Fidelio

[Chaszz]

Along with my wife, my son and his girlfriend, I saw a wonderful production of Fidelio at the Met in N.Y.C. Saturday night. The music, expecially in Act 2, was an unending succession of beauty. The conducting by Peter Schneider was great, except that he lost cohesion in the big chorus right before the end. The three-story tall sets were stunning, and the leads, soprano Waltraud Meier and tenor Johan Botha, were superb. Botha's beautiful voice effortlessly rode over the massed chorus in the crowd scenes at the end. After this performance, I am greatly looking forward to hearing Botha as Walther in 'Die Meistersinger' next April.

[Chris]

Sounds like a great day. I haven't been to a live performance of anything in far too long.

[Andrea]

Boy I envy you Chaszz. I would love to see a performance of Fidelio at the Vienna Opera House but usually the only available places are in the SRO sections. True these spots are dirt cheap but due to my knee problems I can't stand in one spot for more than 10 minutes.

The problem at the Vienna State Opera House is that almost every opera is sold out and if you can get a seat it'll cost you an arm and a leg. Most of the seats here are owned by people who have had them for years and they hand them down to their heirs when they die. Either that or you have to know someone who has a season seat and maybe they will let you have a ticket once in awhile. Well that leaves me out since I don't know anybody who is lucky enough to have these seats and unless I get bionic knee replacements I'll never be able to go SRO. Booooo whoooo!!!

[Joy]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
Along with my wife, my son and his girlfriend, I saw a wonderful production of Fidelio at the Met in N.Y.C. Saturday night. The music, expecially in Act 2, was an unending succession of beauty. The conducting by Peter Schneider was great, except that he lost cohesion in the big chorus right before the end. The three-story tall sets were stunning, and the leads, soprano Waltraud Meier and tenor Johan Botha, were superb. Botha's beautiful voice effortlessly rode over the massed chorus in the crowd scenes at the end. After this performance, I am greatly looking forward to hearing Botha as Walther in 'Die Meistersinger' next April.

Chaszz, that sounded like a wonderful day. At The Met no less. I hope they play that on TV (PBS) here as every month we get a recorded performance of what was at The Met during the season. I always wanted to see Fidelio live, but the Phoenix Opera Theatre just has never performed it as long as I've lived here anyway. Maybe I should suggest it to them!!

P.S.: A little trivia fact: Did you know that today (Nov. 20th) is the anniversary of the day Beethoven conducted Fidelio in 1805?

Joy

[This message has been edited by Joy (edited November 20, 2002).]

[Joy]

Originally posted by Andrea:
Boy I envy you Chaszz. I would love to see a performance of Fidelio at the Vienna Opera House but usually the only available places are in the SRO sections. True these spots are dirt cheap but due to my knee problems I can't stand in one spot for more than 10 minutes.

The problem at the Vienna State Opera House is that almost every opera is sold out and if you can get a seat it'll cost you an arm and a leg. Most of the seats here are owned by people who have had them for years and they hand them down to their heirs when they die. Either that or you have to know someone who has a season seat and maybe they will let you have a ticket once in awhile. Well that leaves me out since I don't know anybody who is lucky enough to have these seats and unless I get bionic knee replacements I'll never be able to go SRO. Booooo whoooo!!!

Andrea, That sounds like our Sun City Concert House. All the people there have their seats taken forever! You never get a chance to sit down front, just forget it. How many does The Vienna Opera House
seat?

Joy

[Andrea]

Well Joy, the Vienna State Opera House has places for 2,209 people. That's 1,642 seats and then 567 spots for standing room only.

Last month I took a tour of the opera house and that is probably the closest I'll get to going to the opera there. I'm not sure if it's any easier getting tickets to see operas performed at either the Volksoper or at the Theater an der Wien since they are smaller houses. I'll have to check into that one of these days.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Andrea:
Well Joy, the Vienna State Opera House has places for 2,209 people. That's 1,642 seats and then 567 spots for standing room only.

Last month I took a tour of the opera house and that is probably the closest I'll get to going to the opera there. I'm not sure if it's any easier getting tickets to see operas performed at either the Volksoper or at the Theater an der Wien since they are smaller houses. I'll have to check into that one of these days.

It is just as bad at Glyndebourne in Sussex, where I have had the luck to go twice (but not to operas of my choice) - it is simply a question of who you know because it takes 40 years or more to become a member! It is depressing to realise that this elitist attitude is still thriving in the 21st century.

------------------
'Man know thyself'

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Peter:
It is just as bad at Glyndebourne in Sussex, where I have had the luck to go twice (but not to operas of my choice) - it is simply a question of who you know because it takes 40 years or more to become a member! It is depressing to realise that this elitist attitude is still thriving in the 21st century.

It's hard to believe these well-known opera houses have these kinds of closed attendance policies. I feel for you both. People should be raising outcries in the press against these exclusionary policies. The composers would certainly not want this to happen!

[Joy]

It is truly amazing that this is happenig in this century. It seems like we're still in the close minded times (and closed doors time) of years ago. Unbelievable!

Joy

[John Rasmussen]

That's certainly true, but how many people can even get into concerts by the big-name rock stars? I've often wondered if live music is a dying art. Fortunately there are some who keep the crusade going.