Into German Speaking Territory!

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Pavel scheduled a tour of Brno this morning, but much to my chagrin and against my principles, I decided it would behoove me to sleep in. After our impromptu exploration of downtown Brno and incredible interaction with the locals yesterday, I felt I could skip this one and not be too terribly behind. By about noon, it was time to transfer to Vienna. We loaded up the bus and were on our way. However, this time we were one person larger. One of our friends from Brno--Martin--asked us if he might tag along to Vienna with us since he had never been to the city on the Danube, which lay only about 4 hours away from his hometown. None of our leaders seemed to mind and he came with us! The more the merrier I say, and it was nice to get to interact with Martin a bit more.

Since tonight was one of our only free nights in Vienna, our arrival in this illustrious and beautiful city meant it was time to acquire some of the local currency and do a little preplanning for tonight’s activities. Chad, Kyle, Tara, Becca, Lauren, Jared, and I decided we’d try to make tonight’s performance of Madama Butterfly at the Staatsoper. Becca had heard from a friend that we could get ridiculously inexpensive standing room tickets if we made sure to be in line early enough. Dressed in our “stuffed in an under-fifty-pound suitcase best,” we hopped on the subway outside of our hotel, and after two short stops, we were outside of the historical opera house. The show was slated for 7:00, so we decided we would be safe to show up around 5:30. Little did we know that when they say “standing room only,” they mean no sitting from the time you get in line for tickets until the last gratuitous curtain call by the star soprano. Needless to say, leg cramps abounded that night. And poor Lauren, unaware that open-toed shoes are apparently not among the Staatsoper’s idea of acceptable footwear, was forced into a rather humorous position in line in which the rest of our group surrounded our apparently inappropriately-shoed friend to the end that we might skirt past the eagle-eyed ushers sans a downward glance at Lauren’s bare toes. With a bit of creative distraction, we were able to make it through opera security and set ourselves up at the velvet covered rails, complete with individual electronic screens scrolling Puccini’s libretto in English and German.

The experience was glorious. Conducted by legendary tenor José Cura, the performance was precise, consistent, and beautifully staged. Although the pre-show drop would have indicated that the show had taken on some sort of modernist twist complete with minimalist Chinese take-out box on legs and abstract red slashes, the show came off very traditionally with great attention to traditional stage dressing and costumes. The cast sang very nicely with a knock-out performance by the mezzo and a stunning overall presentation of this long-standing classic. I would love to have seen a Mozart production since the Mozart festival was well underway in honor of his 250th birth anniversary, but this was available and cheap at only 3€ (about $5) per ticket. Well worth it to say the least.

Needless to say, after almost five hours of standing, we were all a bit famished. Our search for the perfect post-opera meal was rewarded with an adorable little eatery called, ironically, “Eat-It.” Owned by a middle-aged gay couple, this little establishment was complete with modern oriental décor and a unique south-east Asian menu. Several cocktails and delicious desserts later, we checked out of the restaurant and headed back to the hotel to sleep off our big night of high-class "standing" entertainment.

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