Day 039: Der Freischutz—my first opera in Vienna
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 39
— Der Freischutz—my first opera in Vienna
10-September-1971
(Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
Normal day.
Spent a lot of time practicing. Sometimes satisfied,
but mostly not. Still, there isn’t enough time to do
everything I want.
Der
Freischutz. [Opera] Performance at
the Volksoper. Excellent, I really enjoyed it and
will continue to go a lot. The horns were really good
but sometimes I wonder (whether) I like the Vienna
Horn sound and also the playing. For example, the
horn seems to be very easily overloaded (brassy) when
played loud. The playing style (if it has anything to
do with technique) seems to be good, but sometimes in
soft spots, the attack seems too strong.
Well, anyway, I shouldn’t be so critical—because of
my own playing.
Very enjoyable.
REFLECTIONS
During the day, business-as-usual—practicing.
Der
Freischütz. Yay! My
first opera in Vienna [Opera 01].
Der Freischütz, a German
opera by Carl Maria von Weber, was performed at the
Volksoper (folk opera). I really enjoyed the
performance. What a change in my life! In my entire
life, I had only gone to a small number of
professional concerts over many years (the exception
being concerts at my college, Montclair State). In
Vienna, I am able to go to a lot of concerts and
operas at reasonable cost, conveniently, and within
easy reach. It’s like going to the Metropolitan Opera
and Lincoln Center in New York every few nights (or
so).
I’m in heaven.
If you want to read about
Der Freischütz,
here is
an article from Wikipedia.
[You may
have noticed that I added a Music page and a
Sightseeing page to the website. For now, these will
only be chronological listings of the music I’ve
heard and the places I’ve seen. I hope to expand them
in to being good resources of additional information.
It would be great to get user-submitted content (from
you guys) at some point.]
Volksoper.
The
Volksoper is the “people's opera” house in Vienna,
second only to the Vienna State Opera. The Volksoper
performs operas, operettas, light operas, musicals,
and other music that is considered more “popular” in
nature. Don’t be misled; many of these operas are
performed in many major opera houses around the
world. These are operas. They are immensely
enjoyable. Later, I learn that my horn professor at
the Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Professor
Frederick Gabler, was first hornist in the Volksoper.
Here is a Wikipedia article on the
Vienna
Volksoper.
Vienna
Horn. I comment
on the [French] horns because I am a French Horn
player. The playing is great. I also note that the
sound of the Vienna horns can be brassy in loud
passages. I believe that is characteristic of the
Vienna Horn due to its smaller bore size. I also
believe that Vienna Horn is more difficult to play
than the traditional F/Bb double horn. I only became
aware that the Viennese had their own version of the
“French” Horn called the Vienna or Viennese horn,
just before going to Vienna. Here’s an interesting
note for horn players: the Viennese also occasionally
play the F-natural Vienna horn, which has NO VALVES.
The performer plays the notes of the horn by mostly
using the notes of the “harmonic series” (sounds that
can be made on any set of open tubing—think “Ricola”
cough-drop alpen horns)—and by also “stopping” their
hands in the bell. Now, that’s tough to play. That’s
how horn playing started—with open tubing, no valves.
For those of you who didn’t understand this last
part, don’t worry. Here is a Wikipedia article on
the
Vienna
Horn.
John
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