian pianist and composer
Stephen Heller makes his first visit to London on a concert tour. • The autograph manuscript of
Bach's
Brandenburg Concertos is rediscovered in the archives of Brandenburg by
Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn. ==Classical music==