Johann-Adolf Hasse. Name ring a bell? If not, you're probably, like most of us, no expert on late Baroque opera. Why am I bringing him up? Because 2006 is Mozart Year -- here, there, and out on the Fiji Islands -- an orgy of celebrations of the maestro's birth 250 years ago. And because the composer Hasse, who slipped into the world a short walk from where I live, said in 1771 about the then 15-year-old prodigy: "This kid is going to cause all of us to be forgotten!"

As prophesies go, that's got to be one of the best.

I thought about this the other day when I passed Hasse's old house in the center of Hamburg's Bergedorf district. Built in 1630, it's a fine, half-timbered brick building next to the Church of St. Peter and Paul, which is a fine, half-timbered brick building that's even older (1502). The house was built for the church organist, the position Hasse's father held. A plaque on the house says that Hasse -- a prolific composer of Italian-style operas who was hugely popular in his lifetime -- was born there.

The plaque is easy to overlook. To better remind Bergedorfers of their famous forgotten son, a small statue of Hasse was recently placed on the walk in front of the house. But it's a losing battle, I'm afraid. When I passed the house the other day, it was draped with a cloth portrait of Mozart.