Sign in with Facebook"5/8 of an opera in the Palmengarten 2004" Top 5 Page for this destination Frankfurt am Main Travelogue by Nemorino
Frankfurt am Main Travel Guide: 2,074 reviews and 3,573 photos
To add to the excitement of an open-air performance, you never know how the weather is going to develop in this part of the world. The bandstand of the Palmengarten is used as the stage, and it has a roof on it, but both the orchestra and the audience sit out under the open sky.
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On July 17, 2004 we had a beautiful premiere of 5/8 of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro. The weather was warm and sunny for the first half, in fact during the overture some of the musicians on one side of the orchestra had to wear sunglasses because the sun hadn't gone down quite far enough yet to get out of their eyes.
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Acts 1 and 2 went really well, allaying all fears of people who had been to the dress rehearsal and seen everything go wrong that possibly could.
During the intermission a few harmless clouds started to gather, but nobody minded that particularly. Then a short ways into Act 3 some gusty wind started coming up. Conductor Anton Zapf lost some loose sheets of music that were blown off his music stand all of a sudden, but he kept on conducting. Parts of the stage set started swaying violently as gusts of wind found their way into the interior of the bandstand. Johannes M. Kösters as Count Almaviva kept on singing even though various curtains were whipping him in the face and free-standing spotlights started falling over.
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Then the first raindrops fell, and that is always the signal for the musicians to grab their instruments and head for cover.
Usually if it's just a bit of quiet summer drizzle the orchestra regroups itself under the roof and the performance continues after a few minutes in concert form for those audience members who don't mind sitting in the rain.
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But this time there was a storm warning and in fact a violent hailstorm was under way in other parts of Frankfurt, so they reluctantly canceled the rest of the premiere and invited everyone to come again the following Tuesday.
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Which a lot of people did. The weather held that day, but for the remaining fourteen performances it was rather mixed, with some beautiful evenings alternating with stormy ones.
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Originally the young American soprano Christine Graham was scheduled to sing Susanna (the one who marries Figaro after all the complications have been resolved), and I was looking forward to that because Christine is one of my favorites, but she had to cancel out because she got a full-time job (hurrah!) in the opera ensemble in Coburg. Her replacement Jana Degebrodt is also very good, though, so except for the mixed weather it was all quite successful.
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Comments (138)
LOL! Thanks Don for the first laugh of my day! Your Warning and Danger tips were pretty funny!! Useful too!
Reading your great opera tips I was looking forward to watching a performance during my visit to Frankfurt (July 7-9), but unfortunately there's nothing on then.. Any suggestions? Ilan
I would like to visit Germany someday...
Hi Don! Will be spending 2 weeks in Germany with my aunt who lives in nearby Hofheim, so am looking forward to finally exploring Frankfurt a bit more on this trip! Thanks for your tips / Jess ;-)
Sounds like a screenplay waiting to be written!
It is the season for updates. Prices of museums increased, opera and concert houses also I suppose. I saw you were an anarchist(?) demonstrator in other times!
update 02/17/11. Many new tips since last 2006 read. Don, what a wonderful journey in & around Frankfurt I especially loved the L'Orfeo Opera, the information about Wagner, the Hammering Man [glad he's fixed!], the US Consulate.
wonderful page, really enjoyed reading thru with all the opera stories. the garden house looks like a totally relaxing venue for shows.
We got more than 20 cm of snow last night... Time to take pictures for "Ontario winter"....
What a fantastic page, Don, on Frankfurt. Better than any guide. My brother is a publisher and goes to the Book fair every year. I will tell him about your tips, I know he would like them.
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