Die Nicht-So-Zauber flöte

Tonight I decided to go to the Stadtoper.  I packed my reading materials for the two hour wait in line for standing room tickets.  I read my reading materials.  I waited in line.  I paid 3 Euro for what I was hoping would be an exciting night of inexpensive but brilliant singing.  I marked my spot with the black, newly-purchased going-to-the-opera scarf I bought just for saving my place at the railing.  The overture started.  I sang along in my head with The oh so familiar Magic Flute.  The opera ended.  I was disappointed.

I don't know what was going on tonight, but that was so NOT what I expected.  Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought seeing an opera at the Stadtoper was going to be one of those jaw-dropping, I-wish-I-were-this-good experiences.  Instead I was just confused.  Pamina and Papageno were AMAZING, but aside from their singing I was so underwhelmed.  It looked a bit thrown together, the singers were ok but not what I had hoped for, and I just felt like I was seeing a tourist-focused kind of production.  I don't mean to be totally rude, but good lord it was just not what it should have been.  It really feels like the place is trying to cram as many operas into a week and make them as visually stimulating as possible so that every tourist who comes here can say he or she saw The Magic Flute in Vienna and it was pretty.  The staging was icky, and everything just didn't feel together.  The performance as a whole didn't have that feel of focus and... I don't even know how to describe it, but good performances have it.  It was so weird to come away dissatisfied!  I totally didn't expect that.  Fortunately there are tons of other venues like the Volksoper to go to, and this one performance is not going to keep me from going back.  I just might avoid Die Zauberflöte for a very long time.  I am all zauber'd out.  Oh wait.  I'm singing the Papageno/Papagena duet this semester...hahahahaha.
I finished my book while waiting in line, so that was pretty sweet.

I went to the Prater this weekend and took some pictures of the amusement park.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is an amusement park in the middle of Vienna.  Well, it's actually a little right of center but it's very close. It's a little creepy but mostly amusing.

My greatest accomplishment today was reading two chapters of Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World in German.  I don't always understand it, but it is really fun.