What a fantastic night! I am so thrilled that I just saw Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus in the same theater where it was first premiered!
It was definitely the highlight of this day, which began in the late morning with a visit to the Sigmund Freud Museum. Being a psychology major, this felt a bit obligatory, though not unhappily so. How could I resist visiting Freud's home and clinic when I'm in his native city? I thus came to Bergasse 19 with another student (Wendy Yu) who originally had the idea to see the museum today. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures, as my camera is a bit broken at the present time. But in any case, here's what I saw:
Freud's waiting room was kept almost exactly as it was when he held his practice in the same residence. The couches, table, and decorations. These decorations, or archaeological artifacts rather, were interesting to me. I did not know that Freud was a collector of statuettes from ancient Egypt and China. They apparently were kept in the same room where he performed psychoanalysis with his patients.
That room, as well as the adjacent one, was re-paved and now has assorted photographs and letters on the walls. I had been given a small booklet that told me the significance of each photo and letter, with some interspersed quotes from Freud. (Among my favorite is this from 1933: "What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burnt me; nowadays they are content with burning my books.") There was certainly plenty to read and look at, however I wished I had read a biography of Freud before coming to the museum. Such provided knowledge would have aided in seeing Freud's story, or perhaps filled in a gap of a role that the museum could otherwise provide.
Other rooms featured film footage narrated by his daughter Anna Freud as well as an account of how Anna strove to found the museum. One display told of how unperturbed she was about hearing criticism of her father's writings. Indeed, it is worth noting that psychoanalysis received little attention in Austria even up 'til the 1970s, when it had already become academic canon in many other countries.
Also in the museum was a small library of books by both Sigmund and Anna, available for anyone to read. I would have liked to read through a few of them, but it seemed to Carmen and I that we had spent a lot of time already in the museum.
We ventured out and proceeded to see where our feet would take us, since we had a bit of time before the opretta. We ultimately walked past the Rathaus and the large public movie screen that shows free screenings of artful films almost every night. That would be worth checking out sometime later. We also encountered a sort of monument in the middle of the park between the Rathaus and the Heldenplatz, featuring stone reliefs of Austrian mythical stories juxtaposed with ancient Greek ones. Very interesting, that would be worth investigating later also.
Eventually it came time to put on some nicer attire and go to the Theater an der Wien (though not before sharing some champagne in a wine shop/restaurant a block away!). When I first stepped inside the theater, I was awestruck. It was a little smaller than I imagined, but the decor astounded me. It incredibly baroque like many of the churches I have seen so far; imagine something out of Amadeus to get a good mental picture. At other points in this trip when I've seen something incredibly historic (like the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor for instance) I've had a hard time grasping the significance of the place or object and convincing myself of it's historicity. Not so with the Theater an der Wien! It was not hard at all to imagine myself sitting down in the 19th century to see Strauss himself conduct in the orchestra pit. What a treat!
And what a treat Die Fledermaus was! The production had fairly modern costume, though this did not impede the overall performance. I am no great expert on operas, but I greatly admired the dancing, the interlude ballet, the music...everything such a delight, and the English subtitles (or rather side-titles) helped with my advance reading of the libretto. The set, I'd like to mention, seemed to be an extension of the theater itself, wrapping around the background of the stage with extras sitting in identical boxes. So when Rosalinde (as the Hungarian countess) whispered "Musik..." in an awestruck voice while the lights on the set dimmed to match those of the theater, it seemed for a brief moment as if performers and audience were the same, held captive by the same entrances, admiring the music of Strauss that was so central to this spectacle of an experience. Perhaps in that case it should come as no surprise to me that the orchestra received the loudest and most enthusiastic applause at the conclusion of the performace.
I think I'd definitely like to hear more Strauss performed while in Vienna. I only wish that I could see more operas as well.
The German word of the day is "hoffen," meaning "to hope."
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