For my final blog post I’m going to reflect upon the
highlights of my last few days in Vienna, starting with The Magic Flute we saw Saturday night.
After nearly every performance I thought it would be very
difficult for another to match it however, fortunately almost every night I am
proven wrong. The Magic Flute was
another spectacular opera, or more specifically, singspiel. While each opera
had its own strengths and weaknesses, The
Magic Flute was excellent in almost every way. The orchestra was wonderful
and the conductor had the whole piece memorized, I can’t imagine! The singers
all did a beautiful job and although there was not much in the way of a set,
the staging and costuming were elaborate and stunning. Overall it was funny,
whimsical, and very entertaining. I thought the choices of this performance
were interesting, particularly the costuming. In the singspiel, the two
protagonists fall in love but must undergo certain trials before they can be
together and initiated into the brotherhood of Sarastro’s temple, for the wise
and pure of heart. Until they complete their quest the protagonists were
dressed like fairytale characters. After they were accepted into the order they
were dressed in plain, grey business attire. With the trials representing the
four main natural elements and the sun banishing the night, I wondered if it
symbolically represented The Enlightenment and the triumph of reason over
superstition. I had also learned from our previous tours that Mozart was a
member of the Free Masons in Vienna and supposedly Mozart revealed some of the
order’s secrets in The Magic Flute. Perhaps
that had something to do with the heavy use of symbolism in the singspiel or
maybe it refers to something completely different, like an allusion to The
Enlightenment. I liked how the plot of the singspiel itself seemed more complex
than most operas and allowed for reflection and depth of thought as to the
overall meaning of the piece. I will be thinking about it some more in the next
few days!
For my last full day in Vienna some friends and I wasted no
time trying to do everything we wanted to before leaving, which was of course
impossible, but made for a wonderful day. We toured the catacombs and climbed
the tower at St Stephen’s Cathedral, we did some shopping for antique coins and
some souvenirs, and finally we visited the art exhibition at the Belvedere.
Another former Habsburg residence, the Belvedere is a beautiful palace with
large ornate gardens. The exhibit inside featured the artist Gustav Klimt and
we saw some of his famous pieces, like The
Kiss. I especially loved seeing a large, gorgeous painting by Monet of the
path entering his garden in Giverny. This evening we went to our last
performance at Schönburnn Palace. Beforehand, we had an excellent private tour
of the palace, a nice meal, and then the concert in the Orangerie. It was neat
to hear some of Mozart’s music in the same location that he visited as a child
and famously asked Marie Antoinette to marry him. Overall I am taken with
Vienna. I love how the Viennese have their own distinct culture and that they
are very proud of it. I will miss this amazing city with its numerous coffee
houses, romantic Baroque facades, and gigantic royal palaces. There is so much
more to see and to do here than what we had time for. I guess I will have to
come back someday!
 |
| Schönbrunn Palace |
In summation….
From all of our pictures and previous blog posts, it goes
without saying that this has been an amazing once in a lifetime experience. It
is hard to processes all of what we have seen and done in under a month. Four
countries, seven cities, and eighteen performances. Wow! Being one of the few
non-music majors in the class, each day I have had a greater appreciation for
the opportunity that has been given to me to be on this J-term trip and to go
to see all of these internationally recognized orchestras. The Gewandhaus
Orchestra in Leipzig was my first time seeing a professional orchestra in
person and all of the performances we have seen have afforded me substantial
experiential learning and a deeper appreciation for music and the performing
arts. I have always loved the theater and live performances in general, but I
wasn’t as able to fully understand and appreciate the music specifically until now.
I enjoy hearing my peers discuss the pieces we heard and explain their
historical contexts and technicalities. I believe a well-rounded education is
very important, especially at the university level and so this has been an invaluable
experience. Now I am interested in looking up this year’s program for
orchestras back in the U.S. Before signing off I wanted to thank all of you for
reading our blog and to thank PLU and especially Dr. Powell for this amazing
opportunity. Tchüss!
No comments:
Post a Comment