Settling in: MOSTLY?

As I continue to battle the inevitable cold (apparently 10 days of 4-hour nights plus a transatlantic flight tends to give one a touch of the Black Death) I’m still making headway hereabouts.

Yesterday’s big accomplishment was a visit to the Theater Museum; they had an exhibit up on the use of spectacle in the Baroque period, which usefully intersects (if not centrally) with my dissertation topic. It was a pretty great exhibit – the Theater Museum has a superb collection that’s quite well documented, so between toy theatres, festival costumes, theatrical designs and music from any number of spectacles, jubilees and performances, there was a lot to take in. (They also had a cool, if simple, installation piece exploring five directorial “takes” on Ophelia’s mad scene from Hamlet as inspired by the work of Artaud, Grotowski, Stanislavsky, Brecht and Peter Brook.)

Apart from that, yesterday was all settling in, with a detour to a würsterlstand to get a debreziner (mit senf und Meerrettich NATURLICH). Today, I started The Work of Credentialing, hopping between my archives to fill out the requisite paperwork, have photos taken as necessary, and clarify procedure for the research I’ll be doing starting tomorrow. That, and a half-day hunt (in the rain, sans umbrella for the first hour) for a wallet that I lost yesterday, was the full day. SPOILER ALERT: I had tucked the wallet into a drawer at home and promptly forgotten it. My brain is still trying to kill me.

But tonight was a nice prize: my first visit to the Vienna State Opera! I’ve got something like nine operas on my radar during my time here, which is pretty easy to do through the opera’s superb standing-room program. Basically, you line up 90 minutes before the performance (earlier if it’s a particularly hot ticket) and for 3 or 4 Euro, you get a standing room spot at the back of the main floor (best view), balcony, or upper gallery (best acoustics). You tie a scarf around the railing to claim your spot and then you either race out to a würstelstand for a quick pre-show bite or you wander the opera house, possibly looking for a place to sit in preparation for the show.

Your ticket can take you anywhere, including the terrace. (You might get asked to take two delightful German grandmas' photos too. They might even have the entire conversation in German! You made it, you fooled 'em all!)

Rawrrr

It's a nice opera house I guess.

Details!

Tonight was Turandot, and it was quite lovely. Since I had arrived relatively late and didn’t quite know the route to the upper gallery I was stuck with a spot at the side of the house, but about 2/3 of the stage was still visible, and the orchestra and singers sounded superb. I will be doing this again, probably.

Tomorrow my requested materials should be available at two of my three archives. The work begins!