We took it easy getting up, breakfast, and ready for our drive to Salzburg. But first, a detour to the pigrimage church Maria Gern, just north of Berchtesgaden. The church is just by the side of the road, with virtually no parking, and a couple of narrow roads leading up to the village of Untergern (Lower Gern). A very pretty place, in the usual Bavarian roccoco (high baroque) style, with a gorgeous view over the mountain valley in which it is located. Unfortunately, we'd no sooner arrived when a bus of pilgrims arrived, moved into the pews, and began to get ready for a service. In principle, I don't wish to disturb others at worship in order to see a church, so we moved on, hoping to come back the next day.
And, on to Salzburg.
This time I was determined not to get caught without having paid the toll, even though I wasn't sure we would actually drive on an Autobahn (as it turns out, we did), so I kept my eye open as we drove towards the border for any sign or indication that said "pay toll here" - nothing. Finally a gas station had a sign out saying "last gasoline before border" so I stopped to ask where to pay the toll; "right here" was the cheerful but somewhat puzzled-sounding answer, followed by "but everyone knows that!" I didn't bother explaing I was part of everybody and didn't know it, paid the Euro 7.70 for the 10-day sticker (the cheapest) and got on my way. (I also didn't understand the "last gasoline" since fuel in Austria is about Euro 0.10 less per litre than Germany, because of a lower VAT [instead, they have road tolls!]).
[I have since googled "Austrian toll roads" and one gets a fairly good explanation of the system, including that one can buy the sticker at gas stations and tobacco shops(!) near the border. That also got me the "or else" - refusal to pay the on the spot fine of Euro 120 can result in an administrative fine of up to Euro 3000! Willkommen in Oesterreich!]
On we went into Salzburg, and found, wonder-of-wonders, on-street free parking near the Salzburger Landestheater (the Salzburg State Theatre), to which we walked, past the house that Mozart lived and worked in (actually a reconstruction, as the original was detroyed by bombing in WW II, and the birthplace of Christian Doppler (of the Doppler effect). Arriving at the theatre exactly at noon, I explained to the young woman at the only open box office that I had a credit for one ticket waiting and wanted two tickets for that evening's "Abduction from the Seraglio." It turned out that she was the person I had an extensive e-mail correspondence with last Fall, when I had purchased tickets over the Internet with her assistence (their web-site sucked - still does), and then when we had to cancel the trip she had taken the tickets back for sale, and one of them sold. She remembered all of that, but couldn't find the envelope which contained the cash. Much embarrassed, she told me that she would get to the bottom of the whole thing, but meanwhile I should purchase two tickets for the evening, and she had the best seats in the house available, 1st row directly behind the conductor's podium (which is in a pit, so he's not in the view!). Same price as last year's tickets, which weren't quite as good. Assuring us that no matter what, she would have the refund waiting for us that evening in the same box office, just for good measure she gave us a little book on the history of Mozart productions at this theatre, which was in existence at the time of Mozart and produced some of his operas for the first time.
Then off for a walk about the old part of Salzburg nearby, with the first stop that we almost missed, but caught a quick glimpse of as we walked by a small gate in a wall, the Mirabel gardens. Schloss Mirabel was the residence of the Salzburg rulers, usually dukes, but also prince-bishops, and eventually became one of the residences of the Austrian kaiser (emperor). The gardens are extensive, and quite beautiful. Some parts are quite formal, fountains, low boxwood borders, and carefully planned flower beds, other parts are quite relaxed. There are paths with high hedges that might be a maze, and an outdoor theatre. And there is a large stone monument to Kaiser Franz Josef I, who in a gesture of magnanimity turned over his court gardens to the city of Salzburg for the enjoyment of the citizens (who also now had to pay for the maintenance and upkeep!).
Somewhere during our walk through this magnificent green "lung" in the centre of the city it popped into my mind that I had not brought a tie for my transformation into an opera goer that evening. So we wandered back to the car, stopping at the enormous city parish church, St. Andrae (St. Andrew) along the way. Not knowing where ties might be found in the city, I programmed the GPS to take us to the nearest shopping centre (and it turned out that we did "need" the toll sticker to get there as we ended up on an Autobahn, but nobody checked), the Europacenter, which turned out to be enormous (the anchor stores were the equivalent of Home Depot, an Ikea, and several large department stores, with hundreds of smaller stores), and, best of all, free underground parking! So we shopped, first for some needed toilettries, and then off to one of the large clothing department stores for a tie. That's when I was reminded that buying ties in Germany (and now, I guess, Austria) is a very bad idea as for reasons known only to the stores, and maybe the tax system, ties are enormously expensive. This store was selling good quality shirts for Euro 20, and no-name ties for Euro 35, and branded ties were considerably north of there, up to Euro 100. Eventually I found the tie sale table, which still had prices of Euro 20 to 40, except for one blue and silver striped silk tie, totally suitable for the blue Oxford-cloth shirt and blue blazer I was going to be wearing, for Euro 9.95. Sold!
From there, we drove to (or tried to) visit the Hohensalzburg castle, the enormous fortress that dominates the city (and also is part of the location of "Sound of Music"). So, find it in the GPS points-of-interest listings, and hit "GO!" Big mistake! Depending on what you have programmed the GPS for, the route calculated is either "shortest distance" or "least time" and in cities, particularly German/Austrian cities where the speed limit is almost always 50 km/hr, these are often the same. The other fact to consider is that any "point-of-interest" or any destination is just that, a point. Thus the enormous Hohensalzburg is considered a single point, probably somewhere inside. It was just bad luck that from where we were the calculated route took us into a series of streets that were narrow and narrower, and eventually up a street with a fairly steep slope, narrow enough to leave maybe a foot or less on each side of the car, and a few gentle curves! This would not have been a problem, if the GPS map had been coded to know that after going perhaps two block along this street, there is a staircase! And, no way to turn around!
Well, we did get back down, with June directing from outside the car, and the M-B's side collision avoidance sensors screaming most of the way. Not very helpful was the aristocratic elderly Austrian lady who came along to tell us that "everyone knew" that you couldn't drive up this road! After extricating ourselves from this trap, we decided the hell with seeing the castle, Maria von Trapp (pun intended) and "Sound of Music" notwithstanding, and go for supper, and the wine June and the beer I had earned.
[Aside on GPS navigation. It needs to be remembered that any destination you want to go to is a single point on the earth's surface, defined by its coordinates. The route calculated depends on where you are, again a single point, and how much information the underlying map contains about speed limits, class of roads, one-way and no exit roads, etc. The European maps particularly, because of the system of ranking all roads inside a municipality equally at 50 km/hr unless otherwise specified, and all roads not an Autobahn outside municipalities at 100 km/hr unless otherwise specified, can lead to some very hairy driving, as it will treat a four-lane city street the same as the very narrow lane we got sent up (although that should have been coded as "no exit" to whatever was beyond the staircase). Aside from that, the German and Austrian maps, and I can't speak for the rest of Europe, despite my having upgraded them to the newest version, are very out-of-date in some places - this was not the only time we ran into roads that had no exits, or roads that were one-way the other way the GPS wanted us to drive. Caveat coegi! I think!]
We parked across the road from the theatre in an underground garage for a bank, recommended by the lady at the box office. Then we wandered off into the warren of streets that is the old part of Salzburg, in search of a place to eat, and eventually found ourselves in a very nice pub and restaurant, in the house in which Richard Mayr was born. (Mayr was a notable bass-baritone, early third of 20th c., who sang in Europe and at the Met, and is noted for being the standard against which singers attempting Baron Ochs in "Rosenkavalier" are judged.) Aside from the restaurant and bar, there is also a small Mayr museum. And, the food was good, including, very unusual for Germany/Austria, a salad/antipasto bar.
And then back to the car, change into opera-going clothes, mostly putting on a tie and jacket, and across the road to the Landestheater. A visit to the box office to enquire about the refund owing produced a complex transaction; a cancellation of my purchase of two tickets earlier that day, and a new purchase of one ticket, plus a 2nd one free, in the same seats we'd had. I thought that I'd get hosed on that set of transactions, as usually the credit card companies charge a higher exchange rate for purchases than they pay for refunds, but this worked perfectly; this was indeed a cancellation, neither the original purchase nor a refund are on my Visa bill. And I learned a new German word; stornieren means to cancel - as in wipe out without a trace - a financial transaction.
The "order your drinks for intermission" system worked here too, even more casually. When ordering, the lady taking the order simply pointed to a table in the foyer and said "they'll be there" and they were, no receipt, or claim check, or anything.
Die Enfuerung aus dem Serail in Salzburg - the homeof Mozart!
This production of Entfuerung was not as extreme or deconstructed as the one Scott and I saw at the Bayrische Staatsoper in Munich last year, but it was a very different take, again. (This was the third Abduction I have seen in a year, the one in Munich, one at Opera Atelier in Toronto in the Fall which was very traditional, and this one.) This production framed the whole drama as a debate between a man and a woman in modern dress, casual business, about relationships. During the prelude, they set the scene: Constanze, her maid Blonde, and a servant of Constanze's fiance Belmondo, had gone on a Mediterranean cruise and had been captured by prirates. The man wonders why Constanze would want to travel without her fiance, the woman suggests that perhaps she needed some "relational distance." He notes that Constanze swore eternal faithfulness before travelling, she suggests that the "pig" of a fiance probably forced her into that to relieve his own insecurities. And they are off!
Throughout, the two narrators interact with the drama, moving it into the direction each of them "thinks" it ought to go, and commenting on how relationships are and ought to be. Even the conductor gets into the act (incidentally, the orchestra was the very fine Mozarteum orchestra), at one point, when the discussion between the two "narrators" goes on too long, he shouts out, "Can we get on with it; if you keep the orchestra here past 10:30, we'll have to pay overtime." There is kitchy stuff, like the narrators texting one another on cell-phones, one outside, the other inside the action, to steer what happens next. And, there is very effective use of a rotating stage, to vary what is basically a static set.
At the end (and by this time the narrators' relationship has become considerably closer than at the beginning - after one scene change they arrive back on stage zipping and buttoning up, and tucking shirt and blouse in!), at the scene of magnanimous forgiveness by the Pasha Selim, the male narrator loses it, yells at the orchestra to stop, which they do in a very ragged way, and yells at the female narrator that "This is intolerable - after all this awfulness, and oppression, and threats of violence, you are simply going to have everything come out well; it just can't happen!" And she shrugs, and says, "Well, yes, you may be right, but the music, the music is too beautiful to miss!" and waves the orchestra into action.
Lot's of fun, and, did I mention, very good voices and an excellent orchestra. Again, the European opera system scores; none of the singers were "stars" but they were as good as anyone you get to hear in Toronto, and they were all very good actors to boot.
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The drive back to Berchtesgaden was uneventful, although the bill at the parking garage was a surprise. Almost Euro 4 per hour; I guess the bank has to make money! And, we had parked for free the rest of the day.
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