[Dixielandjazz] Vienna, Austria

[Katie Cavera]

June 9, 2009
Vienna, Austria

Grüss Gott! Last Thursday, we arrived in Vienna at our new residence for the next three weeks. We’re a few short subway stops from the city center and it’s actually close enough to walk if you’re feeling energetic (which I did Thursday morning before we got our metro pass!)  The internet service in the hotel was on the fritz for about 3 days, but they finally fixed it which was a huge relief.  Nearly everyone in the company has a laptop and relies heavily on the internet. So I’m sure after all the calls and complaints to the front desk, the hotel staff realized they needed to get it fixed as quickly as possible!

We had one dress rehearsal in the Ronacher Theatre on Friday night and then we opened on Saturday.  The theatre was originally built in 1871 and then rebuilt after a fire in 1888. The original Josephine Baker had a successful run there in 1932 and so they are playing that up in the publicity for this show.  The theatre a beautiful venue that has been meticulously restored and preserved.  The stage is quite large and we have plenty of room in the orchestra pit.  Stretching out in front of the pit is a wooden dance floor that they’ve filled with small circular cabaret style tables and chairs.  Then after the dance floor, there are regular rows of raked theater seats, and two balconies that wrap completely around the hall with additional theatre seating. The hall is ornately decorated and there’s a huge golden chandelier over the dance floor. I’ve seen this style theatre over here before and it seems really smart because you could clear the dance
 floor and have an exceptional swing dance venue (or Viennese Waltz venue?) with great acoustics and plenty of space for people that just want to sit and listen to the band/orchestra too.  But I digress... 

The opening went very well and they had a fantastic party for everyone after the show.  Before the party they had to get all of us together so we could “make an entrance”.  My friend Simone who works for the production and is a native of Austria couldn’t stress this to us enough!  So at the proper moment we all entered the Winter Garden together (that’s just what they call a big salon in the theater) while flashbulbs flashed and tv cameras filmed.  Jerome gave a speech and Nicole sang a song and then it was time for the free food and drinks! At times like this it’s great being in the band because we don’t have to do all the ‘meet and greet’ stuff.  So we easily slipped through the crowd and hit the food line! Is that a bad musician thing to do? 

Vienna is a really spectacular city and I’ve been waring out my shoes walking around the city center during the day. Yesterday I spent almost all my per diem on a ticket to see the Vienna Philharmonic play at the Musikfreunde this Sunday.  It’s the only time I can see them that doesn’t conflict with the Josephine show, and I was so excited that I splurged a little and got myself a nice ticket. It’s ok because we get more per diem on the 10th - I’ll just have watch my expenses for a few days.  There’s tons of stuff to see and do here for free and with the metro pass they gave us, I’ve been riding the electric trains everywhere.  It’s a great way to see the city, and I found some interesting neighborhoods too. Today I came across “Jazzland” which is a night club some people have told me about.  David Boeddinghaus and Chris Tyle know the owner, so we’re going to try and go one night after the show, or maybe even on Wednesday - our day
 off.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Auf Wiedersehen!
Katie

http://www.katiecavera.com
http://www.youtube.com/kcavera