Chapter #9 – The Opera was Amazing

It was magical.

The seats were mindblowingly great. Mindblowing.

Even if they weren’t actually ‘seats’…

But saying ‘stands’ doesn’t make sense to anyone. I guess I could just say ‘spot’.

Anyway, check out my view from my ‘spot’.

Seriously.

I felt like a kid in a candy store.

And the experience? Like watching a fantasy unfold in front of your very eyes.

One scene, set in the winter near a city gate, looked so amazing that it was hard to tell there wasn’t snow on the stage. It was early morning and there was a haze over the whole scene, the glow of the morning, the lighting just perfect.

Jaw dropping.

And the second act had more people than I’ve ever seen on stage in my entire life.

There must have been 120 people on stage.

120 PEOPLE!!!

It was crazy.

The music and the performances were no less spectacular.

It was breathtaking.

Magic come to life.

What a first experience at the Opera.

I may never go again.

The event even started off perfectly. I went to check out the line for tickets at 4:00 – after I’d gpne to my hotel, dropped my stuff in my room and made my way to the center of the city.

There was 1 person in line.

Pshaw.

“I’ve got time. It’s only 1 person. I only want to be like #40. I’ll go see some sights and then I’ll come back.”

I did. And for once, nothing actually went wrong.

I saw:

The Hapsburg Palace.

The Albertina Gallery & Albertinaplatz

Some more of Vienna.

And, most importantly, I BOUGHT A SCARF.

A scarf?

Who gives a crap about a silly scarf?

Well, for starters, it is a nice scarf. I like it and think that it makes me look very European.

Second, and most important, I read about 27 warnings that said, when you do Standing Tickets at the Staatsper, you need to have a scarf to mark your spot. Because you can’t leave a bag, a jacket, a sweater behind. But you can tie your scarf around your area and everyone will respect it when, you leave your spot to go get food or water or answer nature’s call.

So I bought a fab new scarf.

My birthday present for myself.

And then I went back to the line.

Which was just beginning to form. There were about 14 people ahead of me.

I actually debated whether to go back out again for a few minutes. In which time 10 new people showed up.

I promptly decided that I was just fine where I was.

And I didn’t know how right I was.

About 10 minutes later I did, though.

Because by then, I had met the people surrounding me in line.

There was Raf, a great guy from Miami who was in Vienna with his friends Nan and Alba. They’d just been on a cycling tour for the past week, and, instead of heading back with the tour, they’d decided to hang out in Vienna for a couple of nights.

There was Alice, a Canuck from not only Toronto, but Scarborough no less. (What a small world! The girl right next to me in line lives about 10 km from me!!!)

Later I would also meet Will, an actor from New York, traveling thru Europe in between doing a North America tour of Mama Mia and heading to Chicago to do another show over the Xmas season.

They were AMAZING! All of them.

Raf, Nan & Alba told us about Miami and their trip so far.

Alice and I joked about Toronto.

And I read everyone the synopsis of La Boheme.

And we talked about Prague. Because both Nan, Raf & Alba and Alice are actually heading to Prague this weekend!

On a side note, it just goes to show me that I need to stop and smell the roses now and then.

I’d been thinking that I was going to read for a couple of hours while I was in line.

Look at what I would have missed!

One of my favourite parts of waiting in line? I walk up to the ticket booth to by my ticket and Nan looks at me with a little smile and says “Happy Birthday!”.

She and Raf bought me my ticket!

Wow.

I was so touched.

It was awesome.

Just like the Opera.

Here’s a few shots of the theatre,

The Interior: