A night at the opera

We had another chill day today. We woke up around 11:00 and went out to the Museum Quartier again to get some food and shop around. After eating some delicious pizza, we began walking around again outside and it started to sleet, so we made our way into what seemed to be a department store but turned out to be a home decor place full of all sorts of, as Katie puts it, "wonderful shiny things." It was overall very similar to Ikea. After walking around in there for awhile, we made our way back to the opera house to do a backstage tour. We learned that the Vienna State Opera House (or Wiener Staatoper) was originally built in the 1870s. When it was finished, the Viennese weren't too fond of it's appearance and said that it looked too much like a train station. That proved to be true in WWII, when it was bombed because it was believed to be just that - a train station. Just about the entire building was destroyed at that time and it was rebuilt to match the original drawings in the 1950s. The opera is open from September to June and has a performance every day. The same show never takes place two days in a row. After each performance, the set is struck and a completely new and different set is there for the next performance. Overall there are about 50 shows that they perform in rep throughout the year. They have storage facilities off site where they keep all of the different sets, props and costume pieces. However, they do keep the set and costumes for 'Tosca' on site as a backup show should something go wrong with whatever show is scheduled to perform that night because it only takes 90 minutes to set up. We didn't really get to see backstage at all though, because the changeover crew was striking the rehearsal floor for the ballet that was rehearsing on stage just before our tour began. We did see several of the intermission halls which were pretty cool.

After the tour, we headed back toward the hostel to grab some gelato from the Zanoni & Zanoni that is across the street from our hostel. After dining on our delicious gelato we decided it was time for a nap. So we napped. And it was good.

We woke up and headed back to the opera to stand in the student ticket line for tonight's performance of 'Moses und Aron.' We got some sweet seats that would have cost about 150 Euros for only 12 Euros (woo hoo!). That was probably the smartest thing we brought on our trip - our student IDs - because there are pretty much always student discounts available.

'Moses und Aron' is an opera by Arnold Schoenberg and premiered in 1954. The production we saw was pretty avant garde. I mean, if you think of any pictures or movies you would associate with German and/or Austrian avant garde, that's just a taste of how... unique this production was. The first image we saw was the whole chorus in black trench coats with suitcases at center, facing upstage, lit in silhouette with Moses at center facing the audience. The stage was caged in by these black flats and the chorus slowly began to move toward them and began writing on them "Ich" (which means I or myself in German) in white chalk. Moses started having his 'lil chat with G-d about saving the chosen people and the voice of G-d was provided by the chorus, which sounded mystical and eerie all at the same time. It was pretty cool. Moses then met up with Aron, and things got moving. To prove his power, Moses' infamous staff becomes a snake. This was done through a tower of televisions that came out of the stage floor. Aron, with the staff in his hand, put that arm behind the TV tower and an image of the staff morphing into a snake played. The first act ended with an abstract image of Moses splitting the sea and the chorus following him upstage into the light as they became silhouettes together again. The first act was really spectacular to look at, but the second act is where it got interesting. It opens with Aron and the chorus waiting for Moses to come back down the mountain with the 10 commandments and no one has heard from or seen him in 40 days. The stage is caged in now with hundreds of yellow squares, each with faces printed on each of them. After a lot of singing about "where is Moses??" Aron, pulls a gold scarf out of his jacket and basically says that they can build their own thing to worship in the meantime. The chorus begins dancing with these gold scarves and before you know it, giant golden letters spelling "Ich" comes out of the stage floor. Some of the chorus members change into gold suits and evening gowns and begin to dance around large, golden words that Katie translated to mean "I am G-d." The giant golden "Ich" went back into the stage floor and a giant television took it's place. As the chorus began dancing with the "I am G-d" letters (pretty suggestively), images of plastic surgery and killing cattle were played on the giant TV. This was the part of the performance that made our stomachs turn a bit. Some of the chorus killed off other chorus members, so lots of images of blood made it's way to the TV screen as well. Moses eventually made his way back with the 10 commandments and he was pretty upset that everyone took to worshiping themselves in his absence. The yellow squares then each flipped to white, leaving the stage now caged in with these white squares. The chorus and Aron exited through a giant door at upstage as Moses was left by himself as the stage faded to black. After the curtain call, there was a presentation honoring the actor that played Moses. We found out later that this actor was being honored for becoming an official member of the Vienna State Opera. It's kind of a big deal.

Overall, it was a fun and... different night at the theatre. We're both glad that we had the experience of seeing a true avant-garde piece, but it's definitely not our cup of tea.

After the performance, we left with Johnathan and his friend to go and get some dinner. We went to an Australian pub where Katie got a kangaroo burger! She said it was interesting, but not something she plans on dining upon again any time soon. They also served fried grasshoppers there, but we decided that between the kangaroo and the avant-garde theatre experience, we had expanded our tastes enough for one night.

While making our way back through the train station next to the opera, there were some questionable characters making cat calls at us. Katie got worried that they were following us and asked a complete stranger if he spoke English and if she could hold his hand. He said of course with what we detected to be a little bit of a Southern drawl. We later learned that our knight in shining armor's name is Eddie and he is from Colorado. He's here in Vienna working with the UN and did a backpacking trip like this himself when he finished undergrad. We made it back to our hostel safe and sound and all is well. (Thanks again Eddie!)

We learned through some posters in our hostel that Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia is about 90 minutes away. Soooo we're probably gonna go to Bratislava tomorrow. What's one more country checked off our list? Until next time....

Peace ninjas!

XOXO K&R