Opera in Vienna

VIENNA OPERA, originally uploaded by cloudberrie.

like what Nic says:" eh u do set-design one leh....how can miss this kind of thing...." hahaha!!! so when in Vienna, apart from seeping coffee at a café, a visit to the Viena State Opera is a must i guess....Anyway, this neo-classical building is like a architecture-ism rojak. Supposedly, together with its Neo-classical concept, there is also, Romanesque, Baroque, and Renaissance influences. Apparently it was heavily criticized during its construction phase. So much so that one of its 2 original architects, Eduard van der Nüll committed suicide, and the other August Sicard von Sicardsburg died shortly later. None lived to see the opening of their creation. However, Gottfried Semper was responsible for its final look after its rebuilt after wwII.(RMB Gottfried Semper, most of us Archi. peops heard erwin sprouting his name on the first History & Theory of Modern Archi. lecture in year 1. we never heard of and could hardly spell it then)

Theater here is diff from in S'pore...theres actually such things as standing tickets for poor or cheapo peops. and minus the fact that you stand the entire show, its like S$7 and its just behind the stalls. and if like me(after intermission), you could get a space to stand at the very barrier between the stall seats and the stall standing area, the view is as good as sitting in a back row of the stall..hahaha!!!! Anyway, the opera was l'Elisir d'Amore in Italian(of course...). Didn't understand much but think it was something like:
girl like boy, boy like girl, girl somehow choses some other guy, boy does something enormously sacrificial, girl is touch, girl dumps other guy for boy, other guy got motherly screwed.
as for the set, extremely impressive and realistic surface renderings and details on stage elements, but same set through out entire play with only 2 changes in lighting. Maybe it didn't need a changing set or lighting...i wouldn't know.

All in all i would say it was a 2 hour well spent minus the fact that 1/3 of my vertical vision was obstructed by a balding Austrian head before intermission and that my back was scream "&@#^*#@$" after the show...hahah!!!