# Danube opera tour (May 2015)



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

My regular travelling from Scotland to Malta is getting more and more convoluted! This time I decided to make a bigger detour and call this my summer vacation.

Summary:
Fly Inverness - Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Vienna 
Kammeroper - L'Heure Espanole & Les Mamelles de Tiresias
Danube boat to Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia)
Slovak National Theatre - I Gioielli della Madonna
Train to Budapest
Hungarian State Opera - Mefistofele and Faust on successive nights.
Fly to Malta

5 operas in 4 days in 3 countries!

Let's get the only bad thing out the way first. Flybe, the British airline ran nearly 3 hours late and I missed my connecting flight to Vienna. I'm trying to keep the actual costs out of this article but let's say that getting an on the day ticket from KLM cost as much as the rest of the trip (I'm talking flights, hotels and opera tickets here!) I'm hoping to get something back from Flybe but they can be quite obstructive when it comes to refunds. Consider this as an unadvert for Flybe. It's not the first time they've let me down badly. They suck!

KLM show by their offer of a free biscuit, that full service in Europe exists only in terms of pricing. Oh well, I reach my hotel by midnight.

So much for my sightseeing plans, I basically walked around and 'hung out', visited the VPO museum which currently seems more interested in promoting that transvestite with a beard that won Eurovision. (My visitor feedback form was not positive!)

And so to opera - The Kammeroper. This is a chamber opera venue in something about the size and layout of the Wigmore Hall (i.e. a room for chamber works.) It's in the Schwedenplatz district, down an alleyway so it's impossible to get a meaningful picture of the outside.

Having tracked down the Kammeroper in good time I walk to Schwedenplatz, a hub for all kinds of transport, right on the river, and a fine place to hang around on a summer evening. That's where the hydrofoil boat to Bratislava departs from, so I purchased my ticket for the following morning (€30). Time for coffee and strudel before performance starts.

I like French opera (although not all, see later) so this double bill appealed to me. The Ravel dates from 1911, the Poulenc piece from 1947. This production of these two operas is unusual. Read on...

While the audience is seating itself, 'Torquemada' is on stage receiving last minute instructions from the assistant director. This goes on fully for 5-10 minutes as she shows him the various stage marks and references to the score. The show is preceded by a management announcement that this performance is actually classified as a rehearsal due to late cast changes. All highly irregular.

And so begins L'Heure Espagnole... rather tentatively as the performers glance nervously at the audience. The assistant director seems so concerned that she's in close attendance in the wings with her score but in view of the audience! Then, to the audience's shock there's a shout from the back of the hall: "Stop!" The director I presume.

Stage hands appear, resetting the props, instructing the singers in their movement issues. Surely the audience knows by now it's all a setup? Alas, there aren't many laughs.

I guess I had an advantage, as I'd seen a performance of the famous farce "Noises Off" only six weeks earlier. This is borrowing heavily from it. The director's shout from the back of the hall being the dead giveaway.

I believe the term for this is metatheatre, (or theatre about theatre). 

The performance continues with various 'interruptions' (too many to describe), with the young singers performing gamely, particularly Natalia Kawalek as Conception. With a good voice and a flair for comedy she could do well in Rossini's mezzo roles.

Having my familiarity with Noises Off I made an early prediction that the second act/opera will take place backstage. So it proved. We're now looking at the rear of the backdrop of the first act/opera. Quite amusing was the fact that the cast continued acting 'backstage' (i.e. fully on-stage) through the interval (there's no curtain).

If you're following so far, now it's going to get confusing. I will not attempt to explain Les Mamelles de Tiresias. Some have died trying! Here it's very loosely adapted. The characters, or rather the singers playing the actors of the previous opera reappear, with the director and assistant now becoming part of the performance proper, both singing rather well in Poulenc's tuneful and accessible score. As it progresses, the director is kidnapped and bound with tape, all the men end up wearing the women's clothing and vice versa. The second act ends with the same action as the first, i.e. recreating the set of L'Heure Espagnole.

It's a farce. It was a lot of fun. The Viennese audience almost laughed. Actually it was very well received and the production team should be proud of themselves. An excellent double bill for any conservatoire to put on.

Next morning, the hydrofoil takes 75 minutes to transport foot passengers from Vienna to Bratislava along the Danube. As the respective ship terminals are more central than the respective train stations at both ends, it's an ideal form of transport for my Danube opera tour. There's not much to see along the Danube, mainly boat houses or fishing huts. Surprisingly rural, I guess because it's prone to flooding. It's a smooth and pleasant journey with the destination port a stone's throw from the opera house.

Bratislava (or Pressburg in its German days) is the capital of Slovakia. Its importance has varied over the years as its capital status came and went. I was last there about 20 years ago, and it's more developed now with modern offices and shopping centres, and more relevant to me, a new opera house and arts centre. Their national theatre and opera companies are in the same building but different halls sharing a common lobby area. A play of Jane Eyre was on the same night. The opera/ballet hall consists solely of stalls and a 7 row balcony. It's lovely. It has a big hall feel, but with just 841 seats, all very comfortable with front facing views.

Over the decades I've seen most of the major operas at least several times, so the chance to see a rare Wolf-Ferrari opera made this a double first (opera and house). I Gioielli della Madonna is an excellent work which received a big-budget production. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I heartily recommend a visit to Bratislava, particularly if you're in its 'twin city' Vienna. Although it's close enough for a day trip I think an overnight stay to enjoy the buzz of the old town in the evening is the thing to do, and the perfect end to a night at the opera. That being said, one day/night is enough.

The following day I head for the railway station, which is a little outside the old town. Walkable, but probably best to take the 93 bus, if you have baggage. The station is rather basic, but it has trains, notably the Prague-Budapest train passing through. 3 hours later I'm in Budapest Keleti station. A modern efficient metro system gets me to my stay behind the opera house.

Now I start my devilish weekend. Mefistofele and Faust on successive nights. If you've followed perempe's reviews you'll have heard that the Mefistofele is excellent. The production was largely abstract, but was engrossing. This is full-fat grand opera at its best.

And what of Faust? Despite its popular tunes, for me it amounts to something tedious. The production, partly set in a modern golf club was simply lame and did nothing to change my view of the opera.

As for Budapest. It's such great city for opera and in other respects that I'm becoming a regular visitor.


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