Aug 10 - Day 10 in Vienna

Mozart day! Today I focused on Mozart entirely, with the class lecture on him, a visit to the Mozarthaus museum, and concluding the day with The Marriage of Figaro!

Mozart by Peter Gay was one of my favorite readings for the class. I felt that it not only gave me a great deal of information and historical insight into Mozart, but more importantly, gave me a feeling for Mozart, his time, and his compositions. The book allowed me to see Mozart as a human being, rather than just a famous name. The lecture today helped highlight the assigned reading and it was great to be sitting in Vienna learning about the composer who wrote so much here.

After the lecture, I headed out with the group of fifteen people who are going to Budapest this weekend. I somehow was put in charge of the trip, which surprised me since I am the youngest going, but I believe it had to do with the fact that I really wanted to go and am very proactive about traveling. Vienna has taught me that I am very independent and confident in myself in a new place, so I feel I will probably be able to bring that to Budapest. I guess I already have, since I found the hostel online and organized the group ticket purchase with the help of a few other classmates. After getting a great train ticket deal, a few people headed to Mariahilfestrasse, one of the main shopping streets in Vienna. I bought a Budapest guidebook for the trip and I am very excited about going into Eastern Europe. I hope I can go to the world famous baths when I am there! I also did a little shopping and poking about the street, as it was my first time on it.

Yesterday I bought the combo ticket for the Haus der Musik and the Mozarthaus, so I decided to get into the mood for the night’s opera with a trip to the museum. Of all of Mozart’s apartments, it is the sole one that still exists. He lived there from 1784-1787 and wrote the Marriage of Figaro in the house, which was absolutely exciting to me since I knew I’d be seeing it later that day! The museum provided a lot of cultural context for the era of Mozart. I loved walking through his apartment – although it is not furnished with his actual possessions – because it gave me an immense awareness of being inside the actual walls of where he lived. The museum has a great deal of interesting objects and information (the audio guide is amazing, with great facts set to Mozart’s beautiful music), but my favorite part was imagining it as it once was under Mozart’s ownership.

After returning from the museum, I got ready for a night at the opera! It was great fun seeing everyone dressed up. The Theater an der Wien, where Le Nozze di Figaro played, was a gorgeous opera house decked out in red and gold, with the nine muses gracing the ceiling. I had heard that the opera would not be totally traditional, so I was not completely surprised by it. However, I was not prepared for the Count, Figaro and Cherubino to all be cast as famous soccer players. This was the Marriage of Figaro Footballers’ Wives style, and sadly, it did not totally work. I am no traditionalist in opera or plays – I adore Baz Luhrmann’s versions of La Boheme and Romeo and Juliet, in which he updates and changes the pieces in an absolutely stunning fashion. Yet he has a gift that this production did not – the ability of follow through. The soccer star ‘storyline’ is pretty successful in the first half, but seems to be dropped altogether after the intermission. There is no continuity and thus, the idea feels strained, and worse, not at all fun. I did enjoy the stage design, with the large tree and slightly cheesy changing of the seasons theme. Even though that is certainly overused, it played well with the falling snow in one segment that truly made me shiver with wonder at the music.

The woman playing Cherubino was definitely the star, stealing the opera with her wonderful voice and great sense of physical comedy. The performance of Figaro limply carried the opera, while Susanna was perfectly decent. Other than Cherubino, I felt that the Contessa was also great and I enjoyed her singing and very Hollywood style. Needless to say, the music cannot be affected by a somewhat failed idea, so that was insanely enjoyable to hear Mozart live. The Marriage of Figaro is such fun to listen to and half the time I would watch the orchestra rather than the performers!

After it was over – and of course, getting a group picture – several of us went to the 1516 Brewing Company to hang out and enjoy some pretzels and beer before the weekend trip to Budapest. I cannot wait to see what Hungary has to offer, but I will definitely miss Vienna – it really feels like it is another home!