![]() ![]() The standing room section is quite near the stage on the ground floor. By the time I received my ticket there was not enough time to change clothes before the performance.Īnd so, I strode under the marble archways and antique statues to the chagrin of fellow theatergoers who bluntly expressed their disapproval of my attire with strained glances. My tour guide shared with me the most important fact about the Vienna State Opera House toward the end of the tour: for every performance they sell day of standing room tickets for four euro.įour euro! Who can pass up a four-euro ticket to the opera? Not me.įollowing my tour I waited in an hour-long line for a ticket to the evening’s performance of Parsifal. I even fit right in as we went backstage and watched the stagehands setting up for the evening’s performance. This attire was entirely appropriate for the 40-minute guided tour where I was joined by a pack of fellow tourists sporting similar attire. I arrived at the opera house midway through a full day of sightseeing dressed in my finest yoga pants, tennis shoes and a green sweater, ragged from a winter of travel. I suppose this should come as no surprise from the location that hosts the annual Opera Ball where young ladies are still presented to society. ![]() and a few others around the world, but I’ve truly never seen a collection of such elegantly dressed patrons as at the Vienna State Opera House. I’ve been to a handful of theaters on Broadway, to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Today it is one of the most important opera houses in the world and boats the largest repertoire anywhere. ![]() Nowhere in Vienna is this more evident than at the Vienna State Opera House.īuilt in 1869, the Vienna State Opera House opened with Mozart and was attended by Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth “Sissi.” Heavily bombed during World War II, the building reopened in 1955 with a new auditorium, symbolizing the beginning of new life for the recently independent Austria Sissi! Mozart! The Habsburgs! As if by ignoring the destructive history that occurred between these names and now will mean that these dark days never happened. The city never speaks of World War II above the volume of a hushed whisper, but instead shouts at full volume names that conjure an era of glamour. This is not so in Vienna, though the city was equally affected by and involved in this period of historyįor Vienna is the dream of aristocracy, the belief that the golden age that came before such a period of disgraceful ruin has been resurrected and still exists. Kraków, Budapest and Bratislava all have one thing in common they are living, open-air history museums dedicated to sharing the horrors of World War II and the 20 th Century. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |