Michael Kemp,
Upper School Performing Arts Department

Title of project: In Search of Gems

At the first eloquent notes of the French horns, we darted glances at each other as if to say, "This must be a dream!" But we were indeed really there at the world premier of a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlos in the most famous concert hall of Salzburg, Austria. In those first evocative notes, it was evident that the pit orchestra was beyond anything we had experienced. But then, where else in the world does one find the Vienna Philharmonic in the pit? Legendary singers soon joined the magical musical array; the combined effect was bolstered even more by the massive sets. The entire production was skillfully molded by conductor Maestro Loren Maazel. It was an experience so extraordinary that we found ourselves desperately trying to memorize each moment, each sight, and each sound. Germantown Academy had given Janice and me a Kast Grant to travel to Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and London. It proved an opportunity for us, so continuously involved in producing our own musical performances, to be refreshed by the music of others, and to gain new inspiration in the legendary music centers of Europe. Gem cutters, it is said, always carry with them one perfectly cut jewel so that they might step back from their work occasionally and re-set their sights on true beauty. Our Don Carlos evening was but one of many "jewels" to which we were exposed during those wonderful weeks this summer, and the memories of such beauty will surely serve to keep us yearning for excellence in our everyday teaching. The idea for this trip came as a result of my brother-in-law Guy Rothfuss (stage name Guy Renard) being asked to sing in three of this season’s operas at the Salzburg Festival, the most famous summer music festival in the world. Guy’s involvement opened to us the rare opportunity to attend the dress rehearsals and performances of some of the world’s most respected music, performed by internationally acclaimed musicians. Salzburg Festival performances are sold out as much as a year in advance, but because performers have access to a certain amount of tickets, we were able to attend what we could never have arranged or afforded otherwise. The tickets for our seats would normally have been in the $300.00 category! My sister Julie, a professional opera singer herself for 25 years in Europe and fluent in the German language, became our personal guide, opening up to us the magical splendor of Old World Salzburg. Our trip was indeed magical from that very first evening. After arriving in Munich and taking the train into Salzburg, we left our suitcases in Julie and Guy’s apartment and headed to town. Salzburg is full of pedestrians; no automobiles are allowed in the historical district. Much of the city remains much as it was when Mozart walked its streets. We entered the city through a tunnel under the mountain, and found ourselves on Toscanini Platz, named after the much-revered former conductor of the Salzburg Festival. What an entrance for musicians coming to pay homage to the music so much a part of Salzburg’s heritage! Just around the corner from Toscanini Platz are the three concert halls of the Salzburg Festival, including the "Feldenreichschule", the concert hall used toward the end of The Sound of Music when the Von Trapp Family sings at the music festival. At the entrance to that hall we chanced to meet and converse with the renowned conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi, who was to conduct the new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) which we were shortly to see. The coming days were split between seeing the many awe-inspiring sights of Salzburg and extraordinary musical experiences, both performances and rehearsals. Although rehearsals for Salzburg Festival opera and symphonic performances are strictly closed to the public, we received a special dispensation, and what we encountered was a level of musical sensitivity and skill that held us spellbound. There we were, being treated to almost a private concert by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of conductor Kent Negano, playing Mahler’s Lied von die Erde (Song of the Earth). Besides the Mahler, the orchestra also rehearsed Debussy’s "Three Nocturnes", a work which I had myself conducted, making this rehearsal even more intriguing for me. At one point I happened to glance over my shoulder at the others in the private audience, and there, directly behind us, were world-renowned maestros Dohnanyi, Maazel and (Sir Simon) Rattle...not bad company! As the music proceeded, I wrote down everything I could about Maestro Negano’s gestures, artistic instincts, what he corrected, why and through what process, and how he evoked a higher level of sensitivity and effort from all the musicians. The notes that I took in that rehearsal and throughout our trip have already become my "perfectly cut jewel" to remind me of that overwhelming beauty. We attended several chamber music concerts a day in the midst of the sightseeing and art museums, usually followed by evenings of more concerts. We attended concerts in castles, museums, fortresses and churches. At one such concert we heard the Mozart flute quartets which some of our GA students will be playing this year. Most of these concerts traditionally begin with Mozart’s much loved "Eine Kleine Nacht Musik", which incidentally was the first music played here by our Academy Chamber Society. Another enchanting musical evening awaited us in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote. Whereas the Don Carlos performance we attended was the premier of a completely new production, this Die Zauberflote was a repeat of one premiered the season before (same sets, costumes, stage directions, etc.), reputed to be the most acclaimed operatic production in recent years. Directed by legendary staging genius Achim Freyer, the production and sets were so complex and massive that it was given its own hall, the Messezentrun. All other Salzburg Festival operas share concert halls, with stage crews switching complete sets to facilitate various opera rehearsals and performances. Die Zauberflote, however, has such huge and complex sets that such continual dismantling would be impossible. There is, for instance, the scene wherein The Queen of the Night sings from a huge moon suspended fifty feet in the air. The High Priest Sarastro appears as the face of a giant whose arms alone fill the complete immense stage and require sixteen men to manipulate arm movements while he is singing. The ebullient bird catcher Papageno, dressed in this unique production as a clown, enters riding a bicycle and balancing a stack of bird cages some fifteen feet high (supported by invisible wires) while singing an aria! The pit orchestra was again the Vienna Philharmonic. Janice and I have never experienced anything so magical. She said, "If every child could see and hear a performance like that just once, they would be opera lovers for life!" Mountains surround Salzburg, and the wall on the side of the mountains which surrounded the city for centuries is still largely visible. But the most memorable sight in Salzburg for us was the ancient Festung (fortress), home of the ruling Prince Archbishops. Located high on a hill and completely walled in, the Festung was often under seige throughout its history, but it was never conquered. The impressive sight of this fortress can be seen from almost any location in Salzburg. Janice and I both agreed that the most beautiful scene of our entire trip was of Leopoldskronn (where the children and Maria fell out of the boat and where Maria and the Captain danced in The Sound of Music) with the Festung in the distant background high on the mountainside.   The cathedrals of Salzburg are overwhelming, and their individual histories fascinating. There are many of these architectural masterpieces in a relatively small area; each has its own rich musical history and ongoing musical traditions. In the cathedral in which Mozart was baptized and later served as Kapellmeister, we attended several Sunday morning services. Each of these included an orchestra and a choir singing a complete Haydn or Mozart mass within the context of the service. What a beautiful tradition. Outside this cathedral is a well-known statue of Mozart, and just two blocks away is another splendid cathedral full of old-world splendor. Walking along the row of family chapels to the side of this sanctuary, we unexpectedly came across the tomb of Michael Haydn, a composer of the classical era and brother of the more famous Franz Josef Haydn. Just beyond that cathedral are the Mirabell Gardens, exquisitely landscaped beds of a wide variety of flowers, roses and sculpted evergreens, with the infamous statues of the dwarfs around which the Von Trapp children played in The Sound of Music. One of the most fascinating places we visited in Salzburg was the Hellbrunn Schloss and Waterspiel (castle and water fountains), the summer "pleasure palace" of the local Prince Archbishop, complete with a three story home on the adjacent hillside for his mistress. Hellbrunn is famous for its water fountains and amusements, which utilize natural mountain springs and early systems of compression to squirt water at unsuspecting guests, and delighting them with scenes of characters and objects in motion, al powered by natural water flow. It is fascinating when you consider that all this was designed in the early 18th century, long before modern plumbing. I would be remiss if I failed to mention Salzburg’s traditional coffeehouses and beer gardens to be found around almost any corner or tucked between the quaint shops. There are few things in Salzburg as pleasurable as giving your feet a rest (remember…no cars) and enjoying a refreshing cup or stein, according to the time of day, or the state of your soul! Both Janice and I became enamored with Dunkel Weisse Bier, Salzburg’s dark wheat beer. In the city’s oldest and most famous beer garden, the monks still make their own Weisse Beir. Our itinerary left time for several shorter excursions, and we soon found ourselves in Vienna, a city of unparalleled impact on the history of western music. The palaces are of opulence almost beyond imagination. Although the splendor of the winter residences of the Hapsburg dynasty is impressive, we were more overwhelmed with Schunbrunn, the Hapsburgs’ summer palace on the far side of Vienna. It is enormous in scope, with the royal residences surrounding a courtyard the size of several football fields. The servants’ quarters extend off to one side for almost a city block. The guided tour of the palace gave us an intriguing picture of the Hapsburg family and its place in history. One of the rooms was the sight of the famous story of eight year old Mozart jumping into the arms of Maria Theresa. The palace gardens are as lovely as any in the world. To give an idea of their size, to stroll through the gardens up to the garden house just beyond them is a twenty-minute walk uphill. Schunbrunn has its own intimate concert hall where Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss all conducted. We were able to get tickets to see Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in the theater, and felt transported back in time. We took a tour of the Vienna State Opera, and were surprised to learn that the area behind the stage (away from the audience) is three times as big as the combined actual playing stage area and audience space. The extended stage area is large enough to hold the complete sets for one opera on stage, another below the stage on lifts, and the sets for several others behind the stage. We found that opera tickets in Vienna are closely guarded treasures, often passed from generation to the next. Opera performances are given 363 days a year, a different opera every night. There are rehearsals each morning for one opera, complete set changes during afternoons for the opera to be performed that evening, and then a complete change of sets in the middle of the night for the next morning’s rehearsal. Just before leaving Vienna, we went to the Central Cemetery and were suddenly overwhelmed with emotion at seeing in the same area the graves of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Gluck, both father and son Strauss and Schoenberg. Mozart was also buried in the Central Cemetery, but the exact location of his pauper’s grave is unknown. A statue in his memory stands between the graves of Beethoven and Schubert. Prague was our next stop. The effect of years of communist rule was immediately apparent from our train window as we crossed over from Austria into the Czech Republic. Two factors combined to make our three days in Prague exceptional. We found lodging twenty minutes out from Center City in a refurbished windmill called Pension Vetrnik I was adamant about staying in what our guidebook referred to as "the most romantic place I have ever stayed". It was just our kind of place! When the jovial, passionate owner/manager/master chef Milos Opatrny met us at the gate with his huge Saint Bernard, we were mesmerized by this consummate host. Although late at night when we arrived, he insisted upon our coming into the intimate dining area where he personally prepared a sumptuous Czech dessert for us, complete with a marvelous Czech wine. I asked if he would care to join us, and to my surprise, he did, sharing an incredible story of his life and his country for the next several hours. Because we had so little time in Prague, Milos arranged for us a private guide with whom we spent a cherished entire day learning much more about Prague than guidebooks can provide. We found both Milos and our guide to be generous, proud, kind, bitter about the communist era, but determined to squeeze each ounce of goodness out of every day. Through them, we fell in love with Prague! After first returning to say farewell to beautiful Salzburg, we boarded the plane for a short visit to London. The primary purpose was to visit the North London Collegiate School in preparation for our 2001 Singing Patriots tour to England. We had an enjoyable day at the school with host Hester Greenstock. Although school was not in session, it was good to make direct contact and learn about the school. Our final day in London and the last day of our journey gave us just enough time for an in-depth tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Although rewarding, such a short time is such a remarkable city was like hungrily smelling the food for a banquet but having only time for half an appetizer. Oh well, it’s a reason to go back! Our search for gems of inspiration had come to an end, and we had indeed found many to inspire us. There were the incredible operas, the Vienna Philharmonic, chamber music concerts and the engaging conversations with exceptional musicians. There were the times when we felt as if we were reliving music history from the inside, and the memories of all these have become for us gems of fresh inspiration. They have renewed our sense of what a privilege it is to be teachers, to be an active part of passing on such beauty and eloquence in a world so often shallow. But beyond music, and perhaps even more important, Milos Opatrny reminded us of how much one person can do through simple kindness and personal warmth to remind others of basic goodness. That too is a gem for inspiration. How we wish to be like him, and how the memory of the little time we spent together lingers to bring joy at unexpected moments.

 

Germantown Academy 1999 Kast Grant Reports
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