NaNoWriMo Day 5

We now return to 1955 and the Vienna opera house is re-opening after its ten year rebuilding programme (funnily enough, exactly 52 years ago today).  It was destroyed in March 1945 when the allies, distracted by cloud, missed the  Floridsorf oil refinery and destroyed the opera house, the Albertina and a block of flats nearby instead.  The opera house was empty, since Goebbels had banned all performances the previous June.  Tragically, the flats were not empty, since 200 people had taken shelter in the cellar there.  Many of the bodies were never recovered.  Some years later, the controversial memorial against war and fascism was erected on the site.

But back to the plot, the Staatsoper re-opened with Beethoven’s Fidelio and our hero is playing the role of Don Pizarro. I’ve chosen Ha! Welch ein Augenblick with the fabulous Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the role.

Word count for day #5: 1791; cumulative word count: 8963