Emily's Exploits

My room mate Jessica is a master at photoshop and just visual arts in general :) [in case you're wondering, YES, we are wearing those fabulous dresses for our recital!!!!] Come to my recital if you're in the area! Friday April 2nd, 9:30 pm in the Madsen Recital Hall (on the BYU campus, in the HFAC). My whole family is coming down and I'm very excited!!

I realized just now that I write A LOT of blog entries. But it's just because I have stuff happen to me that is amazing!  Yesterday I went shopping with Naomi (neither of us ended up buying anything)- and we were on the hunt for a good deal, or a good HAT! And we found the most charming hat shop with hats of all shapes and sizes. I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy admiring the fur ones, and looking for one that resembles Britain's cap- but suffice it to say that we will be going again just to look at it. The shop is called Oberwald and it's on Kartnerstrasse- and many hats are hand made! Definitely a shop to visit if you come to Vienna. (Mom, Grandma and Julie, WINK WINK!) Then we went to the Staatsoper with Becky to see Giselle  (click for a quick video), a ballet (apparently it is the ballet of all ballets- Giselle is a highly sought after role that takes a lot of skill)! I have never seen a ballet other than the Nutcracker, so it was great to see some...

There is simply not enought time to document all of the exciting things that happen to me while I'm in Vienna. However, the more significant things that happen make me feel like a rockstar, and MUST be blogged about. Last night I attended the dress rehearsal of Theater an der Wien's production of Partenope , an obscure Handel opera (The Messiah guy). Just click on the link above to see some production photos. This show was nuts! GOOD NUTS! They moved everything to present day- making the queen a wealthy woman who does yoga, goes swimming by the pool, hosts lavish parties, has a personal trainer, and has many love affairs in the meantime. The music was exquisite. This was some of the best singing I've heard in Vienna since I've been here. Christine Schafer, soprano, starred as the title role, David Daniels, one of the leading counter-tenors in the world was also in it (a counter-tenor is a man who has trained his voice to be able to sing entirely in falsetto- so he almos...

Attending the Staatsoper's performance of  Un ballo en maschera  was an absolutely amazing experience.  First of all, I was in standing room ( Stehplatz) . It cost me 4 euro. You file in, and are very very close to one another. There are bars to rest your arms on if you get tired. There are tiny screens every other person, connected to the bar, on which subtitles are played (either in German or English).  There were two 15 minute  intermissions- between the first and second act, and between the second and third. It was really good they did that because I would have fallen down dead if I couldn't have sat on the ground!! Between acts the lead singers would come out for a curtain call! It was insane! And the audience was wonderful. There were lots of "Bravo"s when people really liked certain arias-- which is something I am not used to. And everyone paid very good attention to what was going on, and definitely, you could tell that the applause was sincere. My favorite ch...

I auditioned for a Community musical production called "Sweeney Todd" at the end of September and got cast as Johanna- a supporting lead role. Once again, I play the "Girl" in the show- Johanna is a 16 year old girl who lives with an evil, lascivious Judge (who plans to marry her). But she has fallen in love with a young sailor named Anthony and has plans to elope with him before the Judge finds out. Sweeney Todd is a Broadway musical composed by Stephen Sondheim and its one of my favorites so I was ecstatic when they gave me the role of Johanna! The show is put on through "Actor's Repertory Theatre Company" in Provo. We perform in the Castle Amphitheater just behind the Utah State Hospital on Center Street in Provo. It's a beautiful outdoor amphitheater made of stone with turrets and terraces—simply beautiful, and it overlooks Provo and the sunsets are gorgeous! www.castletheater.org