The Off Topic Topic

[HVC]

The Volksoper Vienna has a World Cup rebate - Book four showings during the month of June, get 50% off. I booked Der Zarewitsch and Die Csardasfürsting by Franz Lehar, plus Die Zauberflöte and Les contes d'Hoffmann. The Volksoper is not as special as the Staatsoper, perhaps, but getting four tickets for €150 was a steal in these times.

Plus, the opera was good enough for James Bond (standing in for the Bratislava Opera in The Living Daylights)

Don't be late

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2y6IlMH7V

[Syt]

I think that's more of a State Opera thing. They warn that if you arrive late it's up to the discretion of the staff to let you into the audience during performance, e.g. during an applause break.

[Syt]

Today I learned that US Capitol Police has its own ISB. 

[Tonitrus]

I think most major US police departments have something similar...even if they're not named like something a national government might have. 

[Syt]

Sure, but my first association with ISB is https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_Security_Bureau

[Sheilbh]

Stories over the weekend in the Times and Guardian on what sound like truly extraordinary/revolutionary cancer treatments.

As these are in more credible newspapers and not stories on the Daily Express frontpage carousel it sounds like very good news.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Fake news. In America we know that cancer can only be treated with ivermectin and by eating roadkill.

[Syt]

Saw Die Csardasfürstin last night. It was fun (Volksoper more often than not uses "historical" costume instead of modern versions - I generally don't mind either way, if done well. In this case it was a bit of a mix.) But yeah, operettas (at least the Austrian kind) are basically the romcoms of their day.

Though it sent me on a bit of a rabbit hole - the theater where it premiered in 1915 no longer exists. It was built as a dedicated venue for operettas in 1908 during a veritable operetta craze in Vienna, but in the 1920s movie theaters became the new hot thing and many of those venues either converted or lingered on till in the 1950s/60s many of them were demolished.

A notable example is the Apollo which started as a theater and in the 20s was converted to a movie theater ... it's generally where I go to watch IMAX movies.

[Grey Fox]

How did they cram an Imax screen in that building?!

[grumbler]

How did they cram an Imax screen in that building?!

It's a miniature IMAX screen.

[HVC]

IMIN screen?

[Syt]

It only has 388 seats in its IMAX venue (plus 12 other cinemas), I think oter IMaX venues in Vienna might be larger. But essentially the entire interior is movie theaters with only a small lobby and not even a proper café or something.

[Grey Fox]

Crazy

[Syt]

This is a view from the rear. The "inner yard" has been completely filled in. So it may look smaller from outside than it seems from the outside.



This was the interior when it was a musical theater:

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

That's an interesting layout.  So they did dinner service on the main floor, with conventional theater seating in the balconies?