Listen To The Music Of The Night

8 May 2015 (Friday) - Nationaltheatre and Allerheiligen-Hofkirche.  Having attended a concert in Vienna, I thought it would be nice to attend something similar in Munich.  I soon found myself looking at the Bayerische Staatsoper webpage (equivalent to our Sistic) and bought some tickets for opera, ballets and orchestras from their box office located at Marstallplatz.

Box office in Marstallplatz

Tickets to the concerts mostly about 10 euros for standing tickets

Along my way to the box office, I alighted at Odeonsplatz and there was a Jewish / Israeli carnival held in front of the Feldhernhalle (evident from the Star of David flag).  I'm not sure if the organisers meant it to be that way, but I thought it was extremely ironic yet monumental for the carnival to be held there as it was the place famously known as the site of the Beer Hall Putsch conducted by Hitler.  If the results of the WWII turned out differently, the carnival may not even be happening today.

Passed by the Hofgarten and various iconic landmarks / official buildings along the way to the Box Office.

Munich Residenz

Hofgarten

Bayerische Staatskanzlei (Bayerische State Chancellery)
Executive office of the minister-president

The first show which I attended was the opera by Tchaikovsky called "Eugene Onegin" on Tuesday, 5 May after work.  The opera was sung in Russian with some parts in French and there were German subtitles in the screen overhead, but of course I couldn't understand any of the languages.  Thankfully a kind young French lady gave me a brief summary of the opera during the intermission.  Apparently she's here for the opera, as she has heard the female lead singer sang in other operas like Madame Butterfly and liked her singing very much.  Sadly, Onegin is not her best performance.

The opera was performed at the Nationaltheatre

A peek inside the Nationaltheatre

I was on the third floor - Rang 2

Standing tickets: Yes, I was standing like the poor guy here for 3 hours
throughout the play, except during the break for intermission.

The story is about a selfish hero who rejects a young woman's

love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend. 

As I enjoyed the opera (despite not understanding what they were singing), I decided to attend other performances as well.  Hence, the next concert which I attended was on Friday, 8 May.  It was an orchestra performance so there wasn't much German involved, except whenever they introduced a piece before before it was played.

The orchestra concert was held at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche, which is an extremely beautiful church, according to one of the elderly gentleman who was also attending the concert.  I later found out that I have been in there before, except that I was on the second floor of the church.  This church is actually part of the Residenz Museum.  

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche (Court Church of All Saints)

The garden of the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche

I bought a dessert from Cafe Maelu which had raving reviews on
TripAdvisor and enjoyed it in the garden. 

Pistachio with White Chocolate Cake.  It is amazingly beautiful and tastes as good as
it looks!  But its a once only indulgence for poorer folks as it is seriously overpriced.

Remains of the Byzantine Royal Church which is gradually undergoing secularisation.
You can faintly see the Mary and Child wall painting in the left picture.

The orchestra performance mainly featured the wind section.
However, the performance after the intermission was a flautist accompanied by a jazz trio
(e.g. a pianist, cellist and drummer)

I really enjoyed the "Fantasies for Anna" piece most!  It was "Supar"!

My first time seeing a drummer using the drum brushes
for nearly 90% of the performance.  Its awesome!

The concerts usually had a duration of almost 2-3 hours, so by the time it ended the sky was already dark and you can see the architecture in a different lighting.

Allerheligen Hofkirche under the starry night

Grandeur of the Nationaltheatre intensifies at night

Marienhof at dusk

The French young lady commented to me afterwards that she has been to Singapore before to catch performances at the Esplanade (described by her as the durian shaped building).  However, it is totally a pity that the Esplanade does not offer standing tickets at heavily discounted prices, because doing so may increase the number of concert attendees and give the larger masses an opportunity to catch concerts which they otherwise may not be able to afford.  Although it was not very comfortable having to stand for the 3 hours, it was nevertheless quite an experience and I will definitely be standing again to catch future concerts!