I went to visit the grave of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. I've been a fan of his music since I saw the ballet Great Galloping Gottschalk which features his music. I've written about it on this blog before - fifteen years ago now. Wow.
Here is the Gottschalk monument with the "Angel of Music" statue which was unveiled in 2012, created to replace the original statue that was vandalized sometime in the 1950s. They clearly didn't replace the actual monument used as a pedestal for the statue, since much of the text was worn away and you could barely make out Gottschalk's name. It's odd that Gottschalk is buried in Brooklyn - he was from New Orleans and he died in Rio de Janeiro. Maybe Green-Wood was the place to be buried if you were rich and famous in those days. They also have Tiffany, Currier and Ives, Boss Tweed and Horace Greeley, among many others.
Gottschalk played for Lincoln at the White House, including his "Union!" which I plan to use in my production of GETTING RIGHT WITH LINCOLN if I ever get that together.
I'm glad they replaced the Gottschalk angel although they certainly aren't lacking for angels at Green-Wood, the place is lousy with angels.
Green-Wood is also very hilly, far more hilly than you would expect given how flat most of Brooklyn is.
It's so elevated in places you can see across the Brooklyn rooftops all the way to the Statue of Liberty. That was a cool discovery.
