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Vienna (Wien), Austria
Right behind me in line was a woman who looked about 24, maybe a little younger doubtfully much older, who began asking me questions about the opera. I didn't know the show, why the line wasn't moving, nor what time it started, I was just happy that I was still going to have a chance at a place to stand.
Eventually the line started moving, we found out the opera was Pique Dame and it started at 19:00. I got my €3 ticket for the lower balcony and then searched for how to get there. When I found my direction I had to get in another line before entering. This time the young woman was in front of me in line. She and I began talking, she was annoyed that we had to wait in another line and asked if I could hold a spot for her because she wanted to eat before the three hour performance.
DEAR GOD! I didn't know it was going to be three hours! I had been walking all day over 10 kilometers and now I was about to subject myself to standing over three hours to hear people singing in a language I did not understand, not to mention I had not eaten in six hours. I told her I too had concern for my poor stomach, so we decided to get other people to save us spots.
As it turned out we didn't need to. Several minutes after 6 o'clock they let us in and handed us strips of paper to tie around the railing where we wanted to stand to mark that it was taken. We did so and then left and went to dinner at McDonald's several blocks away.
We ate and talked, her name was Yelena, which she explained is the Serbian version of Helen. Of course she was Serbian and was staying in Vienna for three months working an internship with a construction company, which was going towards her master's degree. She laughed when I told her I was a communications major because I was not much of a talker, so she asked what I want to do with my life. That is such an annoying question from someone I don't really know when I don't have any specific objectives or any plans to put them in motion. Anyway I made up an answer, and we headed back to the opera.
The remainder of this entry is about Pique Dame, so if any reader is thoroughly interested in the opera and does not want me to ruin it with my synopsis and commentary then it would be best for you not to read ahead.
Pique Dame
To start let me mention that in front of every seat, and standing spot, there was a tiny screen to translate the opera which is why I know what happened.
It started out with the protagonist, Herman, mentioning to his friends that he saw a woman that made him instantly fall in love, but she cannot be his because she is of noble birth. The next scene you see the woman, Lisa, being proposed to by a prince. She had apparently also found an interest in Herman when she saw him before because of the passion in his eyes.
Shortly after she is in her bedroom thinking over how the prince is such a great man with everything she wants in a man, but she is unable to get over the other man. Herman jumps through her window, tells her that she everything he ever wanted, and that if she cannot be his then he will die. Lisa tells him to leave and threatens to scream and call the guards. He begs her not to scream, pleads to let him bask in her beauty for just a moment, and then pulls out a gun and points it at his head. "Because you cannot be mine, I shall die!," he sings. She tells him to stop and that she is his and then they make love.
Really the most romantic thing I have ever come across, practically every woman's fantasy.
Later on there is a party where the host has performers: women in corsets and men in their underwear dancing and singing and making sexual moves on one another. For the grand finale the guests get involved with the overtly sexual performers and money and confetti fall from the ceiling.
Lisa leaves her prince who tells her that he can tell she has feelings for another and just wants her to have what she wants, such a nice guy. Herman knows he cannot give her the life he thinks she needs, so he decides to find out a gambling secret from her grandmother, the queen. In the process Herman accidentally kills the old woman failing to obtain the secret of the three cards.
Lisa sees him with the body and suspects him of murder, but he never admits it claiming that she just died and he didn't even use the gun in his hand. Apparently violently shaking an old woman until she dies does not count as murder.
The next day is the funeral, and Herman and Lisa have are to meet at midnight to bask in their love. After the funeral Herman goes after the corpse and yells at her for dying without telling him the secret. Suddenly the queen starts speaking from beyond the grave (this was surprisingly the least weird part of the opera for me) and tells him the secret because she wants him to take care of Lisa.
Lisa is meanwhile waiting rather impatiently for Herman, singing to herself that if he is late then he is a murder and a monster, but if he is on time then he is the man she hoped he would be.
Just like a woman, really, if he does not meet me the minute that we agreed on then it automatically means he murdered my grandmother and is a monster.
Herman shows up a few minutes late, but Lisa forgives him immediately anyway. He is obsessed with the fact that he just learned a gambling secret so he confesses how he killed the queen but it doesn't matter because now he has her secret and basically ignores that this tears Lisa apart. He leaves and she kills herself.
The final scene is at a casino with Herman and a bunch of his friends and the prince. Herman bets his money on the first card and wins. He bets on the second card and wins. No one can believe it and he puts all of his money on the third card, no one will take the bet, no one but the prince. The final card is turned and it is not the card Herman chose. He curses the queen for lying to him, weeps over how he treated Lisa, then shoots himself.
Absolutely riveting.
During the intermission while many people went outside for a smoke or a drink I sat down in the coat room to save my legs. After the opera I went back to the hostel and made my second meal of microwaved bratwurst, peppers, and cheese.
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