Musical Destinations
Michael Beek visits Opera In The Quarry, Austria
Back in Haydn’s day it would have taken five or six hours to travel from Vienna to Eisenstadt. Today, traffic willing, it’s about 45 minutes and even less by rail. It remains a small and somewhat sleepy little town, though, just a stone’s throw from the Hungarian border. That border has shifted with the political tide – indeed, this Burgenland region was part of Hungary (once Austria-hungary) until just after World War One.
Small though it may be, Eisenstadt’s cultural heart beats loudly and emanates proudly from its main attraction – the historic Esterházy Palace. It was once home to the famed Princes of Esterházy and, for 40 years, the workplace of Joseph Haydn whose small home on Josephhaydn-gasse (of course) is now a museum and a must-visit. Haydn’s resting place at the Bergkirche, or Mountain Church, brings the story full circle, but you can join the remaining dots at the palace where the grand gardens, resplendent concert salons and small chapel organ inspired him. All roads, it seems, once led to Eisenstadt, a centuries-old music Mecca that, today, quietly wears its past with pride.
Esterházy Palace also hosts exhibitions, public tours, one of the region’s largest wine cellars and regular concerts. This all happens in large part thanks to charitable foundations created by the late Princess Melinda Esterházy – a former ballet dancer who married Esterházy’s Prince Paul V. Because of this, the historic and artistic heritage which is so firmly embedded in the family’s past continues here. But not just here, for the estate still owns and manages a number of other sites, including the St Margarethen quarry, just up the road from Eisenstadt.
Originally excavated by the Romans, stone has been quarried at St Margarethen for 2,000 years and many of Vienna’s finest buildings are built of it. That includes the beautiful St Stephen’s Cathedral, which still requires a couple of tons of stone each year from the site for repair work. But I’m not here for rock, I’m here for opera.
Nestled beneath the man-made cliffs and sandstone precipices is one of Europe’s largest outdoor arenas, hosting opera since 1996. ‘Oper im Steinbruch’ (Opera in the Quarry) has become one of the most popular festivals in Europe, and it’s a seriously impressive operation. There are seats for 4,700 people, ample parking plus custom-built access paths and high-quality audience facilities, added in 2006. The stage is indeed massive, a huge platform carved into the stone; on top of it is a striking set that each year takes months to build. Behind the facade, and out of audience view, is a permanent structure housing offices, dressing rooms and all. There’s no orchestra pit; instead, the musicians – some of Vienna’s finest – perform in their own barn-like building, off-stage and protected from the elements.
The same can’t be said of the cast, or the audience for that matter, and although it’s mid-summer, our performance of The Magic Flute is a decidedly wet one. There is actually something quite wonderful about the very real Sturm und Drang coming from above; Mozart’s music is punctuated by the heavenly timpani of distant thunder and the pitter-patter pizzicato of rain on plastic ponchos. But weather isn’t the only challenge for the ‘Opera in the Quarry’ team. Sound is an issue too, as festival director Daniel Serafin explains.
‘The acoustic is one of the biggest challenges,’ he says; ‘we have a natural acoustic, obviously, which reverberates off everything. We work with a well-trained sound engineer and need amplification because the orchestra is about 150 metres over to the side of the stage; but we have great technical staff and they regularly check the reverb. When it’s a rainy performance the acoustic tends to change, so one performance is never like another.’
It’s certainly a spectacle not quickly forgotten, and that’s before you get to the impressive set design, lighting, jawdropping projections, costumes, enormous cast and finale fireworks. The location alone takes the breath away.
It’s Serafin’s first year running the show, but he’s in no doubt as to the attraction and has even bigger plans for next year.
‘It’s the combination of everything, I think, that makes the quarry such a wonderful place to enjoy opera. And it’s not opera in its pure form – we create an atmosphere,’ he says. ‘If someone goes to the regular opera, it’s a 1,000 square-metre stage and a natural acoustic. We offer 7,000 square metres, which makes it a totally different experience, and people love it. Next year we’re doing Puccini’s Turandot. I want to make Opera in the Quarry a place where people come and are amazed by these huge dimensions.’
Further information: Turandot is on at the quarry from 8 July – 15 August 2020; visit operimsteinbruch.at for details
Mozart’s music is punctuated by the heavenly timpani of distant thunder