Mozartin

So I have not been getting much in the way of responses to my bombardments of pictures lately, so let's try some text.

I went to see a play tonight with a classmate from my Russian class. I really liked it. The Berlin Russian Theater had come to Vienna (they were performing in German) and put on a piece about Mozart's sister. Long story short, she had a pretty awful life, she was older and used to perform with him while they were little but never had the same opportunities. He got to go off to Vienna and she got stuck in the Austrian boonies, he accumulated massive debt and she was married off to some old man rather than her true love because the old guy would pay his debts. Fun, and it is pretty much all true. Makes you see Mozart in a different light.

I really liked the play because it was very modern, quick, and physical. The play started off with Mozart's sister and wife being on a talk show arguing with a host about who knew Mozart better, saying things like "It is quality and not quantity!" then all of the cast member introduced the others by reading their biography, finishing with their death date, which would be wildly applauded, and then the person would come out. They also had Mozart's parents treating their kids like musical monkeys, even arguing about the best way to market them (Mozartkugeln of course!). Mozartkugeln deserved to be mocked. For those that don't know, they are the Mozart's candies that are super popular here, though because of them if you didn't know Mozart before coming to Vienna you would swear he invented chocolate or something. Any way, they mocked Mozartkugeln (in addition to serving them during intermission!), did some crazily intense physical stuff, and put on a pretty dark piece of theater that used actors as furniture. I like.

Then I went to a party at a Bulgarian church that looked like a bunker. I got to talk to people who went to elite private school next to the diplomatic academy, which was interesting.