A Night At The Opera!

Every since the first time I saw the incredible grandeur of the Vienna State Opera House, I knew I wanted to go see an opera there, despite my general lack of enthusiasm for the genre. Nothing says "Classy Viennese Life" like a night at the opera, right!? My friend Meredith was entertaining a guest from the states this past week, which provided me with the perfect opportunity to check this item off my long Vienna Bucket List!

This is a pretty terrible picture of the Opera House, that
I took on one of my first days in Vienna. The one below is
from the internet.

Because normal tickets to the opera are mega-expensive, we opted for the uber-cheap, last minute standing room option (Stehplatz). These tickets are an excellent alternative that provide even those living on a budget with a chance to go to the opera! We had to get to the opera house around 5, even though the show didn't start until 7:30, and wait in a pretty long line, but luckily it was inside, because the weather was the very definition of miserable. Some people in line were clearly Stehplatz veterans because they had brought little folding chairs to sit on while waiting. Impressive. Once the box office opened (at 6:10), the line moved quite quickly and we were able to buy our 4 Euro (!!!!!!) Stehplatz tickets for the Parterre section. The Parterre section is on the floor, rather than the balcony, and we had heard that this was the best section, so even though balcony tickets were only 3 Euro, we decided a good view was worth the 1 Euro splurge :)

We were shuffled through a rather elaborate system of lines for a while before finally reaching our little section. Now, I was expecting the area to be like a "standing room only concert" kind of situation, where people can literally stand anywhere and you have to aggressively push your way to the front to get any kind of view. But silly Shiri, this is the Opera! Not House of Blues! Everything was incredibly organized and civilized and there were actually these little stalls with a railing on which we had to tie a scarf to mark our territory. 

My scarf, marking my spot, and the little subtitle box that
displayed translations of the Italian so we could understand what
was going on

Our section, people stood in between these railings,
and it was packed pretty tightly.

Once we had put our scarves on the rails, we were free to roam about as we pleased. Now, let me backtrack for a second to tell you a little bit about the Staatsoper (opera house) itself. It was originally opened in 1869 as the first public building on the new Ringstrasse, the street which had replaced the old city walls, completely surrounding the inner city of Vienna. It was met with criticism because apparently it was "not as beautiful" as some other building across the street, and basically failed to meet everyone's expectations. Also, the architect thought it looked too much like a train station. How this criticism is possible of such an insanely gorgeous building is beyond me. During WWII, american bombs completely destroyed the building. However, the Viennese held the opera/opera house so near an dear to their hearts, and viewed it as such a symbol and treasure of the city, that they decided to put a high priority on rebuilding it quickly and in the exact style of the old one. What we have today is this unbelievably beautiful building that despite shaky beginnings has made its place as the heart of Viennese high culture. Now let's look at some pictures of the inside:

Huge chandelier on the ceiling of the house

The stage from my "seat"

Where the real people sit

Part of the lobby

How the other half lives

Now back to the opera experience: Luckily we had enough time after getting our places to run across the street to the grocery store and grab a quick sandwich so we wouldn't starve throughout the performance, and make it back in time for curtain! (although we had a true life near-death experience involving an angry Strassenbahn driver, which was literally heart-stopping).

The show itself was remarkable. We saw Madame Butterfly, written by Giacomo Puccini, which I knew next to nothing about before Tuesday. I did, however, know the name and the composer, so that's a start! You can read a synopsis here, if you really care, but all you need to know is that it's set in Japan, in the 1890s, and involves a jerk-face American soldier who marries a Japanese woman and then abandons her. Typical. I don't want to give anything away, but there's a child involved (a blonde child, which is rare in Japan, as Madame Butterfly tells us), drama ensues, and lots of intense things happen, all pointing to the conclusion that the American is a butt-head. To put it mildly.

The minute the curtain went up there was an audible collective gasp throughout the audience, reacting to how beautiful the set was. The costumes were also stunning, and the woman who played Madame Butterfly was outstanding. Her voice wasn't too shrill, as opera often is, and she was the perfect level of expressive and melodramatic that makes opera entertaining. I found myself really enjoying hearing her sing, which doesn't often happen when I hear opera. One part that actually had me laughing out loud (which is somewhat sacrilegious because the show is super super depressing and serious) was the little child. He comes into the show very dramatically in Act 2, and never says anything, but he had me cracking up BECAUSE he was wearing, I kid you not, the costume of a young Jedi knight. Like, the little robe he was wearing looked exactly like that worn by the younglings Anakin tragically slaughters in Episode 3 even though they are just adorable wannabe Padawans be who have done NOTHING wrong. And, to make matters more comical, he had on the most ridiculous blonde afro wig I've ever seen. My friend Rylee called it an Annie wig. I honestly thought it was Shirley Temple onstage. As Meredith said, "I know the child is supposed to be blonde, but couldn't they have found a child that is actually blonde, and avoided the wig?" This is Austria after all. This costume certainly brought some unintended comic relief to the show. Or perhaps it was intended, to lighten the show a bit? I guess we'll never know.

Despite the fact that we were standing for 2.5 hours, listening to a lot of very dramatic singing in a language we didn't understand, I really enjoyed the opera a lot! The subtitles certainly helped, the production was visually outstanding, and the atmosphere itself was just fantastic. I'm so glad I had the chance to see an opera in a place as grand as the famous Wiener Staatsoper, and I would actually love to go to another!! I never thought I'd say that about opera. How's that for growth and new experiences!?