Day 12 - Essays, Grandiose Goods & Strauss (EGGS)

I went to bed so happy last night because the horrible internet had been fixed.  This institute has a tradition of gathering on the roof terrace at the end of the day.  Discussions range from teaching techniques, what we saw or did today, great restaurants, good wine and other things.  Because the internet was so much faster I was able to complete the blog and join party.  It really was a nice way to end the day.  This morning I woke up to absolutely no internet connection whatsoever.  It could be worse though, another one of the participants rented an apartment rather than staying in the hotel and she came home yesterday to a letter from the electric company to her landlord stating that they had cut off the power due to non-payment.  I guess lousy internet isn't all that bad.

In class this morning we discussed Die Entführung aus dem Serail.  This was Mozart's first opera in Vienna.  I had never listened to it prior to being selected for this institute and it is rapidly becoming one of my favorites.  The production from Covent Garden (1988) is particularly entertaining.  The DVD of the opera is in German but has English subtitles.  A few days ago Dr. Benedum assigned us a little homework. We had to write an essay. I mentioned  the assignment in Sunday's blog.  We didn't get around to them until today.  Several people read theirs out loud and I couldn't resist doing the same.  It was fairly well received, so as I promised here it is.

The six characters within the Abduction each serve a different purpose which makes selecting the most important based on music or libretto an interesting challenge.  Perhaps the best judge of the importance of the character would be to consider whether or not the story could continue without him/her.  There is also the possibility of simply counting arias and ensembles or lines of dialogue.  None of these ideas seem to fully address which character is most important.

The Pasha Selim, for example, cannot be considered musically important because he is a non-singing role.  On the other hand his absence of music might be construed to have a musical impact.  He also wields the power to resolve all of the issues within the plot as he sees fit, making his part in the drama irreplaceable. 

Osmin is merely an obstacle standing in the way of Belmonte and his entourage, but musically, he is involved in more music numbers than all but one character and in fact sings more measures of music than anyone else.  In addition Osmin has an enormous amount of dialogue.  His character does not grow or change in any way, but he does serve as comic relief.  Without Osmin, the sappy sweetness of many of the arias would be overwhelming and the abduction itself would be an easy task for the heroes.

The character with the least amount of singing is Blonde, however, her aria, Durch Zartlichkeit und Schmeicheln  is one of the most obvious lessons the opera has to teach and in many ways foreshadows Selim’s ultimate decision.  She is also supplies strength for Constanze and focus (or perhaps diversion) for Pedrillo. 

Constanze, being the love interest of the hero would seem to be of extreme importance, and her commitment to Belmonte certainly speaks to the ideals of the enlightenment.  Her character does not grow or change at all over the course of the story indicating that this particular yarn is not really about her.  If however, she is the example of how to live, that would make her very important.

Belmonte would seem the obvious choice as most important.  He is the hero, coming in to save the day.  He also fails in his attempt and had it not been for the beneficence of Selim, all four of them would have suffered death or worse.  He does show growth of character when he learns what the Pasha tries to teach him. Maybe the hero isn’t that important.

Pedrillo is the character who does the most.  Prior to Belmonte’s arrival Pedrillo did not have the necessary tools to effectively obtain their escape.  With the addition of a ship he quickly obtains the sleeping draught and the ladder, and communicates with the women what roll they have to play, while at the same time manipulating Osmin, his mortal enemy, into trusting him enough to drink the potion.  His is involved in multiple ensembles and two arias.  He does not sing the most, but he does have quite a bit of dialogue and stage time.  Pedrillo is important!

In summation, Belmonte would seem the most important unless you consider the lesson being taught through the music in which case Constanze wins the title by demonstrating steadfast commitment in her arias. Though we can’t ignore Blonde since she stands up for women’s rights. Textually, Pedrillo seems to get the job done as it is his dialogue that pushes the story forward, until you consider that Selim gets to decide everyone’s fate.  Of course, Osmin, talks and sings more than anyone else and is possibly the most entertaining of the six.

Perhaps a better analysis of the characters comes from the observation that there are just as many characters as are needed to tell the story.  Each character is required and none of them are more important than the others.  Isn’t that one of the ideas of the enlightenment?  Isn’t it also an idea that mankind has been arguing about for centuries.

The essay got a round of applause and a few snide remarks.  One person chided me for not making up my mind to which I responded "I did make up my mind. The question is faulty!"  One of the English teachers really appreciated the fact that I thought outside the box and said she wished her students would do that.  The best part was my friend Kathy, the German teacher.  She came up with basically the same idea I did.  So remember that kids, if you got a choice between 1 & 2, sometimes it's better to choose A.

Following class we attended Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper. The opera is a little difficult to describe.  If you are really interested in the plot here's a good place to get started.  The production was superb.  The sets were beautiful, the singing was beautiful, the costumes were beautiful, even the orchestra was beautiful. (Name the piece of musical theater I'm paraphrasing and I'll buy you a cookie!)  The only thing that wasn't beautiful were the hundreds (almost the entire audience) of school children who hadn't been taught to not talk during the performance. After praising the Viennese yesterday, I wanted to break out the duct tape today.  I wasn't alone.  All of us in the institute were annoyed with the little brats.  I feel like I have to say it.  Thanks you, all of my students, past and present, who are reading this, you've never acted like these little heathens when I've taken you out. (Of course, if you had I would have TAKEN YOU OUT!) 

I decided to do a little sight seeing (I almost typed sight singing! LOL) before heading back to the hotel, but today just wasn't my day.  First I thought I would take a look inside the Votivkirsche.  We looked at the exterior of this church on our first walk through the city and I wanted to know more.  When I got to the door of the church it was closed.  So I'll have to try again some other day.  That did not deter me however.  I strolled through some of the city parks and snapped some photos because Jen had mentioned that she wondered if Vienna was covered in flowers.  I would imaging it is more so in the spring, but YES, Vienna is definitely green with explosions of color everywhere.

My wanderings brought me to the Rathaus.  I know what you're thinking!  RAT HOUSE?  Like filthy rotten disgusting vermin?  No, the Rathaus is the City Hall where all of the politicians work. . . . . .. . . . . . . . too easy.  Usually you can take tours of the city hall, which is a magnificent late 19th century building in the Gothic revival style.  But not today. There was a sign stating that tours had been canceled for today and apologizing for any inconvenience.  Strike Two!
I wondered as I wandered all over the town where I might be able to find a museum or tour to take today.  Museums in Vienna are like Mormon's in east Mesa.  You don't have to look very hard to find them and if you find an interesting one, you're in for hours of fun.  I ended up at the Hofburg.  The Hofburg is the imperial home inside the gates of the city.  It's counterpart is Schloß Schönbrunn that I went to over the weekend.  Here I was able to tour the imperial apartments again (Once again, no cameras or video) and tour a museum that displayed the royal china and silver (some of which is gold.)  It was a massive collection and something I wish my wife could have seen.  I've posted all of the pictures in the photo album. 


I did manage to get a couple of bad videos for you again.  Please don't ask me how.

All in all it was a pretty nice day.  No exotic foods, but I did buy Jenny an Austrian cook book!  Maybe some of you can cajole her into inviting you over for an authentic Austrian meal!