Long Tuesday of Wagner, Wednesday of Stress, Heurigen Thursday, and Traviata Friday

Tuesday:
Total cost of Die Walküre: around €15

Wednesday:
Meat for sauce and bread: €4

Thursday:
Junk food: €8
Ticket for Thanksgiving dinner: €7
Food at Heuriger: €5

Free sturm and Junger Weißwein: PRICELESS!!!!

Friday:
Total cost of Traviata: €7
Wine: €9.80

Unbelievable singing: Priceless

(wow this is getting old! but I like keeping track of my finances....)

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Once again, it has been too long since I've written here! Where shall I start? I suppose I should start with my crazy Tuesday.....well, Tuesday was a national holiday like 4th of July, here commemorating (I think) the departure of the final Russian soldier....something like that. In any case, it's a national holiday so we didn't have school. Instead of class, then, I studied for my listening exam which was on Wednesday, and then I met Jess, Naomi, and JB at 3:00 to go to see Die Walküre at the Staatsoper. Despite all the scheming about which way we should enter to get the best spot, we ended up off over to the left. It was OK, but certainly not ideal. We could see all of the stage except the bottom-left corner, which only occasionally proved frustrating. In the first act, when Siegmund enters the house of Sieglinde and what's-his-name, I couldn't see Sieglinde at all....so when all of a sudden a woman started singing! (Es hat der Scheiße von mir auserschreckt!) The opera was good.....much better than Rheingold. For one thing, it has all those famous leitmotives: the magic fire, the ring theme, and of course the Ride of the Valkyries. The plot is also way more involved and I connected more with the characters....maybe that was also because there was actual acting talent on stage this time.....the singers were also quite good...the guy who was supposed to play Wotan got sick, so they had some Finnish guy fill in. Apparently (according to Russell, who knows the woman who played Brünnhilde) the cast was given hardly any notice about this change....in fact Brünnhilde wasn't informed until 6:00, when the opera started....as Russell said, how can you play opposite a Wotan whom you don't even know, whom you'd still address as 'Sie?' (polite form of 'you') Of course all of this turmoil (like Sieglinde being unwittingly dragged on stage in the third act on the blanket she was resting on backstage.....) remained completely unknown to the audience. The only sign of trouble was during the last 45 minutes of the opera, which is the scene where Wotan banishing Brünnhilde to the mountaintop for her disobedience. It's a lot of singing for both of them, and I imagine it was especially rough on the fill-in Wotan. Towards the end of the scene he actually cracked on a D (I think it was a D) and there was an inaudible, but completely simultaneous gasp of worry for him. He got lots of applause at the end....after all, he was good, and I can't imagine that Wotan is the easiest role to jump into at the last minute. After the opera, I went back home and studied for the listening test and wrote two of the requisite three short essays for Solvik's class, and went to bed later than I probably should have.

Even though I didn't have German, I got up at 8:00 the following day to make breakfast and head over to IES to finish studying/writing my essays. I made myself a lovely breakfast of grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich (which by now I've all but perfected) and a bowl of yoghurt and bananas. It was a nice way to start the day, and was probably the reason I was able to keep going throughout the day. When I got to IES I wrote the last of the essays, and then went to AA&A, which went ridiculously long because she insisted on going through every slide....and when we had to leave the room to let the next class in, she still hadn't gone over the format of the midterm! She led everyone else into a room and talked about it, but I had to get to class for my test, so I couldn't stick around. The test wasn't too hard.....Solvik had definitely said in class (when I asked him specifically) that he would not start in the middle of a piece. Well, of course, he did.....luckily it only screwed me up for two of the 11 pieces......the rest I got right. That's not a bad grade, and after all it counts for 5% of the final grade. After the test we went over more stuff, and after that we had the silliest review session ever....no one (myself included) had brought in questions for him, so it was rather short. I had told Carla that I would make spaghetti that night and that her and the girls were invited....I have been wanting to attempt the sauce again after Sue forwarded me the recipe from Sheila.....anyway, after the review session I went to the Billa to get ground beef for the sauce, but as I was checking out I noticed that I hadn't got ground beef, but rather "Gemischt" which is part ground pork and part ground beef (really, though, it was mostly pork) It was all they had, and since the supermarkets were closing, I decided to get it anyway. I went home and started the sauce, but realized that I didn't have enough chili powder, since I had used most of the bottle the first time I made the sauce. Since all the stores were closed, and the Gemischt was already cooking, I figured that when the time came I'd just use the rest of what I have, plus a little of the stuff that JB had bought at the Naschmarkt for his chili last month ago. What I didn't realize is that JB's chili powder is RIDICULOUSLY hot and bitter.....even though I only added 2 tablespoons or so, it completely overwhelmed every other flavor in the sauce......it was disgustingly bitter and just completely ruined. Brad suggested adding some sugar and cooking it down more, which I did, but after a few hours I realized it was hopeless. It was then that Cabot told me that JB's chili was also ridiculously hot and didn't taste very good, so we made the executive decision to chuck the rest of the chili powder. JB, who came home soon after, saw the sauce, tasted it, and thinking it just fine, said he would eat it.....so he put it in a bowl in the fridge and I guess he'll eat it.....it's too bad that my plans for spaghetti sauce á la Sheila was once again foiled.

Mike (roommate) left Wednesday night at around 8:30 for Zürich.....what a great opportunity for him! You may remember that he was accepted into the Zürich Opera Orchestra Academy....meaning that for the next year or two play trombone in the pit of the Zürich Opera and get a stipend for living expenses....apparently the point is just to stay with Zürich and audition around Europe for actual positions in orchestras. Although he wants to go back to the States and finish his degree, it's still an absolutely mind-boggling opportunity for a young musician of his caliber. (I may not have mentioned it, but he's really really good) Anywho, as happy as I am for him and amazed at his fortune (and lets face it, a bit indirectly jealous! ^_^) I'll miss living with him.....sometimes I think he and Cabot are the only sane ones in the whole building! 'California' Dave and the guys from our apartment threw Mike a little going-away dinner, which was fun. (I didn't eat, because making crappy spaghetti sauce took away my appetite) JB is going to move into the big room with Cabot, so now Brad will have the tiny room to himself, which is cool for both of them.

On Thursday we had little skits to present in German....I wrote one for me and Gretchen, and we met at IES at 8:45 to go over it (for the first and only time) before class. The requirement was that it be between a doctor and a patient, and I knew that ours had to be funny. I'll explain it in a nutshell: there's a saying in German "Mein Herz hat in die Hose geruscht" which literally means "My heart slipped into my pants." It's sort of equivalent to "I was frightened to death" or "it scared the shit out of me." Anyway, in our dialogue, Gretchen was the patient complaining to me, the doctor, that her left leg hurt and that she felt faint and tired often. After a short examination, during which I found I could not hear her heart in her chest, I concluded that after seeing a scary movie her heart had actually slipped into her pants, where it had stayed. I then 'left the room' and ran up behind her, scaring her heart back into her chest. It was funny, and the fact that I didn't really didn't know my lines gave it a bit more of that improvisatory feel. After German Mike and I listened to the Mozart 40 for Classical Symphony and had our requisite conversation with Gerald in the library.....always with the stories about Giulini! They're fascinating, and just when you think he's exhausted his supply, he'll throw another one at you......anyway, class was sort of interesting, and after class I wrote e-mail, had a short rehearsal with Allison and Mary Rose on the Jägerlied, and tooled around IES until Performance Workshop at 5:00. It went well.....Keira conducted the Bach for us for the first time (じょずじゃなかった) and Allison and Mary Rose and I did the Jägerlied, which was fun. Mike and some others did some Schumann. Ann gave the most amazing performance of the Frauenliebe song cycle of Schumann.....it was really moving. And what a voice! After that no one really wanted to sing, so Russell asked Alisha if she wanted to sing. (Alisha is Anthony's girlfriend and also works at IES) I'd never heard her sing before, but I've heard that she's really good. She is really, really good. She did the Queen of the Night's first aria from Die Zauberflöte, and gave an amazing performance of it on every level. (I thought it was at least as good, if not a bit better, than the woman who played the role at the Staatsoper.....then again I didn't like her that much) It was fun to hear her sing, and also talk about all the less-than-ideal audition experiences she's had on this side of the pond. (she's American)

After class Russell took us all out to a Heuriger in Nußdorf, near the one that we went to with our German classes. It was tons of fun, and he was nice enough to cover all our drinks. It was a rollicking good time (with the possible exception of the Krautschnitzel I had, which was.......interesting.........) and the Rotsturm flowed (ironically) like wine. We all shared hilarious stories, both musical and...otherwise. It was a great time, really. We were SO LOUD on the Straßenbahn coming home....it was so embarrassing......oh well, Americans have the right to be as loud as they want to! (except not really)

On Friday I slept in, which was GLORIOUS. I went to IES and then to Doblinger to buy a Mozart concert aria called "Baccio, il mano" which is pretty cool. I went straight to the opera to wait in line for Traviata, which was absolutely amazing. It was the best opera I've seen at the Staatsoper yet! Violetta was amazing.....just amazing. She excelled at singing intensely and softly with the sound spinning out the top of her head.....she made some of the most moving music I've ever heard. The other leads were really, really good, too, but she stood out among them all. The death scene was so intense....she looked completely drained during the curtain calls.....it was only when she came back out for the third time that she even cracked a smile. Anyway, after the opera I hung out with Dave, Asher, and James (who I ran into at the opera) at Dürergasse. It was fun. We drank some Austrian wine and some Italian wine....I must say I liked the Austrian better.....someone said that Italy is more known for it's red wine (both the bottles we had were white). I don't know...they were both good. So....that was fun. I can't stress enough how amazed I was at Traviata, though.....I started crying uncontrollably at the part in the first act when he sings (from offstage) their little love-theme, the same theme that the violins have when she's dying. And the whole last scene.....well, I was done for. If they're showing it again in December I must go back. I must.

Well, that was that long entry.....I hope it doesn't take me ANOTHER four days to write in my journal!!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday!

[Warning, as the name implies, this is a long entry.....]

Friday:
Voice Lesson: €50 (free after mail-in rebate)
Random Pineapple drink: €1
Internet at MQ: Free (but freakin' cold)

The other stuff on which I spent money that day: forgotten.

Saturday:
Groceries: €18
Clothes: €30
Total transportation costs to Heiligenkreuz: €18
Ticket price of the concert there: €20 (paid two weeks ago)

Me after the best string quartet concert ever: speechless.

Sunday:
Mass at Augistinerkirche: Free! (since I forgot to bring money for the collections)
Delicious Fish & Chips at Nordsee: €3.50
Ticket for Elijah at Stephansdom on the 18th of next month: €40
Das Rheingold @ Staatsoper: €6.90
Melange and Apfelstrudel at Aida: €3.90

Standing straight through a 2-hour-and-45-minute-long-opera: ridiculous.

Monday:

Groceries for a long time: €13.50

Not spending money: (literally) priceless.

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Things have just been so weird for the last few days, and I've ended up with very little time at home and which to sit down and write a long journal entry, and as the days progressed and the journal entry that I would need to write got longer and longer and longer and longer, the thought of me sitting down for forever and writing got even less feasible. But now, with no class tomorrow, and all of my roommates on their way out to a bar, I can sit down, put on the (proverbial) tea, and write, write, write! Let's hope that I can remember everything!

On Friday I woke up at about 10:30 to go to the center and practice before work. When I got there I checked my e-mail, only to find that when I had sent Dr. Schier's presentation to Chicago it had not worked....so I spent a couple of hours (and more later in the day) rectifying the situation....I tried again, in vain, to attach it to an e-mail, then trying to upload it to my webspace on the Oxy server, which finally worked after trying seriously 5 different sets of instructions on the ITS website......anyway, I had work for a couple of hours, after which I had a voice lesson. The lesson was OK.....it's hard to apply the principles on which she's working with me in such a short time...(also, I didn't really practice!) She gave me a couple of ideas for repertoire, so I'll find them and bring 'em in in two weeks when I see her next.

After my lesson I saw a gourmet Spar (think Gelson's meets Bristol Farms, but smaller) so I went in to see what they had. I ended up purchasing this really awesome pineapple-orange-ade, which was only €2 for 2 liters! The only reason it's that important is that up until I got home about an hour later I was carrying a 2 liter bottle of soda through Vienna with me. Yea.....anyway I got back on the Straßenbahn towards Karlsplatz with the intention of going to the MQ to check my e-mail and ensure that Dr. Schier had received the attachments. Since it was foggy and sort of heavily misting, I was dubious about going to the MQ....but seeing as how IES was closed and I wasn't shelling out money for an internet cafe when I could just get it for free, I went anyway. I took the U2, which was kind of silly since the walk through the fog would've been way prettier. I got there and tried different rooms (didn't want to tempt fate and use the laptop outside) in the MQ but couldn't get a signal....finally I gave up and stood by a post in the entryway by the gift shop and, with my left hand holding the computer and my right operating the trackpad and keyboard, I checked (and composed) my e-mail. After that...experience (keep in mind I am still lugging around the 2-liter bottle of pineapple-orange-ade) I decided to walk home in the beautiful fog. So I did, and it was a gorgeous walk! When I got home I tooled around and ended up watching Best in Show with Dave and some of my roommates, and then Nick and I and (someone else? memory's fuzzy...) watched Clue. It was a fun little double-feature, and a nice way to end the day.


On Saturday I had my short little meeting with Allison, during which we breezed through the Jägerlied (our duet) and in lieu of trying to read through the Bach (the three flute and soprano piece for which she's singing and I'm playing the piano) which neither of us knew well, we read through another piece she's doing, Shepherd on the Rock, for soprano and clarinet, by Schubert. (Kari did it at one of the MOFAs with Jeff Bienstock) It was really fun, and I thought it was interesting that I could sight-read Schubert SO much easier than I could possibly have played the Bach, even after an hour and a half of practice on it last week.....na ja. The Schubert is a great piece, and I might even play it with Allison and Reb at the workshop (maybe? possibly?) After the rehearsal I bought a few groceries and went down to the Meidling Hauptstraße to the second-hand clothes store I saw there to look for some clothes, specifically a nice colored dress shirt to wear to Heiligenkreuz that night. Unfortunately it was closed (they close at noon on Saturdays......darn these conventions!), so I went to H&M. I spent about half an hour there just looking and trying a few things on, and eventually I got a dark red button-down shirt (€19), a cheap short-sleeve button down shirt (€7.90), and pair of black socks (€3 something). After that I went back home to quickly change and meet Natalie and Carla. We took the D to the Südbahnhof just like before, except this time we were not 15 minutes late for the Schnellbahn!! At the station we saw Emily, the other IES student who had bought tickets for this concert, and the four of us bought our tickets (both for the trip out there and the trip back) and proceeded to the terminal, comforted by the knowledge that we'd already made all the possible mistakes, and that this time we knew exactly what to do, and when to do it. When we got to the terminal we noticed that the display said nothing about the S1 to Mödling (the one we needed to catch) but instead said that the S2 to Hütteldorf was 7 minutes late. Naturally we (standing there at 4:50) assumed that the S1 to Mödling was still due to arrive at 4:56. 4:56 came, and the train did not. We began to worry (they started worrying, I started screaming) and we heard a message over the intercom that started with "Sehr Geehrete Fahrgäste" and ended with "wir bitten für Ihrer Verständnis" (which means something is wrong) and somewhere in the middle was "S1 nach Mödling." Something must have been wrong, but in any case we missed the train and had to take the next train to Mödling half an hour later, thus once agian missing the bus and forcing us to take a taxi to the monastery. (We comforted ourselves in the fact that at least the concert we were going to see was going to be damn good, unlike the other one.....)

After taking a taxi (@ €9 each) we walked around and had hot drinks at the little restaurant. We then went to the Kaisersaal to get our seats, by now in eager anticipation for what we knew was going to be an amazing concert. Nor were we disappointed: the concert was the Wiener Streichquartett playing Dvorak's Cypresses, a cute little string quartet by Schubert, and the Dvorak piano quintet. All three pieces were amazing in their own right....the Cypresses were breathtaking, and their performance was so moving and expressive....I couldn't see any of them (except occasionally I got a glimpse of the cellist's fingerboard) and it sounded like I was listening to one musician on one instrument.....it was beyond ensemble. It was CRAZY. The Schubert was really cute...there's no other word for it. It was identified as the "Heurigen" quartet on the poster, but not in the program....if that was true I would laugh....leave it to Schubert! The piano quintet was freakin' crazy....the third movement? Anyone? Amazing? They even did it as their encore! (the audience did the eastern European clap-in-unison-meaning-reprise-your-best-piece schtick....I honestly didn't know that they did that here! also....OS X knows that schtick is a word! I'm so proud....) After the concert we took the arranged taxi back to the train station in Mödling and boarded the Schnellbahn. When the guy came to stamp our tickets (which they did not do our first time out for the other concert) he frowned and said that the tickets that we bought at the Südbahnhof couldn't be used to get us back there....we were all quite scared of having to pay the €60 fine or whatever it is, but he didn't even admonish us (it wasn't as if we hadn't spent the same amount of money) but just told us to do it next time. After getting back to the city, we dropped by the Schönbrunner Straße apartments, where Reb, Miriam, Mary Rose, Jill, and them were having a little party. It was fun, and lots of cool people were there.....it wasn't a huge drunk party like Thursday, but a fun little get-together with lots of good food and delicious Glühwein (spiced wine served hot) Mike and I stayed until everyone went to bed, and had a hilarious conversation on the way back to our respective apartments (I walked back, since the U-bahn had already stopped running, and my place isn't far at all....). When I came back, everyone and their grandmother was in our apartment at Mike's farewell bash, sponsored by Nick and JB. They were up until very late....I graciously paid my respects to Mike and hung out for a while, and then retired.

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to meet Mike and Kate for 11:00 mass at the Augistinerkirche. I met Mike at the Kettenbrückengasse station at 10 so we could get there nice and early and get good seats. They were doing Haydn's Nelsonmesse, as well as a couple of Mozart things as Gradual and Offertorium. It was fun....I got yelled at by the woman in front of me for talking to Mike.....10 minutes before Mass started, I was talking in hushed tones (albeit not a whisper) while the general murmur drifted from the back from all the people standing, and she turned around and said in the most contemptuous tone of English I've heard here yet: "would you please be quiet!" I stopped talking immediately, and of course didn't talk during the service. (not that I would have had she not so admonished me....but how did she know that?) Also, maybe she was mad because I was talking about the Apocrypha.....midway during the homily I realized that what I should have done when she yelled at me was immediately replied (a lá Vader) "I find your lack of faith disturbing." For some reason she left after the Gloria....whatever. I wasn't going to let her ruin my experience there. The music was pretty darn good.....I like the choir's sound far better from the loft than from the front of the church where they stood for the Requiem.....whatever. It was really cool to go to a real Catholic mass (no wine for parishoners! is that normal in the States? I thought maybe Vatican II had covered that....) with a classical mass thrown in. After mass we went to Nordsee for lunch, and then we headed Stephansdom so that I could buy a ticket for Elijah in November. I had been before, but the guy apparently thought I was on crack and didn't believe me that there was going to be a performance of Elijah, and kept trying to sell me tickets to the Schubert concert that week.....on Sunday, however, the guy still didn't know about Elijah and had to call his superior to find out where the physical tickets were. Apparently I was very early to buy tickets, then, so I spent a little extra for good seats (front row, baby!) he also claimed that there wasn't a student discount, even though it said there was on the flyer in my hand....not feeling in the mood to argue, I just paid the full price of €40 (I think I only would have saved €4 or so.....)

After that they went back home and I went to the Staatsoper to wait in line for Stehplatz tickets for that night's opera, Das Rheingold, which is the first of the four-opera Ring Cycle of Wagner. They are only playing each opera once, so I figured that there would be a ton of people there, and since I had nothing better to do I thought I might as well get there really early and just wait in line for a long time and get a nice spot in the front row of the Parterre. Sure enough, when I got there at 2:30 (4.5 hours before curtain) I was fourth in line! We were waiting outside the doors, since they don't even open the doors into the building until 3 hours before curtain. I read Gödel, Escher, Bach and slept for a while, and after much waiting I found myself very near the center of the front row of Parterre marking my place! To celebrate my liberation from the line, I went across the street and treated myself to a pre-opera Apfelstrudel and coffee at Aida, which was delicious! I went back twenty minutes later (still more than 30 minutes before curtain) and found a strange man standing in my spot. Needless to say I was surprised, but thought perhaps that he had marked a place near me and was just standing there idly....no, in fact, he had seen the markings of me and my neighbor, and somehow decided that he was going to be a bitch and try to fit himself in between us.....he was trying to use the old "they oversell the Parterre" trick (which is true) and there was no room anywhere else, but when an usher came over, they were not impressed. He moved out of the front row, and I think ended up standing up in a shitty spot near the back in the center without a rail...I don't know. Luckily the Japanese woman next to me spoke perfect German and handled the confrontation very well.....I tend to be too passive in those situations, especially in other languages. We ended up having a great conversation (the longest conversation I've had purely in German where I've understood everything) about different things....mostly bagging on the jerk who thought he was slick enough to trick the system. At one point she mentioned something about a similar experience she had had in China, and how the word for China means "center of the world." I nodded knowingly and traced it out with my finger on my program. She nodded excitedly, and asked if I had taken Chinese or Japanese, and I said yes, etc. (luckily she didn't try to speak to me in Japanese....that would not have worked to well for me)

The opera itself was..............long. 2 hours and 45 minutes long, to be precise, and no intermission or sitting break......that aspect of it was a little undesirable, but what are you gonna do? The music was fantastic.....you know that the opera's going to be long when the overture is something like 7 minutes of just Eb that eventually moves to Ab when the singers come in.....I thought to myself "you mean we just had 7 minutes of V?????????? Oh Wagner....." The staging, sets, and costumes were all........well, not very good. All the musical aspects: the vocalists, the orchestra....all were fantastic. When the Rhine maidens were bouncing around on an unseen sub-stage level trampoline to simulate moving in water, and when the Rhinegold itself was just a gold drape over Superman's-cave-like stalagmites, I thought I had seen the worst. Well, not really. Valhalla (only seen from a distance by the Gods) was a giant cube. A freakin' cube, for crying out loud! Oh, and let's not even mention Loki's costume....or Freya! She looked like a Swedish maid with her blond hair little basket......jeez. Also the acting wasn't very good...tons of semaphore....and slow, methodical sweeping movements representing simple emotions......some of them looked like they were under a Martha Graham sheet or something.....but, like I said, the music was fantastic. And although it was fun to get there early and see everything else up close, next time I'll come at a more reasonable time with everyone else and stand up in the Gallery and be happier.

After the opera the strangest thing happened to me.....I first noticed it while waiting for my coat, when I noticed that the girl at the counter didn't have a left eye.....it seemed to be just skin and no socket or anything. When I looked straight at it, though, the eye appeared, but then it looked as if the other girl behind the counter didn't have a mouth. Looking around the room, I quickly realized what was happening: I had somehow developed (what later turned out to be temporary) scotomata, or temporary blind spots, in my eyes! It was interesting, because I got to experience all the phenomena associated with scotomata that I'd read about, mostly the brain's ability to fill in the blank information by way of pattern recognition.....I won't go into all the details, but sufficed to say that I was glad that Mike and Jess and everyone walked with me to the U-bahn, because there were a couple of times when I wasn't too sure on my feet because of my impaired vision. Strangely enough, as quickly as they had appeared after the opera, I blinked on the subway and my vision was completely normal again! That night I had a bad headache and sinus pressure.....my research this morning told me that temporary scotomata occur in some people before a migraine headache, so that at least explained it! (Mike and I just called it "The Aneurism"....) After a long night of troubled sleep, I awoke this morning.

Class this morning was fairly benign.....I worked between German and AA&A, and had to work an extra hour because Gretel didn't realize that she was supposed to work, and so I had to deal with the 10:15-11:00 rush to return overnight books....which is unimaginably frustrating with the card catalogue system......AA&A was relatively boring, and Music history relatively short. After class I bought the last bit of groceries I could possibly need for a long while, and went home. Gretchen came at 7:15, and we had dinner and planned out our oral presentation for German. She left, my roommates and I watched South Park, and now they're all out at a bar. Almost 3 hours after I started writing, I am done! Now to go to bed and sleep until late tomorrow!! (no class....it's Nationalfeiertag tomorrow.....like 4th of July) Well...not too late, because I have a tour for Classical Symphony at 10:30...........silly Solvik!

New Photos!

So soon?? I know...but I've taken lots and lots of pictures in two days! Organ lessons, birthday parties, early music concerts........the works!

First Organ Lesson and Birthday Party

Paycheck from Library: €140 income
Book of Renaissance organ music: €18
Lunch at Nordsee: €2.10
The two cutest postcards EVER: €3
First organ lesson with Gottfried Zyklan: €16
Two drinks at Birthday Party: €9
A rose for the Birthday Girl: €2

Playing organ for the first time in almost three months: Priceless


Class this morning was pretty normal....we were supposed to go to the Haydn museum for Classical Symphony today, and before class Mike and I went to Doblinger so that he could get Schirmer opera anthology, and I got this awesome book of renaissance music for organ (mostly italian) which looks like tons of fun. On the way back we had a small lunch at Nordsee, which is this take-out/eat-in seafood place....I got a really, really delicious fish sandwich for relatively little money....After lunch we went back to school to meet the rest of the class for the tour, but as it turns out, the Haydn museum is closed between 12:15 and 1:00 or something, which is right when we would have been there, so instead we went to (drumroll please....) the Figaro House! That's right, the same place we went with Music History....so I got to go back, which was fun, especially since in a couple of weeks they're closing the museum for 1.5 years to do a huge renovation/expansion, so I won't get to see it again, but I had to go through the museum and listen to Solvik's speech about everything again....it was a bit repetitive, but now I feel like I know the museum in and out....it's burned into my memory. After the tour, I printed out the scanned copies of the organ piece (Mader: Benedictus) which the 'rents and C Brown were nice enough to procure and send to me.....(it worked perfectly!! Thank you!!) so then I practiced a bit (the organ stuff on piano) until there were coachings in that practice room and Greta kicked me out....after that I dicked around at school, then went home and dicked around a bit more, then left at 4:30 for my 6:00 organ lesson, to make sure that I could make tons of mistakes and still get there on time.

I actually made no mistakes and got there way way way early.....the lesson took place at the (maybe private?) school where Gottfried teaches called Marianum, which is in the 18th district. Getting there involved taking two U-bahn lines towards the Gürtel, then waiting for a Straßenbahn to take me from the Gürtel the rest of the way. The Straßenbahn was a pretty short walk form the school, which I found with no difficulty. I got there ridiculously early, so I walked around for a while enjoying the cute suburb and taking a few pictures. I walked into the school and up to the chapel fashionably early, and at exactly 6:00 Gottfried walked up the door. Introductions were made and we headed into the chapel. It was a great space, and the organ is beautiful. He's also a really great guy....his English isn't fantastic (it's way better than my German) so we spoke a lot of German...it was good practice, and we each learned a lot (he'd occasionally ask me what a word was in English, etc.....) I have no idea how old the organ is, but my instinct says pretty old.....150 years, maybe? I honestly have no idea, and I'm probably way off.....but it is all manual, no electropneumatic anything, and fairly small....only 16 stops or so. (the Mader, for instance, would have been interesting without all the registration choices and swell boxes.....I didn't play it for him) It sounds beautiful, though, except for one stop which sounds disturbingly like a bagpipe (it's even out of tune in some of the same ways!). The pedals are so different....they're smaller and closer together, and the black keys are not much higher than the white keys.....I kept accidentally playing Eb when I hit D because the other side of my foot was grazing the Eb pedal, a problem which didn't come up nearly as much on the Oxy organ. Anyway, I played the 'Bach' Prelude that I've been doing for some time.....it definitely had lost of a bit of whatever luster it had.....anyway, we had a really great 40-minute lesson for the low, low price of €16 (he only charges €25/hour!! I think he's worth way more though....) he gave me lots of great advice, mostly re-iterating things that either James or David had said to me, but that i had just forgotten to apply, but also some really good stylistic techniques for playing the Bach which I really liked....it'll be nice to sort of focus on stuff that will sound good on the organ, like baroque and classical churchy stuff....the French stuff and the modern stuff not so much (I saw the funniest book at Doblinger today....it was a book of improvisations for organ which could be stretched or shrunk to fit whatever space you needed....but it was called "Plugging the Gaps"). I talked to him about when I could practice, and he said that after his lessons on Mondays he can let me into the chapel and I can stay to practice for 2 hours or so, and I can stay after my lessons for a while to practice. It's not too much time, but it's probably as much time as I would spend on it anyway.......so after the lesson I stayed behind, worked on the stuff we talked about, re-read some of the old favorites, and sight-read some stuff from later in the Organist's Manual......it was really fun to play again, and especially on such a cool organ in such an intimate space. I can't wait until I get to go back and play again! It was also nice to communicate with someone in German....it gave me the sense that, given the opportunity/necessity, I can communicate effectively!

After leaving the school I took a slightly different route back home (it turned out to be quicker to take U4-U2 instead of U4-U6.....) and helped make a simple dinner of penne and half-homemade sauce with Kielbasa for Nick, Mike, and myself. After that we prepared to go to the huge joint birthday party that happened tonight.....Hannas, Mel, and Beth decided to have a joint birthday party at this club near our apartment....they rented it out for the night, which was cool because it was just IES kids in the bar (and we about filled it.....it turned out to be quite the social event) and two drinks (whiskey sour and tequila sunrise) were discounted for us.....I had one of each, and I enjoyed the whiskey sour much more.....I had an amazing time.....four of us from Dürergasse (Nick, JB, Dave and me) even put together an ad hoc barbershop arrangement of happy birthday, which we sang to the birthday peeps with resounding success.....it was tons of fun. I was pretty tipsy, but the room wasn't spinning or anything....I had a fantabulous time with all my friends just being loud and crazy....I couldn't do it too often, but it was a fun way to end a week which felt hecka long. Now, I go to bed before I pass out on the keyboard, and hopefully sleep until late, late, late!

Yay for Early Music!!

Ticket & Program at Musikverein: €34.70

Laughing with Kelsey over the phone like always: Priceless


First, the concert: well, actually, first the boring first part of my day. I was awoken by the sound of Frau Hinteregger's in the foyet talking to my roommates about the attempted break-in.....after talking to her about what I had seen and speculated, I showered, packed up my stuff, and headed to school to drop off my stuff before AA&A tour. Today we went to the lower Belvedere to look at their collection of medieval art, which was pretty interesting. There were a couple of pieces, like this early gothic Madonna which really grabbed me, and the rest were really just generic medieval. The tour finished ridiculously late, so I was late relieving Laura at work, which I felt really bad about. I worked until Music History, which was as interesting as it ever is.....after that I ran to the opera to see if there were any tickets for La Traviata on a different day, but the same thing: only really expensive seats were left. Tomorrow I'm going to figure out an opera I want to see in December and buy tickets to it now....I want to sit down at an opera before I leave, by gum! After that I went to Jeunesse over by the Musikverein to buy tickets for the early music concert in the MV's Brahmssaal, one of their smaller venues. Apparently Jeunesse doesn't sell tickets to those events, so I went to the regular ticket counter and got a €32 parterre (orchestra level) seat to the concert. I was pretty psyched about going, since it was a concert of Franco-flemish high renaissance sacred music.

Indeed, the concert was quite good! I had never been to the Brahmssaal, and following the signs I found my way to the second floor (European)....I asked the Garderobe woman where the Brahmssaal and she pointed to the open door, so I checked my jacket and went in, only to find that it was the balcony of the Brahmssaal! I had to go all the way back down tot he ground level and then back up a separate flight of stairs to the first floor and the parterre of the Brahmssaal.....my seats were good, though....row 16 in the middle! It's a pretty small venue as those things go, and it was sort of intimate (nothing like Heiligenkreuz, though....) The conductor was ridiculously old and strange, and the three brass players were normal looking, except for their instruments, which looked like strange small versions of the modern trombone. One of them played this recorder/trumpet thing that sounded like a cross between a C trumpet and a clarinet....it was bizarre! The choir, which was the something something part of the Vienna Boy's Choir, was dressed in these weird get-ups.....pictures will be uploaded eventually....they really defy description....I wonder if they wear these all the time or if they were like period dress things...I don't know. Anyway, they did some stuff by de la Rue, Josquin, Obrecht, Isaac, and a bunch of other people I'd never heard of. They basically did one instrumental piece, then a vocal piece, etc. The Josquin and Isaac pieces were far, far better than the other stuff they played. It wasn't until the intermission that I discovered that no-one, singers, brass players, nor conductor, was reading from a score, or even from music in modern notation! Everyone was reading what looked like 19th-century-or-later reprintings of the original parts, even in the original notation style....diamond note-heads, no bar lines, and no looking at what other people are doing! As an encore they did a piece from reading one piece of music which stood on a special double-music stand. (hard to describe, but once again, there are pictures) It was generally a good concert, and stylistically very faithful to our understanding of performance practice. All in all, a really worthwhile experience!

After I got home I watched South Park with Jess and the flatmates, and then I called Kelsey at work.....we hadn't talked in a very very long time, and it was great to talk to her again. Really great. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time! It made me miss her, and home, a lot more than I have been. Anywho, it was a riotously good time, and now I'm so tired that I really must go to bed right now....I have my first organ lesson tomorrow, and I can't fall asleep in Gottfried's lap!

New Photos!

Photos of construction, Harnoncourt, Requiem, and 1516 revelry!

Another Masterclass

Junk food: €1.45
14 stamps: €17.50
The one and only ticket left for Traviata on Saturday: €218 (of course I didn't buy it!)
CD of Marlene Dietrich singing german cabaret songs: €6.50
Groceries: €16.20

Coming home to find your lock plate broken off: Scary as shit.


We weren't robbed, but the bottom part of our lock was detached and lying on the floor, just as had been done to force entry into the apartment above us........when I saw the plate on the floor I was so afraid I almost screamed. The thought that we could have been robbed just scared me to death. Someone must have tried to get in, and it's a good thing they didn't succeed....a lot of stuff could have been stolen. We're going to talk to the landlady tomorrow (we called tonight rather late tonigh, and she didn't answer) so we'll see....hopefully having failed on the second attempt they won't try again. In any case, my computer stays with me through thick and thin....if someone stole it I don't know what i would do.....

The rest of my day was OK....Classical Symphony was more interesting today, but nothing has really shaken me up yet in that class. Vocal Workshop was mercifully short because Russell had to perform tonight.....we stopped at 6:00, after only three people (not I!) had sung. I talked to two more people about doing the Schütz, and they're both down with it....all I need to do now is find another woman and either convince Mike to sing Tenor II or try talking to Matt....I don't really know Matt, though, and I doubt that Schütz is his thing. The problem with both of them also is that they have very distinctive voices (Matt's especially) and I don't know how they would work in a group, especially the group I have so far. I guess I'll have to sing, but I was hoping to play piano....oh well. We'll see. Nothing much else happened...I bought a Scheiß-load of groceries at Hofer today, so hopefully I really won't have to go shopping for a while.....I got staples like pasta, sauce, bread, cheese, yogurt, things like that.....not the specific stuff like sausage and other things where quality is important....I buy those at Merkur. Nick and I made some awesome pasta with Hofer sauce as the base and adding green bell peppers, onion, garlic, oregano, and this lovely sausage that he had bought whose name escapes me....oh it was delicious! I listened to music for a while after dinner.....I also saw that tomorrow they're doing Franco-flemish high renaissance motets at the Konzerthaus, so hopefully I can get tickets for that tomorrow! (yay!) Now for early bedtime!

[note to self: Nick is out with Beth......yeah I don't know what's going on with that......it's not terribly late, but still....he asked me to "wish him luck....."]

Harnoncourt Sunday and Boring Monday

Stehplatz Tickets at the Musikverein: €5
Program and Coat Check: €3.10
Junk Food: €8

Completing my four-night concert streak: Priceless


Sunday afternoon was fairly uninteresting....I woke up around 12:30, having slept on the futon, as described in my last entry. I spent most of Sunday afternoon dicking around doing minor cleaning and writing in my journal....also watching South Park with the roommates....but the day was not a complete waste, because I went to a concert last night! I figure that no matter how lazy my day is, if I go out and do one worthwhile thing in Vienna then it hasn't been a complete waste of a day. I had heard about a concert of Nicolas Harnoncourt and the Concertus Musicus Wien at the Musikverein, and having heard of Harnoncourt, and enjoying the few recordings of his that I have, I thought it might be really fun. When I found out Mike (roommate) was going, I decided to go for sure, and after scarfing down the dinner we were all making, Mike and I headed to the Musikverein in the hopes of getting last-minute tickets. Unfortunately when we got there, they were all sold out, so we just got Stehplatz. The concert was really quite excellent....they did a couple of pieces of Corelli, which were good. I must say that I've never enjoyed Corelli that much....both pieces were actually quite moving. Harnoncourt certainly has a way with late baroque/early classical....it just comes alive in his hands. There was some piece by Muffat, whom I've never heard of....last on the program were two things by Bach: a sonata or something, and then the 3rd orchestral suite (the one with the famous "Air on the G string" which, if it doesn't sound immediately familiar, I guarantee you'd recognize if you heard it). That piece was absolutely incredible....the trumpet parts were played by these natural horns things that looked like trombones with immovable slides.....it was really interesting. The sound they made was incredible, and it must have been way way hard to play, since there didn't seem to be valves or pistons or slides or anything...and those parts would be hard to play with just your lips....I guess that's what they were doing! (note to self: my favorite ornamentation: you know the C#-b in the 1st violins during the big b minor cadence after the double bar? usually the C# is the last sixteenth note of the previous measure, but he did it as a eighth-note appogiatura on the downbeat of the measure...it was wicked awesome....I love those 9-8 suspensions over minor chords!) The concert was just great, and hopefully this week I'm going to go back and buy tickets (honest-to-goodness sit-down tickets) to the Messiah, which Harnoncourt is conducting on the 18th of December. That whould be absolutely fantastic....ooh I can't wait!!

Today, nothing out of the ordinary. I worked after German, so I didn't do my Music History reading, and AA&A was a bit lugubrious today, but it was helpful to take notes on the laptop...her speech pattern and pattern of repetition is perfect to dictate while typing. After I got home I called the organ teacher whose name Frau Schachermeier gave me, but twice when I got his message machine it thought it was a fax, so I couldn't leave a message. I tried again later and finally talked to him...he seems really nice, his English is OK, and I just hope he knows that I suck at the organ! I mean, I had given Frau Schachermeier a pretty brutally honest description of my abilities, so I doubt she would have misrepresented me to him.....all in all I don't hink it'll matter that much....I just hope that I get to practice. I told him that I haven't played since August, and he sort of said "whoa!" in surprise and alarm..... Hopefully I can practice on the piano and regain some of my chops before the lesson....oh well. I'm having a lesson (of sorts) this Thursday at his school in the 18th district....apparently the school has a chapel with an organ. Well, that's about all I did today...(I certainly didn't listen to the Vanhal for Classical Symphony!) so I guess it's off to bed!

Long Saturday

Six-hour shift at Library: €30 income
Groceries: exactly €14.99 (damn I'm good!)
Mozart Requiem at Augistinerkirche: €17.50
Post-Requiem Drinks and Food at 1516: €14

Experiencing such profound emotions at a concert: Priceless


The day was longer usual because I had to get up at 9:00 to get to work on time...I was a bit late, truth be told, because I stopped at Anker to get their delicious pizza bread thing.....oh, SO good....anyway I moseyed on up to IES and prepared for my extra-long shift.....I wasn't scheduled to work this Saturday, but I switched Saturdays with Gretel to help her out, which worked out better because I think there's a concert I want to go to on the night of the Saturday in Novemeber that I was originally scheduled to work....I can't remember. In any case, it was nice to get the Saturday shift out of the way, and the best part is that I got absolutely nothing accomplished during work....it was a bit more labor-intensive than I had anticipated, because although not many people come to the center on Saturday, lots of people check out reserve books overnight on Friday, and so they have to lug them back to the library before 11:00 on Saturday....consequently, the first hour was a bit busy, and after that it got better....Mike came to visit before he practiced and we listened to music and watched South Park. (not at the same time!) After we work Mike and I went to the Merkur to do some grocery shopping (he had never been, you see...) and I got some staples and things to last me for the next week or so....after shopping I took him to the good gelato place by the Mariahilferkirche, which was delicious despite the cold, rainy weather outside. I went back home and cooked a little pasta for myself, as well as getting a bit of R&R after carrying all those damn groceries so far in the rain.....I also also tried to call the organist whose name Frau Schachermeier had given me, but he wasn't home, and I was too nervous to leave a message. I left for the church early and took a bit of a circuitous route through the Hofburg.....I waited outside for Mike for a while, and then went inside thinking he might have already gone to his seat....he hadn't, but I went to my seat anyway. The inside of the church was breathtaking....it was almost entirely white with beautiful chandeliers and beautiful statues everywhere....the altar was also gorgeous, and the chapel organ (or whatever the small one is called) was off to the left and stood out a bit from the somewhat stark feel of the white and carefully arranged statuary.....it wasn't like Stephansdom where there are intricate little decorations and statues and ridiculous things everywhere. There seemed to be an aura of simplicity about the church's design, which I suppose is typical of the style that it is.....I honestly don't know how old the church is......

In any case, the performance was pretty good.....the concert started by the orchestra, and then the choir followed by the conductor walking onto the 'stage' in complete silence: no applause. It must be a thing here: every concert I've been to at a church (except for Ruprechtskirche, which doesn't feel like a church in the same way because it's so small) people don't clap at all until the very very end of the concert. Anyway, before the Requiem they played Ave Verum Corpus, which is almost as beautiful as choral music can get, really.....the first D major sonorities that sounded from the string section as the piece began were some of the beautiful music I've ever heard....my heart flipped over three times as I stared at the conductor, not believing what I was hearing.....the church is almost too good acoustically....every sound becomes part of this beautiful gauzy mass of sound which envelops you even as it caresses......perfect for the Ave Verum. Even after the long pause between the Ave Verum and the start of Requiem (which seemed longer because of both the absence of applause and the 8 seconds that the last chord lingered audibly in the air) the change from D major at the end of the Ave Verum and the D minor at the very beginning of the Requiem was bone-chilling in its effect. The first three movements of the Requiem always get me....no matter what, and to hear them in such a great space transported me in a way I thought impossible. I'm reminded of what a friend of mine once said about opera: when Tosca dies, every diva dies, but when Violetta dies, EVERYONE dies. I think this is entirely true, but unlike either of those moments, during the first three movements of the Requiem, everyone I love is dying, and I am left alive and alone. That's literally the sadness I felt during those movements.....I was crying, of course, and I think the French woman that I was sitting next to thought I was insane....once the Tuba Mirum starts, the spell starts to break, and after I re-lapse into profound sadness during the first 16 bars of the Lacrymosa, I settle into listening into Mozart (/Süßmayer) and although it's gorgeous, it's not gut-wrenching in the same way. It was only after the Lacrymosa that I started to notice the things I liked and didn't like about the conductor's treatment of the piece. For one thing, his tempi seemed good to me in an absolute sense, (e.g. half-note=84 for Dies Irae) but some of them were just too fast for the hall.....a lot of the time, especially in movements like the Recordare or the Hosanna, the effect was less beautiful and ethereal and more of a muddle....the suspensions in the solo parts of the Recordare, for instance, sounded weird because you could barely hear how they were resolved. Despite this, however, both the choir and the orchestra had a tremendous sense of phrase....the violin line in the first two bars of the Lacrymosa, for instance, was exquisitely phrased and worked well with the acoustics of the hall, with the effect that the third eighth-note (always the resolution to the chordal tone) was perceived as much, much softer than the dissonant note before it, but it had just enough presence to speak through the echo of the dissonant note....this is a rather inefficient explanation to what, when I experienced it, was just surpassing beauty. There were times, however, when the conductor's sense of phrase was a bit....well, strange...I've been trying to remember when he got really choppy.....well, there was a big pause between the two syllables of the word "Irae," which made it sound like little punches instead of a tapered phrase. Oh yeah! It was the Rex Tremendae where it got all weird....the movement started completely normally in a decent tempo, but after the two exclamations of "Rex" by the choir, at the part where they come in for the first time with "Rex tremendae majestatis" homorhythmically with the orchestra he slowed WAY the heck down....it was kind of jarring how all of a sudden everyone was in a completely different tempo....he did it again at the other homorhythmic treatment of the same text. Other these couple of places, though, I thought his interpretation was darn good, and in the end it was all sounded gorgeous in the church.

After the concert I met Mike, Natalie, Carla, Mel, Naomi, and Bobby, who were all at the Requiem also (but I had purchased my tickets last week and splurged a bit to get tickets in the center aisle, so I was sitting alone) and we went to 1516, which is a pretty nice bar in the 1st district. (it's popular with the IES students because it's close, fairly cheap, and the wait staff speaks good English) We sat in this little back room on the second floor with little windows looking out on the hallway, which made for some interesting people-watching, and it was nice that it wasn't as loud or smoky as the rest of the place. We had two rounds of Cosmos without Triple Sec, (which they didn't have....just vodka and cranberry juice is called a Cape Cod or something), except Mike, who had Scotch, and Bobby, who had the house lager. I shared an order of potato wedges with Carla, which were delicious....I've been finding out that whenever I drink I get ridiculously hungry....it's a weird phenomenon which I'm not sure that I like. Hannas met up with us at 1516 and we stayed there for a few hours.

After drinks and much revelry we went back home....Hannas and Natalie were practicing their Bell Kicks, or whatever they're called, in the Opernpassage to the U4....it was just hi-larious, and I managed to get a great shot of them together in mid-air. After getting home, I remembered that I had told Becky that I would watch the Lemmiwinks episode of South Park with her after the Requiem....I rushed up to her apartment, and since both her and Jess were awake we decided to watch it even though it was late.....Jess told me all about going to the rugby game with Cabot and Todd, and it sounded like fun! I should try to go to one sporting event while I'm here.....in any case during Lemmiwinks Brad showed up, and we ended up watching four episodes before we went to bed. When I got back downstairs I decided to sleep on the futon, since I had kept Nick awake the night previous with my coughing and he had decided to sleep on the futon, I thought since it was so late I would just crash there, rather than risk keeping him up two nights in a row....I doubt I coughed much last night, but after two drinks and a sufficient amount of sleep deprivation, sleeping on the futon in the living room seemed like a fantastic idea. Seeing as how Sunday is half-over, I should probably do something with today and stop writing my journal about yesterday! ^_^ Oop! Laundry's done!

New Photos!

New photos! Sorry for not posting in so long....if you've been waiting since Monday for postings, make sure to scroll down to the Tuesday and Wednesday post and read up from there!

Müde Freitag

First Lesson with Michelle Friedmann: €50 (free after mail-in rebate from IES)
Sandwich and Fruit tart: €5
Stehplatz Tickets, Opera Glass rental, and a program at the Staatsoper: €7.50
Mozarttorte and a water at Café Mozart: €6

Having delicious pastries and watching Sex and the City with friends after a fantastic evening: Priceless


This morning I felt really really moody and tired......I got up around 12 in no mood to face the day ahead.....it must have been the rain, but in any case I felt in stark contrast to yesterday, where I was Mr. Personality take-on-the-world chat-up-everyone-around-me person.....today I've been sort of blasé about a lot of things. I went to Schönbrunner Straße to practice briefly before my lesson, and despite a working knowledge of the bus route to Michelle's house (having already been there yesterday, thinking that was the day I had my lesson) I still arrived very early. I killed the time by wandering around the neighborhood and taking pictures.....then I went back to her apartment for my lesson. It was really quite good....she has very good ways of telling you how to modify your sound, and as much as I learned about vocal technique in the hour with her, I learned almost as much about rehearsal/coaching technique....I noticed, for example, the rudimentary hand movements that she used to inspire certain changes in my sound, and pondered how I could use them to my own advantage. In any case, the lesson was a lot of fun and very rewarding, and I think I'm going to learn a lot from her while I'm here. After my lesson I walked down the street towards the Straßenbahn, which I intended to take up to the opera house to meet Mike for Tosca. As I'm walking, however, someone ran up behind me and grabbed my back....it was Mike, but he scared the living heck out of me! Anyway, we went up to the opera to wait in line for standing room tickets, and the line was surprisingly shorter than we had expected.....he figured that since the show started at 7:00, by 5:15 (when we got there) there would already be a sizeable line....not so, however! We then looked over and saw that the time of the performance had been changed to 8:00, which would explain why there were fewer people there.....anyway Carla, Natalie, Jess, and Naomi were also behind us in line, so we all stood together up in the Gallery. (the highest level)

After reserving our spots, Naomi, Natalie, and I went down to the subway station to eat....we all got sandwiches at the big Anker down there, and Natalie and I had pastries after our meal as well. Back in the opera house, I noticed a sign while checking my coat: "Opernglasse €2" Not realizing that renting opera glasses were so cheap, I had never thought to do it before....but since we were up in the gallery and my ticket only cost €2, I figured I might as well spend another €2 on binoculars so I can see what's going on! (Boy were they worth it, too!) Anyway, we went to our places and got ready for the show to start, Mike still explaining the plot to me (in a nutshell). For some reason I had gotten it into my pretty little head that Tosca was by Verdi....don't ask me how, but I could have sworn that I saw his name on the large playbills in the lobby....in any case, throughout the opera I was surprised at how uncharacteristically Verdi the music was....in fact, I really couldn't get over it! The whole time I thought to myself "this must be VERY late Verdi....my God it almost sounds like Puccini!" Well, the opera IS by Puccini, of course, as I would find out after the show....how stupid I felt! I loved it, though, much more than Bohéme.......the music was just way better. I also really liked the cast....Jess and Mike were ragging a bit on the woman who played Tosca, but I really liked her voice.....I don't know....if there's one thing I'm not, it's a snob about singers in 19th century italian opera........the sound is a bit better in the Gallery, I suppose, but it was kind of weird when we saw Tosca's hair bounce as she landed behind the parapet.....it kinda decreased the dramatic tension to remember that she's not actually dying.....whatever. It was still an amazing production.....Scarpia was jaw-dropping.......absolutely out of this world.....anyway, after the show we went to go to this Café which is supposed to be the best (and most expensive) in Vienna. When we got there however, it was closed. (of course....I don't know why anyone was surprised....I guess I had just assumed that someone had checked....) We wandered around the first district for a while trying to find a place that we hadn't been to that was open, but in the end we found our way back at the opera at Café Mozart, where neither Mike nor I had been. It was a cute little place....a little pricey, but nothing outrageous. And the torte!! Amazingly delicious....I had a bite of everyone's dessert.....after that we went back to Dürergasse to watch some Sex and the City. (as Natalie pointed out, what else are you going to do in Vienna after 11:00 at night?) It was a gay old time, I have to say, but it was fun. The funniest part was Carrie's line about how all the brownstones on her street were "over one hundred years old!!" We all laughed uproariously, especially at the irony of us watching the show in Vienna....after one episode the girls went to bed, and Mike and I went down to my place and watched two more......he just went home, and now I'm going to go to bed and pretend that my flatmates didn't leave a gi-nourmous mess in the kitchen.....tomorrow I have a nice 6-hour shift at the library, after which I'm seeing Mozart's Requiem at the Augistinerkirche!! I'm so excited!!

Sick....but still a fun day

[I got an idea on the subway today which is kinda cheesy, but I think it's kinda cute as a little preamble....plus it'll help me keep track of my expenses.....at the beginning of my entries I'll list important things I spent my money on and my favorite part of the day......here goes.........]

Tropfen for my cough: €6.50
Stehplatz Tickets and Program for Wie es Euch Gefällt at the Staatsoper: €7.00
Three coffees, one Apfelstrudel, and one nutty pastry at Aida: €11

Making new friends at the opera and cooking for your drunk roommates: Priceless


Well, I certainly felt sick this morning, at least...I broke my perfect attendance streak today by not going to either German or Classical Symphony.....I felt really bad (physically), but I also felt guilty, as I usually do when missing school. I got out of bed at around 1 o'clock because I remembered that I had to meet Dr. Scheier to discuss the presentation I'm doing for him. on the way to IES I went to the Apotheke to get some medicine for my cough and stuffy nose....I told the person at the Apotheke my symptoms, and she looked at me as if to say "that's nice..." so I asked her what medicine I should take, and she said, almost sarcastically, "Tropfen?" I thought that she meant cough drops, and so I tried to communicate to her that the cough wasn't from my throat, it was from my chest. She sort of stared at me, and then went back and got the Tropfen she was talking about....it turns out the bottle of "Tropfen" she sold me was basically concentrated medicine...20 drops and 1 ml of water is one dose....I have no idea what's in it, but it worked pretty darn well. After that I met with Dr. Scheier (very briefly) and turned in my emergency absentee ballot (silly LA county never sent me one...unfortunately that means that I could only vote for President and Representatives, and not for any of the of the California propositions or anything....oh well.) After that I went to my Michele's house for my voice lesson, only to find out (from her husband, who answered the door very confusedly) that my voice lesson is actually tomorrow.....I can't believe I entered it wrong in my calendar! Well, at least I'll feel better tomorrow when I actually have a voice lesson. After that I went home and quickly ate dinner and headed off to the opera to see the ballet: Wie es Euch Gefällt (As You Like It). In line I met this Canadian couple that's traveling through Europe for a month and is in Vienna for two days....their names were Daryl and Audrey....they were really really cool. They were in front of me in line and were voicing their uncertainties about how the system worked, so I chimed in and answered their question. They asked me more things about the Staatsoper, and we struck up a conversation. (a couple of other people in line, hearing how I had helped Audrey and Daryl, came up to me to ask questions too....it was hilarious) After talking with them for a while, I asked them if they were Canadian, and Audrey said "the accent, right?" It was the accent that made me sure, I told her, but I had a feeling they were because they lacked obnoxiousness, which most American tourists have in abundance. (she laughed, but agreed) After we got our spots, I took them to Café Aida and treated them to coffee and Strudel....it was a good time! We came back to our spots before the show and the man behind me asked me if he could look at my program (I splurged and got one....and I'm glad I did....without it I would not have had the slightest clue what was going on); he was American...from the midwest, although I'm not positive......we ended up having an interesting conversation about romantic music and 19th century British composers (he disagreed with the assertion that there were no good British composers between Purcell and Britten). I felt like such a social butterfly! It was fun....much more fun than the ballet! It was OK..........basically it was the story of As You Like It done in ballet with Mozart orchestral works for the music. but a bit too abstract and pantomime for my taste....they also messed with the Mozart pieces that were chosen....for instance two of the pieces were improvisations on pieces by Mozart, one of which did not resemble Mozart AT ALL.....also there were moments where I think they changed Mozart's music rather overtly, such as in one piece when the horns entered in the "wrong key" (twice), or the three-octave whole-tone scale in the cadenza of one of the violin concerto movements they played.....the choreography, although amazingly complicated and exquisitely performed, was just too weird for me.....I can't explain it. Oh well, it was fun and all, I got to meet some awesome people.

When I got home, no one was home and there was a huge mess in the kitchen, which meant that all my roommates had probably been drinking (which was completely true). I cleaned up the kitchen before they got home, at which time I made potatoes and Kielbasa for us to have as a small meal (I felt so maternal and domestic!! it must have been the coffee before the ballet.....) It was fun, especially seeing Nick and Cabot so wasted (they usually don't drink so much......) Now I must be off to bed....gotta get some rest before my lesson tomorrow!

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday was relatively interesting....German was pretty normal, Classical Symphony was way more fun because I actually was prepared for discussion (Mike and I listened to the Wagenseil symphony we were supposed to analyze together before class....it was fun, and it's actually a really great piece! but who's ever heard of Georg Christoph Wagenseil? I sure hadn't......). After class he had to do laundry (at IES, since he doesn't have a laundry machine in his apartment), so since I had time to kill we watched a couple of episodes of South Park on my computer in the lobby while his clothes were washing. After he put his clothes in the dryer I convinced him to come with me to music stores to see if I could buy a copy of the Schütz Musikalische Exequien.....I talked to Russell about conducting it in the workshop but I didn't bring my Glee Club score....but I figured that since it is one of my favorite pieces of all time I should really invest in an actual score. We went to the place on Krügelstraße (by the yummy Würstel and Pizza stand) but they didn't have it, so we went to Dopplinger which, although a little farther away (but still in the 1st district) has a much bigger selection. I had been there once before, so I went in and went to the early music section. I was dismayed to realize, however, that there wasn't any chamber or even vocal music in this section. I then realized that they didn't seem to have any choral music at all! This distressed me, certainly, but I decided to ask someone for help anyway. (which, as I'm sure you know, is something I am nervous about doing even in my own country and my own language) I went up to a guy and said "Entschuldigung, können Sie mir bitte helfen? Ich suche der Musikalische Exequien von Heinrich Schütz." (it took me a full minute to gather up the courage to say it, and to make sure it wasn't grammatically horrible) Without a moment's hesitation he said something along the lines of "Ja, genau. Es ist in unsere andere Gebäude" or something.....he said it was in their other building. I sort of stared at him, so he just told me to go out, turn left, and it was the next building down. (since scaffolding obstructs the view of the front of almost all the buildings on the block, this was not immediately obvious, you see.) Mike and I went to the other building, only to find a bunch of pop/rock/soundtrack piano/vocal arrangements and the like, so naturally I was surprised that I was supposedly going to find a 16th century piece of sacred choral music here. Seeing another room in the back, I entered it; it was full of old, used music, some of it strange, obscure, and downright weird. Anyway, I saw a sign that said "Choral Music Second Floor" in German, so I rushed up the stairs. What awaited me was somewhat how I pictured heaven. Imagine, if you will, Ollivander's wand shop from Harry Potter, except maybe a little bigger. Now, replace all the boxes of wands with bins full of choral music, and replace Ollivander himself with two friendly Austrian women. Still somewhat in shock, I asked one of them for the Schütz. She turned and, as if she had the old warlock's encyclopaedic memory of what each bin contained, went right to the right section and retrieved two editions of the Schütz, which she handed to me. I looked at both of them, and ended up choosing the same one we used in Glee Club, partially because the other one, although more "authentic" in the nerdy early music sense, would have been way harder for the vocalists to read, and also because it was half the price of the other one. (I was tempted to start singing it, but I was afraid bins might start flying off the shelves or something.) I paid for it, and as I left I half-expected to see Mike in the doorway with a caged owl and a toothsome grin! (it's funny, because he's also a friendly tall person....) After returning to IES and retrieving Mike's dry clothes, we decided to have dinner and have a South Park marathon at his place. We stopped at my place to pick up yoghurt for the fruit salad and the South Park CDs, and then we walked to his apartment, which is about 3 blocks down the Linke Wienzeile. (it's moderately close....less than one subway stop) We had pizza and fruit with yoghurt, which was very good. I also got to meet his quasi-eccentric landlord, which was fun. We then watched South Park for about 3 hours, after which I went home. JB got home shortly after I did, and he convinced me to stay up with him and watch "Airplane!", so we watched it.

Today I had an interesting schedule: Tour, Work, Tour, Work! I woke up a bit late and had to rush to Stephansdom for the AA&A tour, which was very, very interesting. I won't go into all the details, but it was fun to hear about the history of the church's construction, and also all the little legends behind all the relics and statues and things. After that I had to run back to IES to work at the library, and right after work I met the rest of my music history class for our tour of the Figarohaus, the apartment where Mozart lived while writing Figaro. That was very, very fun, and Dr. Solvik had a lot of interesting things to say about Mozart, especially about his life in Vienna. It was a trippy experience to walk on the same floor where Mozart walked (literally the same floor....they stripped down all the layers to reveal the original wood). Right after that tour I went back to the library for another 2.5 hour shift! After work I wolfed down a kebap (the only food I had had up to that point) and went back to Stephansdom to meet JB and Jess for the organ concert there. The concert was really really good, with works by Bach, Franck, and a lot of other composers I wasn't familiar with (including a couple composers from Poland, the homeland of the organist that was playing....according to the program he tries to play Polish music a lot here in Austria) Some pieces were organ and trumpet, and some (like the Bach and the Franck) were just organ. All the pieces were really good, especially this one about windows...I don't remember the name, but the composed used the same chorale tune as the opening of the 1812 overture....when I first heard that chord progression in the piece, my head snapped up and I turned around and mouthed to JB: "1812?" and he nodded with a grin. It was really fun, albeit freezing cold outside. (not too bad in the church, though) After coming home I did my German homework, watched some Family Guy, and now I'm about ready to go to bed!

Another Monday

It was another Monday, all right, with its own ups and downs. German was especially funny today: we played a little game at the end of class, and the games Birgit comes up with are always a hoot. Here's how it worked: the class was divided up into two groups, and each group had to collectively come up with 8 funny infirmities, maladies, or bad situations (in German, of course). After both groups had come up with eight things, the groups took turns saying one of their problems and asking the other group for advice. The people in the other group then had to yell out (in German) as many pieces of advice as they could, funny or serious, and for each viable piece of advice their group received one point. Here's an example: one of our group's problems was "I made a face and it got stuck like that. What should I do?" The people in the other group came up with only two pieces of advice, I think...."get plastic surgery!" and "kill yourself!" so they received two points. The other group ended up winning, but our group came up with better problems, I think. We had crabs, purple hair, someone stole our nose, we even had premature ejaculation. (Birgit hat uns ein sehr lustiges Phrase gesagt.....sich (o. dir, Dativ!) einen runterholen)

After German my friend Gretel invited me to go have coffee, so we went to this little café right across the street from school on Johannesgasse. It was called Rühmann, or something....I can't remember.....The coffee was really really good (and inexpensive...only €2.20 for Melange, which is cappuccino and cream). Traditionally coffee is served with sugar, a glass of tap water (since coffee dehydrates you) and sometimes little macaroons or cookies or something. This place served delicious coconut-chocolate macaroon things which were out of this world....also, we had a table next to a slightly open window that looked out onto Johannesgasse, so we amused ourselves by calling out to passing IES students from the window who, due to the acoustics of the narrow street, could hear us perfectly but could not see us very well.....it was amazing to see the looks on people's faces as their names are called out, seemingly from the heavens, with no immediate explanation. We had tons of fun.

After the café I returned to the center and did the reading for Music History. AA&A was OK....if not a bit more boring than usual. My mind was really wandering during Music History.....I spent the time doodling and eventually inventing a cipher that evolved into a form of IPA, but with simpler characters that are easily combined for diphthongs, consonant combinations, etc. (yes, I was that bored....) After class I was going to go to see Schwannsee at the Staatsoper, but I was so tired (probably the lull from the coffee) that I couldn't bring myself to stand in line for two hours to see a three-hour ballet that I could wait until November to see anyway, so instead I decided to go straight home but vowed to put my time to good use to make up for not going to the ballet. I stopped at Billa to pick up soy sauce and soda, but since Pepsi Lite was on sale I just bought a six pack of 1.5 liter bottles @ €.59/bottle, which comes down to €.40 a liter, which is cheaper even than Merkur! (and that comes out to about $.45, which is a good price even for the States!) In any case, since I only had a €5 bill with me I couldn't get soy sauce too, but that's OK.

I went home and Cabot, Mike, and Nick were fixing dinner, which was delicious: chicken stir-fry and delicious fried basmati rice.....oh it was so good! The only real downer of today (which was a big one) was that our friends in the apartment upstairs were robbed. It was a serious affair, too....it probably involved at least three people. First, they seemed to know exactly when to do it....for one thing, all of them were in school, and the retired couple next door to them (who are always at home) happened to be on vacation this week. And why the 4th floor apartment? Why not ours or the one below us? Anyway, the managed to pry the lock open by breaking the plate off and doing something....I couldn't quite tell....anyway they went in and rummaged through everything and took only the good stuff: the two laptops, everyone's cameras, Naomi's cell phone, Natalie's one expensive bracelet, Natalie's passport (no one else's, though) and some other things which I can't remember. It ended up being about $10,000 worth of stuff. Not only that, but one of them took a bowel movement in their bathroom and left it there.....the whole thing was completely traumatizing to them, and really to everyone, because it could have been any of us. From now on, I think everyone will be more careful about deadbolting their doors and making sure the front door on the ground floor is closed and locked.

So, other than that, it was a good day! I talked to the 'rents, which was great! It always makes my day to hear from people back home....it reminds me that I actually have a home, and am not merely a stranger in a strange land. All right, now I'm off to bed!

New Photos!

Photos of the Musikverein, the Lange Nacht, Michelle's recital, and other things.

Lange Nacht der Museen

This morning I spent most of my time cleaning/waiting to hear from Amanda, who came to Vienna today and met me to drop off some of her stuff at my apartment while she travels.....I was more than happy to help her out, and it was nice to see her and hear about what she's been up to. While at home I managed to piggyback on someone's wireless internet, so for a little less than an hour I had internet, but only if I sat on Mike's bed, which is at the easternmost point in the apartment. Apparently the people on the top floor get the same network all the time, and with no lost connections....what eventually happened with me is that because the signal was so weak it would recognize that there was a signal, but it would not be able to reliably transfer any data, so I couldn't get online at all. But it was fun while it lasted, and if there's any emergency I can always go Dave or Jess' apartment upstairs. I also went shopping for groceries at Hofer, which was fun...I don't know why, but it seems I get all my heavy stuff there, so the walk back is always arduous, especially on Saturdays when I have to walk through the stupid flea market on the Wienzeile....after meeting up with Amanda I tooled around for a while before Dave (California Dave, as he's known....a different Dave than percussionist Dave with whom I went to Heiligenkreuz, the Musikverein, etc.) came downstairs with the enchiladas he had made....the were sooooo good! He had bought the tortillas, but he had made the both the salsa/enchilada sauce and the beans (which was apparently a two-day affair) completely from scratch. It was delicious, and he had made enough beans for both tonight and another enchilada night in the near future.

After the delicious dinner Mike, Brad, Jess, Dave and me went out to the Lange Nacht der Museen. Basically it's an event where 61 museums throughout the city are open from 6:00 pm until 1:00 am, and it only costs €10 for a pass into any and all of the participating museums, with a free shuttle service between different parts of the city. As we had expected there were tons and tons of people everywhere, but it was really fun to walk around the city with everyone else and be able to go to basically any museum for free! We went to the MQ first to buy our tickets and then went to the MUMOK, which is the contemporary art museum. I'll definitely be going back there at least twice....they had lots of really good pieces, and the museum is arranged in a very cool way. Somewhat similar to the modern art museum in San Francisco, the museum is tall and relatively thin with a bank of elevators and a large open space all the way down the center.....I won't go into many specific details because I'm so tired, but sufficed to say I will have to go back there and write more later! Perhaps the most interesting thing I saw there was these two guys dressed in yellow and black climbing up ropes to this large metal nest-looking thing which was suspended in the middle of the museum, sort of over the entryway. We watched them for about 10 minutes as they climbed up their cables towards the metal cage, thinking that it must be some sort of strange performance art....when they finally were inside the cage, they hoisted a bag into the cage, which turned out to contain two pizzas, which they started to eat. At that point we left to see the rest of the museum, but on our way out we saw them wrapping large strips of duct tape around each of the intersections of metal rods which made up the cage. We got very curious, and hearing them speak to each other in obviously American English, Brad asked them what they duct tape was for. (Jess had some very lofty theory about how it symbolized some internal struggle, or something cerebral like that) It turns out they did that so that the metal cables didn't cut one of their ropes, because apparently it had happened before......nothing cerebral at all, but purely practical....when we went downstairs we read the plaque and apparently they're just working on their art project which will be finished around the 15th of this month, and the performance aspect (the fact that we get to watch them work and eat pizza) is secondary to the simple completion of the project. So, that was interesting, and I got some good pictures of them.

After that we went across the street to the Naturhistorisches Museum (Museum of Natural History) and tooled around there for a while looking at many many pretty rocks and stuffed animals of amazing variety. Of course the building (one of the original Ringstrasse buildings) is just gorgeous both inside and outside, so half the fun is just being inside such an amazing building. The highlights: the absolutely huge stuffed walrus, all the crocodiles, the really cool birds, and the huge section of all things amethyst, especially the geodes. After that we crossed the ring towards the Hofburg and got some refreshments....I had a Krapfen which is basically a large jelly-filled donut......it was SOOOO good, especially at 10:00 at night when I was tired and my feet were exhausted. From there we meandered to the Schatzkammer, which is a museum that contains a bunch of relics from the Hapsburg monarchy and the holy roman empire, including the crown jewels, which were a real sight to behold. Almost as beautiful was the harpist in period costume playing pretty 18th century stuff in the courtyard outside (she must have been hired...she didn't have a hat out or anything, so I doubt that she was a busker). After gazing at all the beautiful symbols of the imperial power this region once housed, we meandered back towards the MQ to see if the line to get into the Leopold had gotten shorter. (It was ridiculously long when we first got there...) The Leopold is a private museum which is really expensive to get into normally, so I was glad to get the opportunity to scope it out before shelling out so many euros to see it....unfortunately the only exhibit they had open was their Schiele gallery, which was pretty neat, since the Leopold has the largest collection of Schiele in the world, and I was not very familiar with his work......all of his paintings were quite beautiful, and the sketches were even more interesting, I think. I did take advantage of the 10% discount at the store to get some more postcards, which hopefully I'll start mailing soon....(I did finally figure out how the postage works....but it's €1.25 per letter/postcard!) After leaving the Leopold we headed down the Mariahilferstraße back home, where due to some weird power failure we had to ascend the 3 flights of stairs in total darkness, only to discover that our door had been open the whole time we had been out. (recently our door has been doing this thing where even if you close it hard it can still get stuck open slightly, leaving it vulnerable to even slight winds blowing it completely open. None of our stuff was gone, of course, but it was still kind of a disconcerting thought. And I've been writing ever since! And now, much-needed sleep!

Gay Thursday & Sleepy Friday

Ok, Thursday wasn't THAT gay, although Thursday night sure was...but first things first.

German was normal....I had some time after it and before Classical Symphony, and I just sort of putzed around taking pictures of the institute for the presentation I'm making for Dr. Scheier. The latter class was sooooo boring....I thought I was going to die. After that I went home, got a few things and went back to talk to Dr. Scheier about the presentation. (he liked it, I think....and it's really almost done...) After that I went to work at the library, which was fun. I was working with Ann, who's really really cool. (she's also one of the best vocalists in the program.....) We listened to Der Rosenkavalier and had kebaps....it was awesome! After that I went home, and shortly after I got back my friends Natalie and Naomi from upstairs stopped by to borrow the next Sex and the City DVD, so I went up and watched 4 episodes with them......which was a real gay time. After that I was really hyper, and when I went down back to my place Brad invited me to come out with him to this club called U4, so I thought I might as well, since I've never really gone to a club, and certainly not here in Vienna. Well, on our way there (we took the U4 subway line...coincidence? of course not...) he mentioned that he was going because it was gay night. So, instantly my expectations rose tremendously...I mean, what could be funnier than gay night at an Austrian club?? Let's just say that it far exceeded my expectations of hilarity.....anyway, we paid the cover of €8 and headed downstairs to the source of the ear-splitting music. Basically we walked into this small room (probably the size of my apartment, or maybe slightly bigger) with TONS of men (who looked just like all the other European men, really....maybe a bit more makeup in some cases....) dancing to the gayest music I've heard....."Girls just wanna have fun," and some other Cyndi Lauper is all I can remember......it just so happened that fellow IES students Dwayne (he goes by Du-nay, but I don't know how to spell it) Adam, and three other girls (whose names I didn't know) were there too. After Brad finished his €5 gin and tonic, we headed over there. After they danced about 7 or 10 minutes (I watched from the cigarette corner) we realized that the room we were in was a small annex of the club proper, which was on the other side of the staircase, so we quit the small room with horrible gay techno for a MUCH larger room with a huge bar (with VERY cute shirtless bartenders....I'm sure you all really want to hear about this....) and a very large dance floor and good techno music. We were there for a few hours....I only danced for a grand total of maybe 30 minutes. The rest of the time I sat and watched the goings-on....it was actually way tamer than I expected, and Brad re-affirmed that it is way tamer than gay clubs in the states (and he's from the midwest...) People were dancing, but they weren't really touching each other very much....it was interesting. I suppose the Austrian personal-space-bubble rules apply to a certain degree even in the clubs....the whole experience was cool, and the people-watching was unbelievably fantastic. They had hired a drag queen walking around and sell cigarettes....it was possibly the high point of the evening. After that we took a cab home (Brad was too chicken to take the night bus, despite my reassurances....) and I slept SO soundly.....it was fun, but next time I'm having at least one drink before I go out....being in a club sober seems to only make the music seem louder and the room smokier and dirtier.

This morning I woke up at about 11 and went shopping at the Merkur, where (once again) I forgot to bring change for the shopping cart. (I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but at every supermarket except Hofer - how we love thee - you have to put a €1 or €2 coin in the shopping cart to get it out, and then when you snap it back in place it gives you the change back....problem is, I always forget to bring a coin...) There's a few things that I get at Hofer, such as chocolate wafers (their brand is better and cheaper than the normal cheap brand of everything, Clever) yogurt (only €.25 per medium-sized serving), pasta, and other miscellaneous things which are significantly cheaper there than at other places, or things where I don't need a name brand. (like mineral water....I can only justify paying less than €.30 for 2 liters of mineral water, and really it's all the same when it's mixed with apple juice, which is my drink of choice...) Everything else I buy at Merkur 'cause it's cheaper and the have EVERYTHING. So, not having a cart makes it difficult to make large purchases, but I did manage to carry all my purchases throughout the store: a huge loaf of good bread, another loaf of sliced white "American Toast" bread, 2 6-packs of Kielbasa, 2 packs of sliced ham, some sliced cheese (which was disgusting, I later found out), a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi Lite (which is so good here....I daresay better than the Coke, and cheaper) and a small bundt cake. Of course, as I was checking out I got a craving for Milka (really good chocolate) but I couldn't find it, so I was wandering around the store for about 5 minutes with all my crap in my arms....I must have looked pretty funny. Finally I checked out and left, which was such a relief to my tired arms from being kept in that funny position. After getting home I made myself a quick lunch and dashed to Schönbrunner Straße,* where I put in a good 45 minutes of practicing in preparation for my coaching appointment with Russell this afternoon. Afterwards I went to IES to check my mail and make copies of the music for Russell, and then had my coaching session with him. I sang the stuff that he assigned to me for the workshop: a duet by Lehár called "Meine Liebe, Deine Liebe" which is the cheesiest thing imaginable (there's even a dance section....I don't even want to think about it....) and a Brahms duet called "Jägerlied," which is kind of depressing. Neither is particularly challenging vocally, but they present their stylistic and interpretive difficulties. For instance, the Lehár has a very simple melody that basically just eighth notes, but the Viennese operetta style in which it was written requires all sorts of tempo variation to enhance melodic interest and important words in order to make it more interesting (which Russell explained to me). It was a good session, and I learned a lot. Afterwards I asked him there were any conducting opportunities for me in the workshop (Kira is conducting a Bach motet, and I thought somehow she was specifically chosen or something....apparently she just asked to do it and they assigned her singers....) and we talked about possibilities.......I mentioned that I have a good background in early music, and it might be interesting to do something along those lines....of course, everyone here is trained for opera and lied and the like, but I'm hoping there might be some who are interested.....we talked at length about possibilities, such as the Schutz Musikalische Exequien or Weihnacthshistorie, or something by Palestrina. Hopefully this will bear fruit....if not, no biggie. I can wait until I get back, I suppose....

After my meeting with Russell I rushed back home to meet a large group of people from my building who were going to see something at the Musikverein, and since I had not yet been I decided to accept when they invited me earlier this afternoon, because it sounded like a good concert and it would be a good way for me to figure out the system. Well, when I got home most of them had chickened out, but a few of us still decided to go: me, Dave, Natalie, Jess, and Carla set off for the 7:30 concert at about 6:15. On our way there, we realize that none of us have ever been to the Musikverein before, which made things a little more interesting! First, we got off the subway on the wrong side of the street, so we had to make a couple dangerous crossings to get to the building (I was nearly run over by a Straßenbahn) Second, we had no idea where to buy tickets, so we wandered around the building looking for the Kassa (cashier, or any place where you pay), and finally came out of the building via the artist's entrance to find Jeunesse, which I remembered was the place where Cory had said he had purchased his tickets. (the name struck me because, of course, it's French.....) We went in and asked about seats, but the guy said there were only Stehplatz left, so we each got a €5 Stehplatz ticket. After going back into the Musikverein proper, we stumbled into the Stehplatz line and just stayed there. Similar to the Staatsoper, you don't get a ticket for a specific place (like you do at the Met, for instance), but instead people line up before the show and when the ushers open the doors everybody runs and finds a good spot. Unlike the opera, however, the Stehplatz area (there is only one, on the orchestra level in the very back) is actually an area....there are no rows of railings, just the one in front to keep the rabble out of the expensive seats. We couldn't find places on the rail, so we stood behind the first 'row' of people in the center. Unfortunately I ended up directly in front of a pole, so I couldn't see the conductor or the piano soloist. Oh, of course, the program! I forgot....It was the Vienna Symphony conducted Jukka-Pekka Saraste. (maybe to be a famous orchestra conductor, I should change my name to Robert-Pekka Bolyard....) First was Brahms Piano Concert no. 1 in D minor, which was beautiful albeit disturbingly long. (the second movement was gorgeous, and the fugue entrance in the third movement was very cool) After that was a 20-minute-or-so intermission, followed by Tchaikowsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture and Fantasy and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloë. (I think that's how you spell it.....) Romeo and Juliet was fantastic, of course, and the Ravel (which I'd never heard before) was just gorgeous. There was one moment after a string of loud chords where the 3 or 4 flute parts enter with these ridiculously florid, soft runs while the strings hold chords....the effect was disturbing not only because there didn't seem to be any definite harmonic correlation between any of the parts, but also because it took me a long time to figure out which instruments were even producing the sounds.....it was such an ethereal, light, other-wordly sound. Like I said, gorgeous. And R&J, well it definitely gave me chills many many many times. During D&C I noticed that a bunch of people had left (probably after the Tchaikowsky) so I moved to a spot where I could see the conductor. Wow was he good! Such technique! He was so fluid and expressive, but he exhibited a noticeable economy in his gesture which was very effective....I wish now that I had moved earlier so I could seen him conduct more than the last half of D&C. Oh well.....after the concert we all went back home and I had Kielbasa and rice for dinner, and now (after writing for a long time) I'm going to bed!

* Dr. Scheier explained to me the rule about when "Straße" is it's own word in a street's name.....usually it's the last in the compound, like "Währingerstraße" or "Dürergasse" (Gasse is just a small street), but when the street is named after a village (Dorf) or large area (the palace of Schönbrunn) it becomes 2 words, i.e. "Schönbrunner Straße" and "Gumpendorfer Straße." Terribly interesting to you, I know, but I sure thought it was!