Wiener Staatsoper Music Project

In Vienna, we were lucky enough to go to an opera at the Wiener Staatsoper, which is the Vienna State Opera House! It was a very neat experience going to an opera in a building like this! I can definitely say this was a first! I felt “fancy” being in the building.

 I won’t go into a lot of detail about information on music of the Wiener Staatsoper because we already did this for a class presentation in the spring. During our trip, we were given a guided tour of the Staatsoper. So my focus of this blog is present more information on Karajan, who was a famous conductor. I will be sharing information I was able to attain while in Vienna through either the tour guide of my own pair of eyes.

 From my research in the spring, I learned that Karajan worked for the Staatsoper around the time of WWII. It is known that Karajan was a member of the Nazi party and said it was essential for his career. But in reality, it actually temporarily hurt his career.

After learning about Karajan’s ties with the Nazis, yet knowing he was a well-respected conductor, I was interested to see how the Staatsoper presented him, if they did at all.

As we arrived early for the tour, I walked around the outside of the Staatsoper. The area outside is named the “Karajan Platz.” I saw 2 signs making the Karajan Platz. This is the area where tickets are sold outside. Once we began the tour, I asked the tour guide when the outside area was named after Karajan. She said it was fairly recently—when they installed the LCD screen outside the opera house.

 As we went through the tour, I was a little nervous to ask the tour guide about Karajan’s ties with the Nazis. The music group for the Staatsoper project had discussed how we don’t know how the guide would react to a question like this. But, I asked it in a fairly neutral way and she was able to answer. I told her we had learned from prior research that Karajan might be associated with the Nazi part and asked her if that affected his image then or today. She replied back by saying there were letters and other documentations that showed Karajan’s affiliation with the Nazis. She said it doesn’t negatively affect his image too much—he is still seen as a great composer. Some older people may remember him in more negative ways because they have a better remembrance that he had ties with the Nazis. But overall, the tour guide said he is known as a great conductor. He didn’t change a lot about the opera like Mueller did, but he was a very great conductor.

 Karajan was also represented in an important room of the Staatsoper. The room’s primary goal is to display important and famous composers who had an influence on opera and worked for the Staatsoper in Vienna. There was a statue head of Karajan displayed.

 

 So from seeing the Staatsoper building (and the surroundings) and going through the guided tour, I get the impression that regardless of Karajan’s ties with the Nazis, he is still looked up to as an important and great conductor. The tour guide even joked around how he was the first to lift a red sports car on the stage in the Staatsoper. I was under the impression, though, that they don’t talk about the Nazis ties much. Our tour guide wasn’t planning on mentioning anything about the ties with the Nazis. I was glad she discussed it a little, though, when I asked.