4.02.2020 08:22
(Akt. 5.02.2020 10:41)
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The Viennese Opera Ball celebrates its 65th anniversary this year.
© APA / ROLAND SCHLAGER
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“Nobody sleeps!”, Says Daniel Serafin, at the Viennese Opera Ball, which this year will take place on February 7th for the 65th time in New York City.
The motto is “Nessun Dorma” after the aria in Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Turandot”. Serafin sees the ball as an “important advertisement for Austria” and is proud of it, as the APA’s artistic director says.
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The program at the Viennese Opera Ball in New York
So that nobody falls asleep here in Manhattan on Friday, Serafin has put together a dazzling program with Ball President Silvia Frieser. The US actor, singer and LGBTIQ activist Nathan Lee Graham will greet almost 400 guests in the posh restaurant Cipriani. “A few jokes should be made,” says Serafin, “I love that in America, everyone is pounded in the pan and nobody takes themselves so seriously.”
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The US soprano Angel Blue will sing “I could have danced all night” from “My Fair Lady” and the Polish opera singer Ewa Plonka will perform “Vissi d’Arte” from “Tosca”. For the very first time there is the Viennese Opera Ball Orchestra under the direction of the Austrian conductor Matthias Fletzberger. After the midnight quadrille there is goulash and a disco.
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When people say disparagingly to him, “The Vienna Opera Ball in New York, it’s like drinking English tea in Rome”, Serafin shakes his head: “That is nonsense, you are celebrating an intercultural dialogue, a similarity dialogue.” “If you were to hold the Vienna Opera Ball here, it would be the biggest flop,” he continues. “The point is that you inspire people with a cozy atmosphere, that you represent a country in another country, but still respond to the wishes of the public there.”
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Daniel Serafin organizes ball in New York
Serafin, who is also artistic director of the opera in the St. Margarethen quarry, would rather not sing himself. “That would be the worst!”, He laughs: “These singers are celebrated internationally, I would never, ever make myself a clown. I prefer to support art.”
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Serafin has just arrived in New York City. He loves balls. The first and only one he opened in Vienna was the Opera Ball in 2000, he recalls. It was Elisabeth Gürtler’s first ball, and he danced in the front row with the daughter of the Turkish ambassador. Today, twenty years later, he’s the Artistic Director of the New York Edition – and has been for four years.
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Since then, Serafin has changed a lot: “It wasn’t on an artistically high level.” For this year’s event he was also able to win opera singer Michael Spyres, soprano Corinne Winters, tenor Lillie Pulliam and surprise guest the violinist Zoltan Maga.
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New York is said to have a touch of Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and in fact there is probably nothing like it in America. There are 32 Vienna balls in the world – the New Yorker is by far the oldest. Compared to the original, the Viennese Opera Ball is even a year older because people continued to dance in Manhattan during the 1991 Gulf War.
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The New York release is a charity event
Compared to the State Opera Ball, the New York version is a charity event that takes place under the auspices of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and is hosted this year by Elisabeth Muhr, Denise Rich and Jean Shafiroff. Top-class guests of honor include Florence Hvorostovsky and Ann Ziff, Chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera. The proceeds will be used to support music therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in collaboration with the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research. Between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000 are donated each year.
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Money is raised not only through tickets (which start at $ 350), but also through auctions, where opera tickets can be won, among other things. Many also give tax-deductible donations. “That wouldn’t be the case in Austria,” says Serafin: “I would like us to have tax deductibility for cultural sponsorship, because that would mean that many companies would invest so much more in culture.”
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Vienna Opera Ball in New York with Austrian flair
Above all, the ball offers an economic platform for Austrian sponsors and partners, “because what would a Vienna Opera Ball in New York be without a certain Austrian flair?” Emphasizes Serafin. The Esterhazy Foundation, Red Bull, AE Köchert, Austrian Airlines, Schlumberger and the City of Vienna are just a few.
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Among the 14 debutantes and their male escorts this year are Rachel and Samuel Engelberg, the children of Danielle Spera, who is arriving this year. “We also have a couple from the Svabek dance school,” says Silvia Frieser, “we are always especially happy when Austrian couples fly in just to make their debut at the Viennese Opera Ball in New York.” Apple “Everything Waltz”.
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