# Opera in Vienna



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I saw Peter Grimes at Theater an der Wien. Small house, excellent acoustics.

I stayed at Hotel Drei Kronen which was just across the road from the opera house and I can recommend it.

Iain Paterson wrote an excellent piece about the Staatsoper in his blog.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

sospiro said:


> I saw Peter Grimes at Theater an der Wien. Small house, excellent acoustics.
> 
> I stayed at Hotel Drei Kronen which was just across the road from the opera house and I can recommend it.
> 
> Iain Paterson wrote an excellent piece about the Staatsoper in his blog.


You are a bit of a globe-trotter, aren't you


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Theater an der Wien









Curtain call









Christmas markets









Same sex crossing peeps


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Vienna is a wonderful city, what with the wealth of _opera-tunities_ for a travelling fan, the architecture, the food, its location at the heart of Central Europe and of course the food and coffee.

My next trip is March 18th also at the Wien (does it have a nickname?) for Agrippina with Danielle de Neise and Patricia Bardon.


----------



## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Had a lovely late May bank holiday weekend in Vienna the year before last. Saw La Cenerentola at the Staatsopera.

So my impressions. Firstly everything about he Staatsopera is HUGE. The rooms around it must rival Paris Garnier's in scale. The other thing was the size and depth of the stage and the modern production seemed determined to show us that. The net result was not as exciting as I hoped. Perhaps it was that night or the production but it seemed the specialness of the music got a little lost. 
The audience were very correct in taking their seats, and not fidgeting at all. And at least in the first act there were no spontaneous outbursts of clapping or calls out. Feeling things were a little cold I was really taken back by the warmth and volume of applause at the curtain call. There was a great buzz around the Theatre in the interval. The Audience were clearly enjoying it but I wasn't attuned to their ways.

4 days is too little time. Compared to London or Paris the City was empty at the Bank Holiday to the extent all the famous Restaurants being shut (It WAS our 25th!). But we ate well and walked for miles. Oddly everytime we got near the Opera house I'd just missed the last tour of the day, which changed time because of Matinees etc. 

Would love to go back when I could plan it around the right repertoire rather that the date we wanted to go. Rosenkavalier would be my dream.

(PS Thank you sospiro for starting the thread and like you I hope some with more experience will share their thoughts. But I'd also welcome the impression the Viennese and other have of Opera in London etc.)


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Belowpar, it's funny you should mention about the audience as it's similar to the reaction I found at L'Heure Espanole (Kammeroper) last year. Reserved but with a rapturous response at the end. I wrote about it in the my blog

If I have a day to spare while I'm there, I'm tempted to try for the stehplatz (standing at the back of the stalls) at the Staatsoper. Supposed to be a bargain if you're prepared to hang around for most of the day!


----------



## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

Vienna is one of those places where musical history was made. Just to name a few of the composers who lived and worked here: Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler... It kept on going well into the 20th century, the whole of the 'modern' atonal movements were based in Vienna, so called 'Second Viennese School', the first school being Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart.

The state opera is a landmark in Vienna, it is huge in size, as a landmark it's probably only surpassed by the Paris Garnier opera. Besides opera there is the famous Konzerthaus and even more famous Musikverein. There is also the Volksoper and Theater an der Wien.

I posted the following before in another thread, Sospiro asked for some places to get the famous Viennese pastries:

The Cafe Sperl is nearby. The theater an der Wien is just outside of the Vienna centre, but the other sights are on walking distance. Cafe Sacher with their world famous Sacher Torte (fatty chocolate cake) is close to the State opera . Cafe Mozart is also close to the state opera.
A longer walk, but in my opnion the tastiest pastries can be found at Cafe Central.

Some more sights:
View attachment 77407


There is a walk of fame with all the opera composers that starts at the Theater an der Wien. It goes all the way inside the subway station of the State Opera.

The Theater an der Wien is holy ground... The theatre was ran by Emanuel Schikander, the first Papageno. Beethoven had his own room and lived there for years, some of his works premiered there. The  epic concert of 4 hours that premiered his 5th and 6th symphony, and his 4th pianoconcerto took place at this theatre.

Vienna is so much about music. Only there you will find a busking quartet playing a Beethoven string quartet from start to finish.

And there's more... The history of arts museum has an exhibition about musical instruments. You cannot miss those palaces... Mozart's last house is now a museum, very close to the Stefan's cathedral. You can spend a week in Vienna and still have not seen all the sites, especially if you are interested in opera and music.

If you're flying into Vienna, there is now a direct train connection to the centre of Vienna. It takes just 16 minutes, but it's not cheap, about 20 Euro's. From the train station you can walk within 30 minutes to the Stefan's Platz, or take the subway (U-Bahn). For a hotel close to the state opera I can recommend Opera suites.

One final note: be aware of the 'Amadeus' guys in the streets... they will offer (some quite aggressively) opera or concert tickets at higher rates, and bad seats. Always purchase your tickets at the theatre offices or online.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Dongiovanni said:


> Vienna is one of those places where musical history was made. Just to name a few of the composers who lived and worked here: Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler... It kept on going well into the 20th century, the whole of the 'modern' atonal movements were based in Vienna, so called 'Second Viennese School', the first school being Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart.
> 
> The state opera is a landmark in Vienna, it is huge in size, as a landmark it's probably only surpassed by the Paris Garnier opera. Besides opera there is the famous Konzerthaus and even more famous Musikverein. There is also the Volksoper and Theater an der Wien.
> 
> ...


:tiphat:

Excellent post.

I went for a look at the Staatsoper and encountered the 'Amadeus' guys and agree they were quite persistent.


----------



## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Vienna is my most beloved city. I was there for like 48 hours last June. Didn't even look at what was playing at the VSO, but was walking by one evening and they were showing Fidelio on the side of the opera house. I got teary-eyed and watched part of it. The beauty of the city trumps opera for me, so after watching for about 20 minutes, I carried on, but it was nice to see one of my favorites being shown. Love that city.

The single best thing to do in Vienna is show up at Schoenbrunn Palace at 6:00 AM when you have the enormous gardens almost all to yourself. I walked 26 miles that day. Was amazing.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

gellio said:


> Vienna is my most beloved city. I was there for like 48 hours last June. Didn't even look at what was playing at the VSO, but was walking by one evening and they were showing Fidelio on the side of the opera house. I got teary-eyed and watched part of it. The beauty of the city trumps opera for me, so after watching for about 20 minutes, I carried on, but it was nice to see one of my favorites being shown. Love that city.
> 
> The single best thing to do in Vienna is show up at Schoenbrunn Palace at 6:00 AM when you have the enormous gardens almost all to yourself. *I walked 26 miles that day*. Was amazing.


Wow, how fabulous! I bet you enjoyed every inch.


----------

