-=- Intense Melody -=-

Japan’s first opera house (Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo) is sold out with some tickets as high as 500 euros for the 97th Vienna State opera’s Japanese performance. The 100th performance will be celebrated with Fidelio conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Next to the Austrian flag in the foyer hangs an enormous photo of the Vienna State [...]

Every season the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) house changes its stage curtain to a new abstract artistic rendition.
When I first moved here in 2006 we had a curtain designed by the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija with the saying “Angst essen Seele auf” (“Fear eats away at the soul”) over the familiar television SMPTE [...]

It all started when my Italian girlfriend introduced me to “La Bella Figura – A Field Guide to the Italian Mind” by Beppe Severgnini. A comical book written by an Italian journalist who’s lived outside of Italy long enough to view his own people from an outsider’s perspective, and explain the differences. Such as, why [...]