Zurich Opera, opinions?

[rm]

So, on a lark I went to see about opera tickets for Patty and I in Zurich Saturday night. Sold out and sold out hard. That said, there are a very few tickets for the Friday performance of Die Zauberflöte. The seats available are astounding and priced accordingly.

I am a little, tiny, novice baby in my opera education, and enjoy it for the broad experience of it -- yes the music and the singers, but I care deeply about staging and costume, audience behavior, opera house decor, the whole bloody fabulous thing because I was sort of ruined for How Opera Really Is by Luhrmann's production of La Boheme being the vehicle by which I discovered I actually really dig opera. My ruination for How Opera Really Is has also been compounded by an obsession with Baroque semi-opera, so I'm not just a novice, I'm a weird, picky novice.

So, in light of that should I drop almost 200 francs to go to the opera by myself on Friday night before Patty gets in?

Conversely, I could drop 98 francs to see La Fanciulla del West a week from tomorrow in somewhat less stellar seats (of which there is one left, so I need to make this decision like now).

I know Die Zauberflöte a little. I don't know La Fanciulla del West at all (but since it's Puccini, it will be easily accessible, so it's not really a worry).

Thoughts?

Particularly from opera buffs who've been to the Zurich Opera and can appreciate my novice state and interest beyond just sound?

Merci!

ETA: If I do this, I desperately need to know the level of formality for my attire, as I assume it to be different here than in the US.

Comments

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Die Zauberflöte is a wonderful introduction to opera, it's got comedic moments and some truly stellar arias.

I'm more of a Mozart fan than a Puccini fan (who ranks below several Italian opera composers in my book), so I'd go for Mozart.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that I'd have to say stump up the cash and go for The Magic Flute. I don't know what Zürich Opera is like, though. And I don't know the dress code, but I'd go with white tie were I the one going.

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

Entirely based on personal taste, Die Zauberflöte.

But, you already know you like Puccini. And La Fanciulla del West is very interesting Puccini, and performed rarely in Europe, so that would be fascinating.

I have never been to Zurich. Dress code escapes me. Black, not white tie, would be my guess -- neither of these are premieres.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I know I like Mozart too is the problem.

Why is La Fanciulla del West interesting. It's never crossed my radar before, which is why I'm intrigued, as you can always see The Magic Flute....

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

It's late, weird Puccini, with influences from Strauss.

-- when Erica is awake she can probably tell you more; I have actually never seen it in production (though it's at the Met right now, oddly enough, so if you miss it there you could see it here...)

Zurich Opera

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

I've only been once to the Zurich Opera (OK, it coulda been the Tonhalle), and it was to see Rudolph Nureyev dance in something of his own choreography that resembled a Busby Berkeley musical done in costumes with long flowing capes designed by a mad Russian cossack. (You've seen The Incredibles on capes? It's not just a good rule for superheroes.)

It's not London. It's not Munchen. It's not Berlin. It's not Vienna. It's not Milan. Hell, it ain't even Venice. But, I'd go for the Mozart if you can stand the splurge. You're in the German part of CH, after all. I don't follow singers anymore, but it looks like it's got an err, international cast. Even if the staging looks a little, err, modern, you'll be surrounded by an echt opera house.

Opera on a Friday night is going to be about as formal as it gets, but wear the best of what you have.

Munchen used to have a rush for last minute seats on the night of the performance. The best I ever did was in the Bayerischen Rundfunk's booth, which was both primo and free. (They probably still have the rush, but I've not been back for many years.)

There wuz the time I ran up to a formally dressed couple in Munchen, one in a tux that I knew from the bars, one in a long white formal dress drag that I did not know, for some translating assistance...

There wuz the time the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra played in Munchen's Herkulessaal and started on the stroke of 8:00 pm, leaving at least 1/3 of the audience unseated...

Re: Zurich Opera

[rm.livejournal.com]

This is helpful! And I never travel without both an evening gown and a 3-piece suit. The biggest risk for me usually is over-dressing not under-dressing.

Re: Zurich Opera

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Wear either. Or dress down. If you pick that one seat in the fourth row, dress up. Everybody around you is there to be seen. If you're on the fourth balcony in the cheap seats, dress down. Everybody around you is there for the opera. In general, fancy on the main floor and first balcony. Above that in the nosebleed sections, there's less worry about what you wear.

In general, German speaking areas put on better German opera. They're pickier about it, and almost all the composers are local or almost local. You screw up the accent and the notes at your own risk. French, Italian, Russian, etc, you've got a bit more leeway.

Zurich ustta be a bit of a burgerlich stadt where the money stayed with the gnomes...

Re: Zurich Opera

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

You have said everything I would have said about the opera in Zurich. (I was there about five years ago.) Spot on, all of it.

You might even enjoy the modern staging a bit, since you came to opera through Luhrmann.

Re: Zurich Opera

[annablume.livejournal.com]

Omg - go.

Re: Zurich Opera

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Yes. This.(Full disclosure:The Magic Flute is the only Opera I've ever seen-twice, on TV, decades apart. Love it, love Mozart like Beethoven did! Also, any excuse for you to get all gussied up is a good thing! Because the Universe needs the Awesome.)

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

Die Zauberflöte is my favorite. But in your shoes, I would go see La Fanciulla del West, because it's so rarely performed.

I had my Opera "awakening" when I was 17 (in 1987). All of the AFS kids left our host families for two weeks and went to Berlin together, and our organization to us to the Berlin Oper. We saw Madame Butterfly. Sung in Italian, German supertitles. I was sitting between friends from Czechoslovakia and Japan. The Japanese girl was very softly singing along!

I've loved opera ever since. Now I go whenever I can, even if all I can afford are the cheap-assed $10, last row of the balcony seats.

[lostin-thestars.livejournal.com]

Die Zauberflote was the first opera I was ever cast in as Papagena, it will always hold a special place in my heart, so I know which one I would choose! That probably isn't very helpful.

Then again, I prefer Mozart to Pucchini. (*gasp*)

(*gasp*)

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Understandable.

[airspaniel.livejournal.com]

This feels like heresy, as Die Zauberflote is one of my very favorite operas (it's hilarious!) and in fact probably the reason I started Opera Performance in college in the first place, but I've been wanting to see La Fanciulla del West done full out for ages. So if I were you, going to the opera alone, and tickets were not as great but half as expensive, I'd pick the Puccini. Either way, I think you're going to see something wonderful.

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

I'd go see La Fanciulla del West, because I always go for the rarer thing and the one I have not seen before.

OTOH, I'd recommend seeing Die Zauberflöte. Beautiful music, some of the most incredible voice artistry ever, heaps of weirdness, mystery and freemasonery, and as Die Zauberlöte has been done so often, most directors putting it on stage try to add something really outlandish, which is usually fun.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

I definitely recommend Die Zauberflöte as an introduction to opera. Pretty much most of the popular Mozart Operas are pretty approachable (Le Nozze De Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte) but Die Zauberflöte was written specifically for the popular audience, and therefore I think is a little more approachable for non-opera buffs. The music is fantastic of course, and the story actually has many wonderful layers. Seeing it in Zurich is, in my opinion a plus as well. I don't know the Zurich opera that well, but if it were me, I'd go for the Mozart.

As for formality of attire, when I went to the opera in Stuttgart back in 1991, I wore a sports coat if I recall correctly. I don't know that you absolutely have to dress to the nines, but I would say dress for your own pleasure. You tend to look stunning when you do anyway so I'm sure it'll be fine for the Opera.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Puccini! It sounds awesome.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

My first reaction was La Fanciulla del West. But...they're doing it this year in Chicago, so I checked and yep at the Met as well. Hey a cowboy opera - and its a hoot. Honestly, Deborah Voigt wouldn't be my first choice for Minni (it looks like the principles are the same in both productions), but you'll be able to see it this year if you want to.

I don't know what production the Met is doing, but Lyric is reviving the 1991 Harold Prince production which was amazing. I've been waiting, uh, 20 years to see this again. (Unfortunately, no Placido Domingo this time around).

So go for the Magic Flute. Pay the astounding price and have a once in a lifetime experience. I've been to La Scala and the Prague State Opera and my only regret was having pretty crappy seats both times.

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

We did The Magic Flute in school (and I now own a video just because it so inspired my love for it)... it's a fantastic opera, story telling, but be prepared that it is a bit: men are the stronger sex in the upper echelons of wisdom

Seriously, if I had the money, I'd be on a plane to join you!

and yes, opera is formal (or it was 20 years ago when I saw the Magic Flute in Kiel, Germany)

[spreadsothin.livejournal.com]

A note on La Fanciulla del West
(which you may or may not already be privy to)

Many people in the musical world believe that the music from Phantom of the Opera borrows heavily from La Fanciulla del West, very heavily.

There's even a lyric referencing it directly in Musical of Musicals: A Musical.