Vienna Opera House, Haus Der Musik

[rorygfan]

I have been here in the music capital of europe several days and touring the absolute best museums and collections I have ever seen anywhere in my travels, I highly recommend Vienna.  I guess there is a reason OPEC has their meetings here.   Yesterday using the super value Vienna pass for 6 days we went to an offbeat place at the end of the day since it stayed open late.  It was a called Haus Der Musik, and what was unique about it was the interactivity for people who come in to learn about what sound pressure is, how sounds are created, there was a resonance tube device i had never seen before the demonstrated frequency and wavelength relationships with particle motion using a transparent 3″ diameter plexiglas tube with cork particles inside and a speaker mounted in one end, then they swept the frequencies to show the wave peaks where they touch the side wall…. difficult to describe and not sure if anybody here is interested so won’t go into more detail.  There were quite a few unique demonstrations about music, some historical things on  Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, etc.  Places where if you wanted to record and using their tools and screens record… really a cool place to have kids and people interested in basics of music and sound to learn.  Not one reference to anything about RAP, nor Rock music btw.  I would say it could be mildly compared to something like the Exploratorium in San Francisco, which focuses on teaching science really basically to the general public in a very excellent and palatable way.

So after ending the day today of visiting, I walked past our bus stop starting point at Staatsoper which is the Vienna Opera House.  My only familiarity with this famous place was watching Joe Bonamassa’s DVD filmed there, as I am not interested in Opera at all.  However, my friend is and she was really thrilled to be able to go so we went.  I bought seats from a scalper standing outside with a handheld credit card machine and he offered us 2 seats in a second level private box that sat 5 people which we shared with 3 others.  My seat ticket price was 11 Euros, and scalped for 45 so not bad as it was an impulse last minute unplanned event.  The seating chart he showed me and location was accurate but the back seat was higher but not high enough to see the show, unlike the 3 front row seats in the box.  I listened politely for 10 minutes for the first act which the entire thing was 4 hours.  Then went outside and took pictures and spoke to an employee there outside and got some insight into many subjects culturally about this part of the world.   So to enjoy the show, the Opera house has subtitles in english on an LCD screen for each seat with a pivot arm to watch, but it was abit too far away and the font size too small see for my back seat.  Well, the acoustics of the room were nice and the voices and orchestra were really good.  The opera music style isn’t for me, but as a once in a lifetime sort of event and opportunity I thought it was really well done and well worth the money simply for the experience.  I came back in after intermission and watched the second half and like Rock music, it was interesting how they repeat a theme and lyrics over and over sort of like popular music.  The entire place was dressed up pretty classy or pretentious or snobby or whatever word you want to say, I saw lot’s of elderly folks decked out in their Sunday best and furs, diamonds, heels, suits and tuxes and the coat check and all this pompous stuff amused me, though the drink prices were not that bad 4 euros for Coke… ha.  I wore nicer jeans and decent looking jacket and not dressed up at all, and fortunately quite a few other people dressed the same as they were also unprepared tourists.   If anybody ever has a chance to go to an event like this, you should see it first hand as if nothing else the facility and acoustics are impressive.  No I didn’t see anybody use those dopey looking opera glasses, but maybe there is an APP that will work… nope sorry NO CELL PHONES OR CAMERAS ALLOWED!!!!  That was the best part.  I was told by my employee friend outside that the conductor at some point in the past got so fed up with flashes he stopped and threatened to end the show!  Wow.  So total control, strict behavior and respect for a rule of “law” so to speak, impressive.  There were no plastic holders to force idiots to keep their cell phones off.  Why not?  Common sense was applied and mutual respect.  When the lights came on,  I did a panoramic shot but need to reduce the size of it to post here again, not sure if it interests anyone.   What was the name of the Opera Piece?  Alcina by Handel.  I tried to get into see Mozart’s Figaro  a couple nights ago but it was sold out and the standby order by internet never became available.  They have tours of residences where Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart lived and museums around which I am not going to have time to visit.  I plan to go to Salzberg though and see any Mozart tours that are available there.

[superblonde]

rorygfan wrote:

the entire thing was 4 hours.

what did everyone do during intermission, just curious what the stuffy crowd was like in that respect. Hah, at a rock concert everyone would bolt to the smoking patio.

rorygfan wrote:

I wore nicer jeans and decent looking jacket

😀 I was hoping to hear you went in dressed like Black Label Society 😀

I guess the opera crowd is still worried about their art style disappearing, meanwhile, Blue Man group shoots twinkies out of cannons or whatever and have sold out shows :-/

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[rorygfan]

superblonde wrote:

what did everyone do during intermission, just curious what the stuffy crowd was like in that respect. Hah, at a rock concert everyone would bolt to the smoking patio.

You know, I finished my converstation with the attendant guy at that time, he split to attend to the opera snobs looking for coat check, bathrooms, and the snack parlors.  They have a coffee bar, wine and liquor and cakes and chocolates near the hall. I do know they ALL exited the main hall, except for a few.  My girlfriend and I hung out in the private suite thing/ jail cell and talked and I took a panorama shot.  Smokers I am sure exited about 3″ outside the door, which is annoying as the smoke blows back in in most locals I find.  I have gotten used to smoke free for so long in California and now in CR that it actually annoys me somewhat, not a lot but enough.

No Levi Jacket and Chains though while I was in Madrid I tried on a genuine Levi Blue Jean jacket as I have not seen one in a very long time for sale where I am.  But the thing was uncomfortable, so left it hanging.  Actually I hate attention, and do my best to blend in with whatever crowd I am in.  I have quite a load of tattoos on my legs and when I wear shorts, I get way too much unwanted attention, so I try not to wear them unless at the beach.  It was not my intention at all and sort of an mid life addiction as at 18 I had only one, and that was like 28 years before I got the second, third, etc.  I will post a strange story below that happened today, well just odd.

 

[rorygfan]

So today, we still are tooling around as I have three weeks nearly up north in Austria and surroundings.   The pass I bought I intended to go and see everything I could and wore out my girlfriend with all the walking and doing and seeing stuff.  I have endless energy when I am into learning something, and love museums and reading interesting stuff and taking lots of photos.  Well, the second activity today sorta an unintentional Halloween tie-in… and macabre.  I was at the St. Stevens Cathedral which is about as center of the city as you can find and obviously a must see tourist thing.  You enter the church and there are like 4 different tours about 5 euros each, and the one I wanted to do from a friends referral was see the catacombs.  This underground place holds the bones of 12,000 people stacked up in neat little piles, the bodies were first placed in wooden boxes and stacked up high, then after years go by the boxes rotted and all the stuff comes tumbling down.  So the Emperor gets Prisoners as unpaid labor to sort out the bones from the rotten wood.  They are commanded to wipe them all clean and stack them in neat rows.  The tour guide said photos were prohibited as it was not a museum but a cemetery.  Whatever.  The black plague era wiped out a lot of people and the Hapsburg too were kept there.  The Monarchy bodies were mummified according to the tour guide and they took all the internal organs and put them into these big cast iron metal kettles, all stacked on shelves.  These go back to 1300’s some of them like the founders intestines, heart, liver etc.  I haven’t read up on this but this was certainly wacky to see these pots all over.   So as we are entering the line for this tour, my girlfriend sees these 4 rock looking guys and asks them if they are musicians, and immediately one of them whips out his mini flyer/business card printed in color with all their website info, facebook, etc. and immediately  I thought about your comments in the past about Bands not marketing right and no website!  Wow.  cool.  Anyway, they are going on this boneyard tour with us.  So they were dressed all up in rock stuff, tat’s all over and have been making a living playing opening shows for you name the Metal band… “Hemlock” is their band, I have not heard their stuff until tonight a couple seconds of it before my phone died.  The best part of the story is that 22 years together, they have made a living playing music and touring.  Two brothers told me they were born in Vegas, and one of them wanted to downsize financially sorta like I did before when I retired, but they moved to Iowa and bought a house for $22K. and spend their lives traveling the world, all young guys compared to me and I admired the non-standard american dream chasing buy the latest car and house and live in debt cliche thing, that they did not follow to survive on music.  Really, really impressed me.  So one of my first questions was how do you handle the logistics of equipment being shipped overseas to Europe.  One replied- simple “we trade”… he explained that they are friends with a Danish or Hungarian band I don’t remember and those guys were friends who wanted to tour the states, so they loaned them drums, and amps so this tour was their reciprocity being received, just arriving with guitars in hand!  I never heard of this, but thought what a great idea to keep expenses down.  They share an AirBnB house together which is about 80 euros a night they said, so that’s how to tour on the cheap-  I just love this atttitude and passion like that they stuck with it and do the same wherever they go.  I am not envious of anybody, but I sure can say “woulda, shoulda, coulda”, had I not done the traditional family thing back in the 70’s.  All these guys were super friendly and not pompous rock-star types.  So we saw a metal band near halloween looking at skulls and bones, all fit in the Halloween theme today! Lol.

[superblonde]

“Hemlock” touring a bone yard LOL 😀

Don’t drink whatever they’re drinking, Hah!

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[rorygfan]

My gf insisted on photos which isnt my thing..  yeah I liked the name.  I still would like to drink some real absinthe….

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[rorygfan]

Well tonight I saw a really cool street “guitarist”…This guy was playing a broom.  Not sure if it was a Halloween gag or his normal stringed instrument, but hey it was cool.   He had a wood screen mounted at 90 degrees to the broom stick as the nut, and one string attached near the part where the bristles meet the broomstick.  A standard guitar pick up which looked like a single coil was attached below the 1/2 way point (12th fret), he played slide using a bic cigarrette lighter as the slide and picked with his index and thumb.  I will try and upload a video later and have to get the photos.  Man, it was great sounding too with only one string.  He had a Bluetooth controlled mp3 player set off to his left side to acccompany his playing and on his right side an effects pedal and a backpack with a small diameter speaker mounted in it, I assume the battery was stuffed inside.  He was busy and had a few spectators so I did not bother him with any questions only a nice tip.  One of the more unique musicians I have seen in awhile, the streets have violins, clarinets, flute players and a couple guitarists but nobody like this at least that I have ever seen.   He was dressed pretty well so wasn’t a bum, but I would rate him as the real STREET performer like the guys who jam on garbage can lids and 5 gallon buckets, as he is using standard materials.  Oh, it was fretless of course… ha.

[rorygfan]

Broom guitar. Nice tone with little wood.

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[rorygfan]

[superblonde]

sweet vids of the slide!
There is a local pro blues guy who plays his own hand carved guitars, cigar box styles, he also has a 3-string made from an axe handle that he plays and it sounds great, very dirty, uses fat strings on it. Old americana blues styles. This seems to be growing in popularity or at least, the niche fans are keeping it very healthy.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[rorygfan]

It really made my day to stumble into this guy playing as it was original to me.  I would love see any videos you take of other cigar box or odd axes in your rounds, please post them.  Same with local one man bands or blues guys, just if u find it convenient.

Btw  I saw a complete collection of antique euro origin player pianos and multi instrument automated things like an automated violin player today also in the austrian tecnisches museum.

[rorygfan]

A friend forward this link of some basic strange guitars… nobody needs to pay $3000. on a Les Paul.  No way, a shovel will do.

https://awesomejelly.com/guitarist-justin-johnson-has-mind-blowing-skill-playing-some-of-the-strangest-guitars-you-will-ever-see/

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