Die Schöne und das Biest | Staatsoper Hamburg

State Opera House

 I've had my eye on the Staatsoper ever since I arrived. And on Saturday I finally got to go inside! (Check!) My German surprised me with tickets to "The Beauty and the Beast". It was truly magnificent!

After I waited in a very long line for the ladies room, we made our way to our seats. Or tried to. We were told we needed to go see the ticket dude. And, in a surprise twist, he gave us better seats! Apparently, ours were semi-blocked but it wasn't noted. We ended up in the center near the back with no one in front of us -- perfect!

But before we got to our seats, we were stopped by a lady who told us we couldn't bring our umbrellas inside. Of course at this point it was all sunshine and heat, quite unlike it had been when we had lunch. We had to go alllll the way back downstairs to check our umbrellas for a Euro.

We went alllll the way back up again and the lady was gone. If only she hadn't seen us earlier.

As we sat down in the crushed red velvet seats, I asked my German, "It's in German, right?" "Well, it's not in French or Italian..." :)

And then he asks, "So ... what's the story about?"

I'm quite familiar with the musical score but had never heard the songs sung in German. They are perhaps not as catchy at the original English, but it didn't matter.

Sei hier Gast = Be our guest ... in case you were interested.

The orchestra and the costumes and humor truly brought the characters and the story to life. I didn't stop to think about how the inanimate objects would be depicted and it didn't matter because it was better than anything I could have imagined.

photo source

photo source

At halftime intermission, we shared a Coke and checked the soccer scores. It was the first day of the DFB German Cup which I'm not sure he knew about when he got the tickets :)

The second act really highlighted the love portion of the story. I started to get a little teary-eyed. Especially when the beast turned into the prince. I also tend to get emotional during curtain calls. I am not sure why.

Three hours later we left with smiles on our faces and a hankering for Käsekuchen.

This newly renovated Staatsoper was a completely different experience than the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), but I loved them both equally. And being able to actually sit in seats instead of paying 2 EUR for standing room only (although, really, how great of a deal is that?!) was rather enjoyable. I look forward to returning.