GMC in Europe 2008

Tuesday, April 14

A small contingent of GMC singers rendered “Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal” on stage at the Great Festival Hall.  Unfortunately, there were no occupants in the 2177 audience seats.  We stood in front of the shimmering golden “iron” safety curtain before going backstage to see the mechanisms for staging operas & plays.  Prior to our “performance” we toured two other theatres under the same roof–the Small Festival Hall which seats 1324 and the Felsenreitschule which dates back to 1606.  Built against the side of a mountain, this theatre has arched spectator galleries–what a setting for operas–excellent acoustics & a retractable roof. 

Wow…the Greater Middletown Chorale is in Vienna.

No exclamation mark, just a fact. We’ve been grounding ourselves in the local culture for the past two days and having a blast.

Our two groups were reunited at the Hotel Ananan on Friday evening, and those of us who were on the Northwest/KLM flight were reassured to know that the Lufthansa folks had had their own “hardships” (no choice of movie on the plane; an early arrival that resulted in an unscheduled wait for two hours; a Mozart visit that was less than spectacular). By comparison, our wait due to “technical difficulties” at the Amsterdam airport (we were finally airborne at 2:30, about three hours past our scheduled departure) was almost pleasant.

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