Abraham Lincoln, Opera Fan

NPR reveals the content of Lincoln's hand-cranked, cast-iron iPod

"His love of opera apparently got him into trouble during the Civil War, when he was taken to task for attending a performance while the war was ongoing. To this, the president responded, "The truth is I must have a change of some sort, or die."

"We know that Lincoln liked the opera Martha, by Friedrich von Flotow, and had it performed during the festivities for his second inaugural," Hoffman says. "Martha is not performed very often now, and it's mainly known for one very beautiful aria, 'Ach so fromm,' where the male romantic lead, Lionel, sings a love song to the title character, Martha.

"We also know that one month before he died — on March 15, 1865 — Lincoln attended a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute at the National Theatre in Washington," Hoffman says.

Another big favorite of Lincoln's was a kind of "crossover" artist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk."

In beautiful bipartisan fashion, our greatest President in the history of Everything was also a big fan of "Dixie" (yeah, that Dixie) -- about which, after the war he said:

'That tune is now federal property, and it is good to show the rebels that, with us in power, they will be free to hear it again.'