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!!
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!!
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