There is a large selection of streams on New Year’s Eve: Both the Vienna State Opera and the Burgtheater broadcast their performances live. The operetta “Die Fledermaus” under the direction of Cornelius Meister will be played in a public hall in the State Opera. The performance can be viewed live from home on ORF III on December 31 from 8:15 p.m. or via a stream on the website from 5:00 p.m. The Burgtheater will broadcast the performance “The machine in me (Version 1.0)” from the casino on Schwarzenbergplatz via live stream from 6:00 p.m.
Jazz, cabaret and Danube Waltz
All jazz fans can bring the Karl Ratzer quintet into the house on New Year’s Eve. The concert will be available from 9 pm under the name “The show must go on (line) again” on the Porgy & Bess Club website. Theater enthusiasts will also get their money’s worth: The Rabenhof Theater is showing the classic US film comedy “Sonny Boys “with the TV entertainers Dirk Sterman and Christoph Grissemann. The classic can be seen from December 30th for three days via a stream on the theater website.
In addition to the cultural institutions, ORF television also offers a colorful program. ORF 1 relies entirely on cabaret on New Year’s Eve, with the New Year’s Eve audience of Robert Palfrader as emperor providing the thematic bracket. Michael Niavarani and Viktor Gernot can be seen from 8:35 p.m. in “Emotional Reality” and from 10 p.m. “A real Viennese doesn’t go under”. While the around four-hour New Year’s Eve show with Jörg Pilawa can be seen on ORF 2, “Encyclopaedia Niavaranica” by Michael Niavarani on ORF III heralds the new year. The dance choreography by state ballet soloists from the Belvedere to the “Danube Waltz” can be seen on both ORF 1 and ORF 2 at midnight.
New Year’s concert on TV in 90 countries
The new year begins on January 1st with the traditional New Year’s concert by the Vienna Philharmonic. Due to the CoV crisis, the concert will take place this year without a live audience. This year, the major musical event can only be seen live on January 1st from 11.15 a.m. on ORF 2 or heard on Ö1. The broadcast takes place from the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein in 90 countries. The repetition of the New Year’s Concert runs on New Year’s Day in the evening on ORF III from 8.15 p.m.
A total of 14 cameras bring the New Year’s Concert from the Golden Hall into living rooms worldwide. Image control routine Henning Kasten is responsible for a successful transmission. “He knows the hall and will handle the empty space in such a way that it becomes a unique and positive experience,” said ORF General Director Alexander Wrabetz. In order to still give the orchestra applause without a live audience, the ORF collects applause from viewers from all over the world in an interactive applause project Mynewyearsconcert.com. The collected applause is then played in during the concert.
While certain circumstances change due to the corona, others remain the same. For the sixth time, conductor Riccardo Muti will be at the podium. The traditional break film will also be shown: This year it is dedicated to Burgenland, which was the youngest federal state to join Austria in 1921. To finally cancel the New Year’s concert was out of the question. “We discussed a lot, concert yes or no,” Muti reported. “The result was: We cannot do away with music and culture.”
New Year’s Concert is “Austria’s calling card”
Following the New Year’s Concert, ORF 2 will broadcast a full performance of the Lipizzaner horses from the festively decorated riding hall of the Spanish Riding School on January 1st at 1.55 p.m. Eight cameras and a crane camera are used to broadcast the performance “The Ballet of the White Stallions”. According to Wrabetz, the ORF wants to adequately honor New Year’s Day with “Austria’s most important musical calling card” and the gala performance of the “High School of Classical Riding Art”.
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