Don Carlos - A Night to Remember or Forget?

A short three weeks after arriving in Vienna, I was itching to finally experience one of the city's most famed arts, opera.  Hastily, I decided on Don Carlos without any prior knowledge as to the plot or music.  Essentially, it is a story of two lovers that can never be (duh).  Elisabeth and Don Carlos meet and instantly fall in love, but to uphold a peace treaty between France and Spain, Elisabeth is forced to wed Don Carlos' father, the king of Spain (bummer!).  Unfortunately, I didn't brush up on my French beforehand and this is about all I got out of it.  I can tell you this, though: it doesn't end happily.  Fortunately, there is a lot of lovely, dramatic, and often angry music to keep you entertained even without a proper understanding of the plot.

Although I had never previously seen an opera, I had two main preconceptions: everyone would be garbed in evening gowns and suits, and only the creme de la creme are allowed a box seat.  When a man in a red velvet cape outside the state opera house convinced me to buy a thirty dollar box seat ticket instead of my previous plan of buying a four or five Euro standing ticket, I thought I was entering some alternate universe in which I, too, could be one of Vienna's finest--at least for the evening.

But I was tricked!

The box seat ticket I received was in the third box up, the second box from stage right, and the second row within that box.  A massive flaw in the architecture of the Staatsoper is that the boxes are arranged in a kind of horseshoe shape, so the closest boxes to the stage face inward towards the house.  Thus, it became almost impossible for me to see the stage at all.  I was forced to stand and awkwardly hover above the old crones who sat (or slept) in the row in front of me.  It was not glamorous and not fun.

I was, however, able to listen to the beautiful music and read translations of the lyrics on a little screen that unfolded from the wall.  The Staatsoper is magnificent inside and out, and the performances are breathtaking, but I definitely will be going for the standing tickets in the future.

xoxo,

Conor