Day 151: New Year’s Eve—Die Fledermaus
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Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
151 — New Year’s Eve—Die Fledermaus
31-December-1971
(Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
Went running around buying gifts and just basically
spending a lot of money.
Then went very early (with Mike) into the lineup
for Die
Fledermaus—tonight. So that took
the whole day. But what really burned me up was that
some Wieners managed to wiggle their way into the
front of the line. It’s people like that I really
dislike because it shows a lack of consideration to
the people that waited in the line all day. However,
they thought nothing of it. Bastards. But later on, I
had a little satisfaction by foiling one’s plan to
save a place.
Being that it was New Year's Eve, we snuck some
champagne into the opera house—it was tradition. And
so, we were feeling good. In fact, Mike had the
corked champagne under his arm and the heat made it
pop. Our plan almost fizzled out.
Die
Fledermaus was also fantastic.
Tradition has it that on New Year's Eve, ad libbing,
impromptu, and being drunk on stage is great. And
even if you didn’t understand the jokes, you could
tell. It was very enjoyable.
After the opera, we were walking down Kärtnerstrasse,
it reminded me of what Vietnam must be like—all of
these firecrackers sounded like bombs.
Anyway, our plans were to see New Year's Eve in the
“Times Square” of Vienna—Stephansdom Platz. However,
we decided to get a drink; a whole group of us. And
by the second bottle of champagne, when the lights
went out, we realized we missed Stephansdom. So
anyway, we stayed. It was a great time—very friendly,
plenty of drink, singing Broadway tunes, and making
plenty of toasts. All along, I was feeling pretty
good. Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. I was
completely gone. I didn’t realize it would happen,
but it was too late. I staggered home and into bed.
Pavel laughed, but told me to put one leg over the
edge of the bed (equilibrium) and it helped a little
in stopping the spinning. Yes, you know, “the
spinning.”
REFLECTIONS
A
Vienna tradition—Die Fledermaus. It’s New
Year's Eve. Vienna is world-famous for it’s New
Year's traditions—music by the Johann Strauss
dynasty, Die
Fledermaus, the
Vienna balls (Hofburg Ball) on New Year's Eve, and
the famous Strauss concert by the Vienna Philharmonic
on New Year's Day. Today, we stand in line
all
day for
standing room tickets for tonight’s performance
of Die
Fledermaus at the
Staatsoper. (The Volksoper also performs the opera.)
A few line-crashers ruin the normally well-behaved
crowd, but we manage to get tickets and into the
performance. Here is a link to the synopsis of
Die
Fledermaus from
the
Metropolitan
Opera website and
Wikipedia.
Tradition?
My friend
Mike actually sneaks a bottle of champagne into the
opera house. He says it’s tradition.
The cork
pops due to the heat under his coat. Well, we
certainly have at least one drink in the opera house.
By the way, when someone says something is
“tradition,” it might be safer not to listen. In the
near future, I do one other traditional
thing (in
Munich). Usually, these are things you are not
supposed to do and for which you can get in trouble.
I suppose that we could have been kicked out of the
opera house if we were caught. But we’re kids. We’re
stupid. We follow the leader. (Kids and adults, do
not do this—you may be kicked out of the opera house.
Be warned.) Well, it was fun, anyway. 
Ad
lib tradition. The opera
and performance was fantastic. It is also tradition
during the performance of Die
Fledermaus, by
Vienna’s favorite son, Johann Strauss, Jr., on New
Year's Eve only, for the performers to ad lib,
improvise, and make jokes and other comments. The
audience laughs. I didn’t get the jokes but I laughed
anyway. A great, fun, New Year's Eve performance.
Celebration. When
you’re young, you celebrate. (Nowadays, I tend to go
to sleep early.) Celebrate we did, in a restaurant.
Drinking away. We miss the outside celebration in
Vienna’s Kärtnerstrasse and Stephansdom Platz. It was
a shame to miss it. Well, I get drunk. I think this
is the first and only time I get drunk in Vienna. I
get home on the strassebahn and fall into bed, with
good advice from Pavel on preventing the room from
“spinning.” Ah, youth. 
See the photo of Bernard Vogl’s Christmas
in Vienna to give
you an idea of what the nearby area looks like today,
and visit the link to
his
website at
dativ.at to see a 360-degree panorama of the
scene. Nice.
ay 145: Vienna! Frohe
Weihnachten—Merry Christmas!">See Day
145.
John
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