The Art Nouveau building is part of Neumünster ’ s outstanding villa architecture, which reflects the economic rise of a Northern German industrial city which was known for a long time as the ‘ Manchester of Northern Germany ’.

In 1924 the publisher Karl Wachholtz, nephew of Paul Ströhmer, became the owner of the villa.

In 1967 the founder Herbert Gerisch built an elegant modern villa in typical 1960s style on the adjacent plot.

The uncle, the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, who is already dead at the time the story takes place, is the bogeyman, as the author of a treatise on harmony ( 1722 ).

Dissonance is the principle of the nephew’s life, and also the guideline of Diderot’s text.

The appearance of Tassilo ? s aunt, the Princess Guddenstein, brings about a happy transformation :

she has heard of her nephew?s .nancially straitened circumstances and secretly bought back his mortgaged property.

Now he may feel himself to be a worthy partner for Mariza.