WIENER STAATSOPER!

I WENT TO MY FIRST PERFORMANCE AT THE WIENER STAATSOPER!!!

Go ahead and be jealous now. It's okay.

This second day into the season, they were doing Puccini's La Boheme, one of my favorites, and playing Rodolpho was none other than Stephan Costello, who I love. The performance blew my mind. A traditional design, nothing exciting there really, but what was truly incredible was the pit: the Vienna Philharmonic. Good singers can be attracted by any well-reputed opera house, but only the Wiener Stadtoper has the Wiener Philharmonik. I have watched a million you tube clips, seen several recorded productions and been to a few live performances of La Boheme, but nothing has ever come close to the incredible musicality of the orchestra that was displayed last night. The first violinist had solos that made you want to cry and there were moments I forgot there was a stage. Although that might have had to do with my €3 partial view standing room tickets, but we can just forget that. I am sure that I will see many more performances that will be just as incredible and will probably learn to be more picky, but for this first production I figured more than anything else, I should record this initial wonder and amazement.