Tom Canning in Vienna State Opera - the 1940's

from BBC WW2 People's War:

Again the war moved on and I happened to be in Vienna... illegally downtown looking for the Statopernhaus when I heard an orchestra obviously rehearsing, and so I slithered into the basement of the bombed-out building and saw and heard the Vienna Philharmonic of the day, conducted by Von Karajan, with a young soprano who was as thin as a rake as if she had been on a no food diet for some time... but the voice was unbelievable. At the end I must have applauded as I was 'invited' to leave by two Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alikes. It was two years later, back in the UK, that I heard that voice …   more >>
cite as

Ashley Leather, Audrey Lewis, Iain C Macpherson, Joan Styan, John Gardiner, John Kelly, Joseph J Brown, Josie Vernon and Tom Canning, BBC WW2 People's War. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1402148289783 accessed: 28 March, 2024 (BBC WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar)

location of experience: Vienna State Opera

Listeners

Tom Canning
Trooper

Listening to

hide composers
performance of 'unknown'

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1940's
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by Ivan Hewett on Sat, 07 Jun 2014 14:38:10 +0100