OPERA BALL: RAINER/ST…CKL Image: HELMUT FOHRINGER (APA)
Together with 5,150 visitors, for the first time under State Opera Director Bogdan Roščić, the top of official Austria will also take part: Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen will attend the 65th edition of the festival, as will Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP).
In view of the multiple crises, the ORF-sponsored initiative “Austria helps Austria” is supported under the slogan “Hand in Hand ‘Everything Waltz'”. For the guests, this means a “solidarity surcharge” on tickets and gastronomy. Among the visitors to the festival, which has been sold out for months, is Richard Lugner, who this year has the US actress and fitness icon Jane Fonda as a guest.
Jane Fonda accompanies Richard Lugner
Lugner had to wait longer for his guest in the evening. The US actress was expected at 6.30 p.m., but she appeared half an hour later in a white ball gown. Numerous journalists were waiting in the Grand Hotel for the actress and climate activist. Heurigen musicians helped with the waiting time.
“It’s wonderful, very friendly,” Fonda said. Fonda didn’t know who the designer of her dress was. “I don’t know. It’s not mine. I have to give it back,” she said, smiling to the press. What to expect in the evening was still not entirely clear to her. “I thought I was going to an opera performance.” Before the 65th Vienna Opera Ball, she ate a Wiener Schnitzel. “I love potato salad,” said the actress. When asked what she likes most about Austria, she said: “The people!” After ten minutes of presentation, Fonda disappeared again.
Physics Nobel Prize winner Anton Zeilinger is also announced at the ball. He will follow the opening in the President’s box. The quantum physicist is an avid operagoer, even when he was in high school he was regularly to be found standing there. About three months ago Zeilinger in Stockholm had the Swedish King Carl XVI. Gustaf received the Nobel Prize in Physics. The scientist had received the coveted award in a tailcoat – as is also the rule for the opera ball. He had bought this new for the Nobel Prize ceremony, he had given his old one to “Carla Wien”, the Caritas second-hand shop. It was sold there. Also in 2013 Zeilinger attended the Opera Ball.
Left demonstrations
The opera ball demo, which was notorious in previous years, also celebrated its comeback on Thursday evening. The Communist Youth of Austria (KJÖ) called for a protest march, to which the first participants formed shortly before 7 p.m. at Keplerplatz in Favoriten and then marched to the opera. The motto is also well known: the march against social injustice is under the motto “Eat the Rich”. The LINKS party had also called for a rally between the opera and the Albertina from 8 p.m. The police expected about 20 to 30 participants who could gather there according to the motto “Punch the Rich”. LINKS spokeswoman Anna Svec is hoping for a prominent participant and has invited Lugner’s opera ball guest Fonda to the rally.
In the morning there was still a lot of work, preparation and rehearsal in the house on the ring. Safety is a top priority at the ball, as there are numerous state guests, politicians, celebrities and business people there. During a local inspection in the morning, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) got an idea of the security precautions in and around the Vienna State Opera. “The police are well prepared,” said Karner, for “anything that might come up.” He thanked everyone involved for their hard work. Karner will do the same as his predecessors and will not attend the Opera Ball.
The Opera Ball in the live blog:
Source: Nachrichten
