La Cenerentola

As a reward for signing up for the Wiener Staatsoper newsletter, I got the best birthday present ever from a company: a free opera ticket! I got to choose my ticket, and ended up getting a center balcony seat to Rossini's La Cenerentola, a comedic interpretation of the Cinderella story, at the Volksoper. Very nice.

What was not so nice was the coat check lady, who, waited on about six old people before she took my coat, looked me up and down and said, "You have a seat in the BALCONY?" (full price for the ticket was €80), to which I replied, "Indeed I do." I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her.

It was my first time to the Volksoper as well. My landlady doesn't like the Volksoper, but I thought the production was charming. Really, La Cenerentola is more of an operette, seeing as there are only six characters, and the show has only two acts. The story goes that a girl is enslaved by her stepfather to do the housework and care for her two ugly stepsisters. Then, one day, the prince comes into the village disguised as his valet and he and Cenerentola fall in love. Unbeknownst to the sisters, however. They take the valet for the real prince, and fight over him. That's most of the thing. And then, at the end, good triumps and Cenerentola and the prince are married and live happily ever after, at least until curtain call.

I loved the performance, in fact. The part of Cenerentola is sung by a Contralto or Mezzo Soprano. Being a Mezzo, I liked that. Also, the costumes were outrageous - they did overdone baroque to a T. The physical humor between the stepsisters was also magnificent. Those ladies can do acrobatics! And, come to think of it, the sets were a bit bland, which fit with the smallness of the production (in contrast to Die Zauberflöte) and contrasted finely with the costuming. But, I cannot forgive the lack of attention to color scheme: one sister had a peachy costume, the other had a mint green one (otherwise identical) and the father had a forest green costume. The walls were also green, and there was JUST TOO MUCH GREEN! I would have done the walls in gray or blue, and the father in purple. Cenerentola's ball gown was white (Disney inspiration, anyone?) and the prince wore red, which made the whole thing too Christmas party for me - thus, blue walls. Or gray.

Die Zauberflöte

I am slowly but surely trying to update my blog so it reflects my "life"! (I don't know why I put "life" in quotes, it just seems appropriate.) 

Around Christmastime, one of my teachers gave me free tickets to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte  (The Magic Flute) at the Wiener Staatsoper  - she has season tickets, and for some inexplicable reason, hates this opera. Well, all the better for me, I guess, since I got to go! And I actually got a seat...normally I buy a Stehplatz, or standing ticket, because they are super affordable (€3-4) and I don't really mind standing. The view is actually pretty good, and in fact better than some of the more expensive "seats" where you sit on one side of the stage or the other and thus can't see anything except the orchestra pit. I end up standing whenever I get one of those, anyway.

True to the opera, this production was fanciful - there was a revolving box as the stage, as you can see from the picture - and excellent quality, as is practically everything staged at the Staatsoper. The one problem was that during the Queen of the Night's famous solo, her crown fell off. I was with a friend, and we laughed, which was mean. But, on stage, she didn't break her concentration, and didn't hit a false note. Now that is stage presence.

According to some, the Vienna State Opera is the premiere in the world. I would agree, except I don't think I should agree too quickly. I haven't seen much opera outside of the United States and Europe. Though, this one in Vienna was definitely head and shoulders above the production I saw at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin in 2007, complete with a giant papier-mâché rhinoceros (actually, the only thing that really stuck out to me about the whole thing). 

For those of you with the opportunity to go to an opera in Berlin, I highly recommend the Berliner Staatsoper (the State Opera seems to get more funding and better singers and directors). I saw a most magnificent version of Der Freischutz there.

As for the Wiener Staatsoper, they are highly respected, and tend not to take many risks (so, for those of you into avant garde theater, look elsewhere). Personally, I am never disappointed with a performance. 

If you are not familiar with the plot, Wikipedia gives a good summary. I love it because of all of its mystical undertones, especially having to do with the Free Masons (Mozart was one) and Zoroastrianism. 

Back to Austria

...and fianlly, we got to Austria! We stayed the weekend in Vienna before Callie had to go home. In which time, we saw Don Giovanni, ate way too much "typical Austiran cuisine" i.e. delicious yet fattening cakes and delicious yet fattening fried foods...and Knödel, which are OK (depending on my mood, delicious even) when my mom makes them every once in a while, but overkill when they are one of two vegetarian options at not one but several restaurants...

For those Austrians in the audience, YES, MY AMERICAN MOM MAKES KNÖDEL!! We have German heritage, which is incredibly common in Wisconsin. 

Me and Callie in the Staatsoper Wien 

One of the things I had been waiting to do with Callie is what she called the "palace tour" : all the remnants of Austria-Hungary we could puzzle together in a weekend. Our itinerary was:

1. Don Giovanni at the Staatsoper - set in Venice, written by Mozart, you can't get a much better finish to our trip than this! The very idea of seeing the opera basically incorporates everything we did for two weeks...

2. Schönbrunn palace and gardens: this was my 3rd time seeing Schönbrunn, but it just gets better with familiarity. Every trip I discover another portrait of Sisi I hadn't remarked upon before. Sure, she was Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary, etc., but that woman had a bit of a complex. Vain much? Also, many a story* and portrait of a young Marie Antoinette - I have yet to visit Versailles, but that, too, is on my list of places (and palaces) to see. 

3. Hofburg: the Royal apartments, extensive royal kitchen wares/place settings/silverware collection, and even more pictures of Sisi! I had never been to Hofburg, so it's yet another thing to check off my list. In hindsight, perhaps Schönbrunn would have been good enough.

The inspiration for "Franzi"

4. The Spanish Riding School (and the Lippizaner horses)...we didn't take a tour, just loitered in front of the stables (like 90% of the other tourists) and came up with a fabulous idea to sell to Disney. About a gay Lippizaner named Franzi. It will be the next Bambi, I guarantee! I'm sure at least GLAD will be smitten with the idea.

5. Sachertorte and coffee at the Sacher Hotel although expensive - put it on our list of splurges made throughout the trip ;) - one simply must eat Sachertorte at the Sacher Hotel. Anything less just will not do in Vienna!

Enjoying a Melange in the Sacher hotel

Other, less important cakes

Sachertorte

6.  Wandering around Vienna, partly getting lost and partly killing time.

*Oh, about that story. While we were in Schönbrunn, we ran into SIX guided tour groups, each in a different language: German, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Italian. We couldn't escape them! And When you have to share a palace with 400+ people snapping photos of the ballroom with their wide angle zoom lenses, suddenly it doesn't seem like much of a palace...BUT! The story, which I overheard from the German guide in the music room was, that as a young boy (I think he was 10 or 11), Mozart came to Schönbrunn with his sister to play for the royal family. Marie Antoinette, just a few months older than Mozart, developed sort of a crush on him. Mozart (the little brat) later told his father that Marie cornered him in the ballroom and gave him a peck on the cheek - this has not been substantiated...Mozart probably made it up. Daddy Mozart then told the Empress, who was less than thrilled. Years later, as the queen consort to Versailles, Marie (now 16 and married to Louis XVI) wrote to her mother to ask if she could contact the Mozarts and engage them to play a concert at Versailles. Maria Theresia wrote back to her daughter (as always, heavy handed), saying ABSOLUTELY NOT! Marie Antoinette dropped the idea. Five years later in 1777, when Mozart did eventually make it to Paris, he did not stop over in Versailles to pay the Queen of France a visit. Perhaps he still had a guilty conscience...