Sorry, I know I have not been blogging, but that is because, honestly, the past couple of days have been pretty low key. We are in the home stretch before returning to the USA, and I think Kim and I are getting a little tired. Living in a little tiny dorm room, sleeping on a little tiny dorm bed, and constantly focusing in trying to understand a new language gets pretty tiring after a while. Plus, its the week before finals, so just like everyone in the states, we are just swamped with schoolwork. We have had some great experiences despite all the homework though! Here are a few highlights...
Breakfast and class with Mr. Dunn at the fabulous home of the Canadian Ambassador and his wife.
My big psychology presentation on Bullying.
Exploring at Doblinger. Finding an amazing CD and DVD shop with every opera imaginable.
Discovering the Staatsoper Gift shop, getting gifts for teachers, and purchasing a kick ass poster for my room for 50 cent.
Mahler, all day, everyday.
Girls night out with Rita and Isabella!
The donaucentrum, the enormous shopping mall.
Thats about it, lots of coffee, and writing papers, final projects, and for me, getting to know Ballo in Maschera, which UAO is performing this summer. I am so exhausted I don't want to write anymore, I just felt weird not continuing to blog, even though times are overshadowed by school-work. Kim's family gets in soon, I think I am almost as excited as she is!! Tomorrow, we go on a tour of Schoenbrun palace!
Goodnight!
E
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Don Carlos
10:00 a.m. Wake up to an email from Diana. We had called her the night before because we have to reschedule our voice lessons, because Don Carlos starts so early.
10:30 a.m. Kim is already at class, I had been emailing back and forth with Diana when I get a call from her. She suggested I come directly and have a lesson from eleven thirty to twelve thirty, so I clean up and go!
11:50 a.m. Lesson time!
12:30 p.m. Get to school to meet briefly with my project group for psychology class, and grab Kim and Celia for Chinese Tuesdays!
After our favorite chinese food, Kim and I head back to Diana's for Kim's lesson!
4:00 p.m. We head to the opera!
On the way to the opera, we both were having trouble getting motivated to stand through the five hour performance. We just wanted to go home and sleep. And also not stand for five hours. We almost just went home. Then I had the idea that we shop around outside and see if there is anyone selling cheap seats. So we head there and see what they have to offer. The first guy that offers us tickets has good spots for 25 Euro. I am ready to settle, but Kim wisely turns him down. The next guy offers us seats for 15 Euro. Sold! We are instantly ecstatic, we can't wait to go see our seats. When the time comes we arrive at our box. There are three chairs near the edge. There are two chairs behind them, a little taller, slightly blocked by the wall which seperates this box from the next. Then there is a lone chair behind those, tucked away in the dark corner of the box, and elevated slightly higher than the two in front of it.
We could barely see anything from our seats! Then we realized we could stand, and had plenty of wall space to lean on, and when we were standing, we could see everything. And we were in the fifth box from the stage, close enough to see facial features, sweat beads, details in the costumes, etc.
Yes, we stood the whole time, but it was not hard. Don Carlos quickly shot to the very top of my list of favorite operas. It is a masterpiece. Five hours felt more like one. The characters and their relationships completely consume you.
So the three seats in front were bought by a woman, for herself, her mother and her father. Her father got sick, and could not come. The daughter turned around before the opera began and said something along the lines of "Would you like to sit in this seat?" Then she realized that we had paid 15 Euros for our tickets, and that she had paid 115 Euros a ticket for her front row of box 5. Her offer of the great seat turned from a free spot, to "for 50 Euro?" We sadly went from "Oh my gosh, yes!" to "Oh, sorry, we can't afford that..." So long story short, we stood the whole time, even though there was a great seat right there which remained empty for the entire opera. The guy sitting directly in front of me (yes, I got the back corner chair) told us that this was unusual, and that open seats above the parterre are up for grabs if their patrons don't show up.
During intermission, the old guy felt sorry for us, since we had been standing the whole time, and invited us to his reserved table for a drink! It sounds creepy, but it was completely innocent. Apparently he comes to the opera all the time, and was just happy to see young people excited about music. He told us stories about famous conductors, and names we should know as musicians that we need to google. :) We told him we were singers and said if he ever saw us onstage at the Staatsoper he would yell out "bravo!" for us.
Don Carlos was fantastic. Still thinking about some of the production choices. Like the fifties American house wife dream sequence in the middle, and also the paparazzi scene, where the stage is filled with modern socialites drinking champagne while the paparazzi snap photos or arriving royalty.
11:15 p.m. Get home. Blog. Sleep.
1:30 a.m. Goodnight!
10:30 a.m. Kim is already at class, I had been emailing back and forth with Diana when I get a call from her. She suggested I come directly and have a lesson from eleven thirty to twelve thirty, so I clean up and go!
11:50 a.m. Lesson time!
12:30 p.m. Get to school to meet briefly with my project group for psychology class, and grab Kim and Celia for Chinese Tuesdays!
After our favorite chinese food, Kim and I head back to Diana's for Kim's lesson!
4:00 p.m. We head to the opera!
On the way to the opera, we both were having trouble getting motivated to stand through the five hour performance. We just wanted to go home and sleep. And also not stand for five hours. We almost just went home. Then I had the idea that we shop around outside and see if there is anyone selling cheap seats. So we head there and see what they have to offer. The first guy that offers us tickets has good spots for 25 Euro. I am ready to settle, but Kim wisely turns him down. The next guy offers us seats for 15 Euro. Sold! We are instantly ecstatic, we can't wait to go see our seats. When the time comes we arrive at our box. There are three chairs near the edge. There are two chairs behind them, a little taller, slightly blocked by the wall which seperates this box from the next. Then there is a lone chair behind those, tucked away in the dark corner of the box, and elevated slightly higher than the two in front of it.
We could barely see anything from our seats! Then we realized we could stand, and had plenty of wall space to lean on, and when we were standing, we could see everything. And we were in the fifth box from the stage, close enough to see facial features, sweat beads, details in the costumes, etc.
Yes, we stood the whole time, but it was not hard. Don Carlos quickly shot to the very top of my list of favorite operas. It is a masterpiece. Five hours felt more like one. The characters and their relationships completely consume you.
So the three seats in front were bought by a woman, for herself, her mother and her father. Her father got sick, and could not come. The daughter turned around before the opera began and said something along the lines of "Would you like to sit in this seat?" Then she realized that we had paid 15 Euros for our tickets, and that she had paid 115 Euros a ticket for her front row of box 5. Her offer of the great seat turned from a free spot, to "for 50 Euro?" We sadly went from "Oh my gosh, yes!" to "Oh, sorry, we can't afford that..." So long story short, we stood the whole time, even though there was a great seat right there which remained empty for the entire opera. The guy sitting directly in front of me (yes, I got the back corner chair) told us that this was unusual, and that open seats above the parterre are up for grabs if their patrons don't show up.
During intermission, the old guy felt sorry for us, since we had been standing the whole time, and invited us to his reserved table for a drink! It sounds creepy, but it was completely innocent. Apparently he comes to the opera all the time, and was just happy to see young people excited about music. He told us stories about famous conductors, and names we should know as musicians that we need to google. :) We told him we were singers and said if he ever saw us onstage at the Staatsoper he would yell out "bravo!" for us.
Don Carlos was fantastic. Still thinking about some of the production choices. Like the fifties American house wife dream sequence in the middle, and also the paparazzi scene, where the stage is filled with modern socialites drinking champagne while the paparazzi snap photos or arriving royalty.
11:15 p.m. Get home. Blog. Sleep.
1:30 a.m. Goodnight!
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