Veni Vidi

Returning to Vienna was bittersweet; we'd had such an amazing trip, but all wonderful things have to eventually come to an end. I was thrilled to have the chance to walk through the Naschmarkt again and try a lot of foods I had missed the first time through. The lens of familiarity allowed me to appreciate the people, buildings, and streets a different way than I had on first seeing them. 

Traveling through Europe like we have means that comparison between cities is inevitable at some point. Everyone tries to pick favorites as we go along with limited degrees of success. As Dr. Powell noted at one point, our favorites seemed to change by the day. There are so many things to experience and appreciate in each place. 'Favorite' seems like more of an obligatory name when there's so much out there to enjoy. 

Our last performance of the trip was 'Otello', an opera that shares a plotline with Shakespeare's Othello. The singers were fantastic! I just couldn't help being struck by the storyline. The plot depicts domestic violence and wildly unhealthy relationships within it, eventually showing the death of a wife at the hands of her controlling husband. There are also heavy themes of racism. 

I think it's healthy to be aware that the world of written opera can manifest without many admirable traits in our current day and age. Different things were considered normal back then and they can be a bit shocking today. But it's also okay to discuss on the problematic aspects of productions in order to address them properly. It was performed at an extremely high level, the production itself just had multiple social issues in the grand scheme of things.