Our night at the Wiener Staatsoper, Montag 24 September 2012, seeing Modest Mussorgski’s Boris Gudunow was everything we wanted it to be plus some more. We went up the stairs in this grand lobby.
And down a corridor like this. Very low ceilings and quite austere.
Where we were ushered into Box Four on the third ring – just a little to the left of this picture. And overlooking this wonderful sight. The box in the middle used to be the Emperor’s. These days you just have to pay a little more.
But if you don’t have the money you can queue up just a bit before the Opera and stand immediately under the Emperor’s box, resting on the stands in the picture. It was packed tonight – as was the rest of the house. All of us sitting or standing under this glorious chandelier which has just been cleaned. The picture doesn’t do it justice. We were much closer to it tonight and it sparkled.
Taking photos during a performance is of course forbidden. I took these ones on the tour of the Opera House we took this afternoon. Well worth doing. We had a lovely enthusiastic guide. Here she is showing us how the pattern on the pure silk wall coverings in the Emperor’s private lounge makes up the H in Hapsburg.
It was very informative. They perform an extraordinary number of Operas here every year; a different one every night of the week and around eight to ten new productions each year. Phenomenal number of employees. Phenomenal cost – nearly one hundred million Euros a year – half from paying customers, some from sponsorship the rest from the State. Most of the House, as our Guide kept calling it, was destroyed in the dying days of the Second World War. These are the bits that remain of the original lavish design – which initially the Emperor didn’t like so one of the two architects hanged himself (our exuberant guide demonstrated with a hand movement).
There are busts of the concert masters including of course one of Mahler – by Rodin, donated the the House by Alma Mahler. And one of Herbert Von Karajan in an habitual pose – eyes closed, meditating before embarking on a work.
And one of the great Wagner – his operas are regularly performed here.
I quite liked the relatively austere rebuilt parts. The original took eight years to build. Reconstruction after the war took ten. But they were tough times – 1945-55.
We both loved the Opera, Boris Gudunovneither of us having seen it before. Was dependent on a very strong lead singer and Ferruccio Furlanetto was great as Boris. Strong in both singing and acting. Such anguish! The two main supporting singers were also terrific. Jorma Silvasti as the scheming boyar Schuiskij and Ain Anger as the pious monk Pimen. Here’s the programme – all in German except for a single page incoherent summary of the plot in English. We didn’t need it because our seats had individual English subtitles. It was sung in Russian. And the cast list as well.
A great night at the opera indeed.
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