| Page Views: 1,626 Last Visit to Zürich: August, 2005 | Opera in Zürich by Nemorino - last update: Oct 14, 2009 |
| The Opera House on Lake Zürich |
Zürich is the largest city in Switzerland ("Downtown Switzerland" they call it in their advertising), and is always an invigorating place to visit. I used to come over sometimes when I was a student in Bern, which was quite a long time ago.
On my next visit to Zürich I want to take a bicycle tour of the city with an organization called Zürich by Bike, whose website was the source of one of my previous mottos on VirtualTourist.
On the Zürich by Bike website they say:"Mobility on bicycles instead of motorised vehicles contributes to keeping a high standard of living in a city, as it helps to lower unhealthy air-pollution. Apart from the immediate environment, the climate is also being protected, because there are no greenhouse gases emitted as with motorised traffic. Additionally, the bicycle is a space-saving means of transport. From the perspective of cyclists, there is hardly any need for asphalt pavements covering the urban area.
Last but not least, cycling contributes to individual fitness: regular physical activity lowers the risk of coronary problems, the major cause of death in our society.
A cycling society is healthier and lives in a more intact environment than a highly motorised one -- we find this worth supporting and promoting."Thanks to VT member Marmotte1 for providing the link to Zürich by Bike.
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I've only seen two operas in Zürich thus far. The first was Maria Stuarda, by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), a lovely opera which I have already described on my Wiesbaden page.
The Zürich production that I saw was in the news for weeks beforehand because the intended star, Edita Gruberova, refused to perform and in fact held a news conference in which she said she would never again perform at the Zürich Opera. This was because her daughter, a dancer, had been injured in a stage accident in Zürich, and she blamed the Zürich Opera for negligence.
Gruberova really is the greatest (I once saw her in Bellini's I puritani in Munich, and I'm listening to her sing Maria Stuarda on the CD-player as I write this), but I was also quite satisfied with her replacement, the young Spanish soprano AngeIes Blancas, who gave her own touch to the role and was warmly applauded by the Zürich audience. |
The second opera I saw in Zürich was Fierrabras by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), in a brilliant production by stage director Claus Guth.
This is an opera which is very seldom performed -- up to now there have been only four productions of it altogether, two of which I have seen. The Frankfurt production was musically excellent but did not succeed in making much sense of the muddled storyline. But since I had seen it several times in Frankfurt I was already acquainted with it and was well prepared to appreciate the brilliance of Claus Guth's staging in Zürich.
He set it not in the 9th but in the 19th century in Schubert's living room, with an actor playing Schubert and a huge piano hanging in the middle of the stage. Schubert was writing the opera as it went along, and each time a new character appeared, he or she was blindfolded. Schubert removed the blindfolds and set the characters in motion, and they soon got out of his control, especially the two rival kings, who scornfully rejected Schubert just as the composer's father had done in real life.
The composer Richard Wagner lived in Zürich from 1849 to 1858. This was not exactly voluntary, since he was facing prosecution in Germany for his part in trying to organize the short-lived Dresden Rebellion of 1849. But when he and his wife got to Zürich they were taken in and befriended by a wealthy couple named Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck, who fed and housed them and gave Wagner the leisure he needed to go on composing.
Wagner, true to form, fell in love with Mathilde Wesendonck. To get an idea of how he felt about her, listen to the opera Tristan und Isolde, which he wrote with her in mind. In a letter to her when he finished it, he said that he thought it would banned, and that a good performance of it would drive people crazy.
Well, I've seen several good performances of it lately (in Frankfurt), and I don't think it has driven me crazy (no crazier than I was before, in any case), but I must admit the music keeps going around in my head at odd times, such as when I am cycling home at night after seeing some other opera entirely. Tristan und Isolde is said to be the most advanced music Wagner ever wrote, advanced meaning atonal, foreshadowing the "modern" music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Wesendoncks' lovely hilltop villa is now a museum, but not about Wagner -- I've made a Zürich "Things to Do" tip about it. |
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 Comments for Nemorino about Zürich | | | | |
Toshioohsako Fri Oct 16, 2009 13:45 UTC
Very beautiful places to enjoy in Zurich before or after opera! | i-bella Sat Sep 19, 2009 07:11 UTC
Beautiful and interesting page! | Yaqui Wed Jul 1, 2009 20:50 UTC
Wow, to eat in a dinning car. How fabulous! The Tonhalle & Altstadt looks so charming. Would love a peak at those museums someday. Nice page Don! | lynnehamman Wed May 27, 2009 00:31 UTC
Excellent tips on Zurich, Don. Good overview too. I think that I would love that dining-car on the train. It looks so elegant. Good transport tips.& photos |
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