Day 223: Don’t be rude
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
223 — Don’t be rude
12-March-1972
(Sonntag–Sun.)
TRANSCRIPT
Some practicing earlier.
It snowed last night—what happened to spring?
Saw a recital by Anna Moffet—excellent. Except that a
bunch of “childish” Austrians were making somewhat
more noise. They thought they were better. Anyway,
being myself, I let them know how stupid they were,
and I did very well. My German was sufficient to have
a real good argument—of course, I was in the right.
All people around would have agreed with me. However,
they [the noisemakers] didn’t seem to realize it. Too
bad.
A nice little event happened. After intermission, I
sat in a seat, and the family in front turned out to
be Americans—very nice. There was this little girl
(1st, 2nd grade), very cute and who was acting very
nice. Like children, however, she was looking around
and I smiled somewhat at her. So, in a very cute, but
shy manner, she kneeled in the chair facing me (eyes
wide open and cute expression) and was glancing very
slowly from my left to right (like a cinematic
pan).
Of course, I knew whom the curiosity was directed to;
and when her eyes and head in that moment faced me, I
said, “Hi…!” Slow and long. After her initial little
surprise, we had a very nice conversation with her
father (they came from Colorado), until we said
goodbye at the end of the concert. Only
disappointment was that I really didn’t get to talk
at all with their nice looking [older] daughter.
Looked friendly. Well, as Ing. [Engineer] Helmut G.
would say, “That’s life.”
REFLECTIONS
Being
rude. Looks like
I politely told off some rude audience members in
German. Good for me. I don’t like rude people and I’m
certain they deserved it. Today, I start in standing
room (where the few noisy audience members were) and
then move to an empty seat after intermission, where
I meet an American family on vacation. Tourists
usually don’t do standing room.
All
you need is a smile. The best
way to forget about rude people is to have a
conversation with a polite family and have their
charming little princess smile at you. A pleasant way
to end the concert.
Anna
Moffo. Anna Moffo
was a top coloratura operatic soprano, singing lead
roles in the top opera houses of the world. Tonight,
I am seeing her in recital, what a treat. The opening
picture of Moffo is an autographed photo from 1965
(Wikimedia Commons, copyrighted).
Links:
Anna Moffo in
Wikipedia
Here is an interesting vintage
video of Anna Moffo in Madame Butterfly
(YouTube)
John
- - - -
