Thursday, April 2, 2009

Vienna - The Musical Mecca

My procrastination and negligence with this blog has reached an alarming height. I was officially called a “slacker” by one of my readers. So…the guilt has risen to the boiling point and I have to update.

While I technically should finish my entries about Spring Break in Greece (in an effort to keep this chronological), I am instead compelled to write about last weekend’s journey to see Emily in Vienna!

Last semester when I was applying for study abroad, I learned that my good high school friend Emily Bateman (who is now studying vocal performance at BYU’s School of Music) would be studying abroad in Vienna, Austria while I was in Italy! We knew that we simply had to meet up while we were both in Europe, and I didn’t need any more excuses to go to the musical motherland of Vienna.

As a musician (and particularly a composer) I felt like visiting Vienna was a rite of passage. Virtually every great composer from the Late Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods in music history (so, late 1600s-1800s) has lived, worked, and performed in Vienna. Consequently, the musical heritage of the city is intensely rich. Everywhere you turn you see the influence of music on this city. It is truly incredible.

I couldn’t have asked for a better tour guide than Emily. She’s been living there for months, and learning tons about the history of the city. We raced around town trying to squeeze in all the most important landmarks and sights, and I think we were pretty successful. The other fun part was that Emily’s mom, aunt, and grandmother were all in Vienna as well, visiting Emily and seeing her end-of-term performance with her opera group she is studying with.

There are 10 students studying in Vienna through BYU and most of them are part of the opera performance class. I got to see them rehearse and perform while I was there, and they are all very talented! It made me want to perform again…but also reminded me of how much I just love music (especially for the voice) in general.

Getting to and from Vienna was an adventure. I took an all-night train from Florence Thursday night to get to Vienna by 8:30 Friday morning. I…didn’t really sleep, as I was in a seat in a compartment with 6 other passengers, and they check your ticket so frequently…but I was revved and ready to see the city. The way home, I did the same thing, taking an overnight train Sunday to get into Florence by about 7:00 am on Monday morning…It was a bit crazy, but worth it, since I got to maximize my time in Vienna.

Friday night I saw an opera at the Staatsoper (State Opera House). That night’s production was Arabella by Richard Strauss. Not my favorite…BUT the tickets for stehplatz (standing room) were only FOUR EUROS. So…of course I had to take advantage of that. The singers were all quite good…but my feet and legs were in pain by the end of the 3 hour opera!

Saturday we went ALL over, including the Naschmarkt (open-air market and flee market with lots of really cool Austrian trinkets) and lots and lots of churched. That night I saw Emily’s performance, and they did scenes from some of my favorite operas (mostly because they are MOZART…) Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). They also did scenes from Rossini’s Il barbiere di siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and “The Flower Duet” from Delibes’ Lakme (one of the most beautiful duets ever composed…it’s used everywhere, and I’m sure you’d know it if you heard it).

Sunday morning we went to mass where the Vienna Boys Choir performs each week! They sang Schubert’s Mass in C Major, which I wasn’t familiar with but really really enjoyed. It revived my desire to one day write a mass…it’ll happen.

Sunday evening was lovely as well, as all the students meet at their program director's apartment and eat a home cooked meal (prepared by one of the students) and have class together. They are lucky to be studying with such an intimate group of students!

Also, all this opera lately has been extremely helpful because I am currently writing two scenes of an opera for the end-of-the-semester concert here in Florence. The libretto is entirely in Italian…so that has been an interesting challenge, but it’s so interesting how my musical vocabulary changes when I’m setting Italian text instead of English…we have several vocal performance majors here and musicians who will be performing it! It’s very exciting.

I took many pictures, of course, all of which can be found HERE on facebook. The captions (thanks mostly to Emily) will tell you more about what we did and everything we saw. I ate my first wienerschnitzel! And it was really quite good!

I was struck by the culture, architecture, and obviously the language and how different everything is from Italy. It was lovely, and the Baroque architecture of the buildings is very striking. But…I’ve really grown accustomed to living in a Renaissance city. Vienna has some modern buildings and there are touches of modernization here and there. They have a fully-integrated public transportation with many underground and above-ground trains, rail trains, and busses. Florence has…none of that. And I kind of like it that way!

The greatest news is that Emily and her whole group of students will be coming down to Florence in just a few weeks, and I will be here to return her favor and show all of them around! I can’t wait.

2 comments:

  1. Yay! I hope you know that we can't wait to visit either! Everyone in the group really liked you.

    Europe is such a great conglomeration of historic periods- I'm so excited to explore Florence with you :D

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  2. too bad I called you a slacker A WEEK AGO

    ReplyDelete