rm | Zurich Opera, opinions?

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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...

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.

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...

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.

Omg - go.

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.)

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