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MARCH 2016

We are working for your safety!

"And once again another impressive performance!"

As happens every year, we have been doing our annual "SPRING CLEANING" in the past few weeks. Our entire personnel from the breakfast room, the floors and in-house maintenance has been constantly busy turning the whole house "upside down".

Cleaning cloths and feather dusters were in full swing and our shampoo machines fought many a race with the vacuum cleaners!

Now, all that's missing is the first ray of the spring sun to bring out the shine and sparkle!

"We are working for YOUR SAFETY"

The quieter winter months were not only spent on our annual thorough cleaning but also on improvements for your safety.

We have upgraded our fire alarm system to include additional technical features and bring it up to the latest standard. Fire and smoke detectors have been installed in the farthest nooks and crannies and the emergency lighting system has been extended. Thus, we constantly work behind the scenes, not only for your best possible comfort, but also for your maximum safety.

"Another new chapter for our BREAKFAST ROOM"

Our tapestry team from Langenlois in the Wachau area has "written" a further chapter in the transformation of our breakfast room. Following the curtains, the chair upholstery now shines with fresh new colours, contributing to the harmonious overall impression with stripes and garlands in the spring hues of green and yellow.

„Current and upcoming EVENTS in Vienna in March 2016“

Interested in music, theater, the opera, museums, and exhibitions?
We’ll be happy to keep you informed about all the dates / schedules and perhaps even let you in on a few secrets too…

Evita

The new production of the classic musical "Evita", which tells of the life of the Argentine national heroine, is set to cause a sensation at the Ronacher from 9 March 2016. With Katharine Mehrling, Drew Sarich and Thomas Borchert.

The musical Evita by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber has been a cult show for years. It has been awarded more than 20 international prizes. The Hollywood film version starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas won an Oscar. Vincent Paterson, who created the choreography for the film, is now directing the new German-language production at the Ronacher in Vienna.

The show with some of the best musical songs of all time, such as "Don't cry for me, Argentina", "On this night of a thousand stars", "I'd be surprisingly good for you" and "Another suitcase in another hall", tells the story of Eva Perón. Coming from the humblest of backgrounds, she climbs society to become the First Lady, as wife of the former Argentine dictator Juan Perón. The people lovingly call their national heroine "Evita". The social and economic tensions in the country rise and the voices against her become louder. Some call her vainglorious and aloof, others declare her a modern heroine. However, Evita manges to convert imminent defeat into triumph.

Evita - 9 March - 29 June 2016
In German language with English subtitles
Tickets: www.wien-ticket.at

Russian Avant-Gardes

The period from 1910 to 1920 was the heyday of the Russian avant-garde. Reason enough for the Albertina to dedicate an exhibition to Chagall, Malevich and Co.

The Russian avant-garde numbers amongst the most diverse and radical chapters of the Modern era. At no other time in the history of art were so many schools and artists' associations founded as between 1910 and 1920 in Russia. Each group positioned itself against the past but also against the competing groupings of the time. The Albertina is showing 130 masterpieces from this art epoch, including paintings by Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova. All works illustrate the fundamentally different styles and their dynamic development, from Primitivism to Cubo-Futurism and Suprematism.

The Russian avant-garde deals with a renewal in all areas of art. The artists create using different and to some extent contrary contents and ideas: on the one hand, the modern Western European Avant-garde serves as a point of orientation, which produces such revolutionary forms of expression as Fauvism and Cubism with Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and Braque in Paris. On the other, the Russian artists deal with the reference to the folkloric painting tradition of their homeland.

Chagall to Malevich. The Russian Avant-Gardes - 26 February - 26 June 2016
www.albertina.at

125 years of the Kunsthistorisches Museum

The museum on the Ringstrasse was opened with much festivity in 1891. The anniversary exhibition deals with the subject of "Festival cultures" from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Emperor Franz Joseph himself opened the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) on 17 October 1891. The extensive collection of the Habsburgs had finally found a place under one roof. To mark this festive occasion, the KHM has put together an exhibition which looks at various aspects of the festival cultures that formed in Europe's royal courts, towns and countryside from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance through to the 18th century. The exhibition "Feste Feiern" (Celebrating Festivals) focuses on the feast with eating, drinking, dancing and playing music, in particular with a view of Habsburgian residences such as the Imperial Palace, Schönbrunn Palace and many others.

Another aspect is dedicated to festivals in public places, which were held to mark coronations, weddings and birthdays as well as at the time of Carnival, for church consecrations or on markets. The laws of strictly regulated everyday life were often suspended for the occasion. A section of the exhibition is also dedicated to the objects used during these festivals: numerous curiosities will be on display, such as a drinking stool from the 16th century, which held its guests in place until the welcome drink was drained. On view for the first time is the giant tablecloth that Emperor Karl V commissioned for a chivalric festival in 1527. Also on display will be artworks from the in-house collection of the KHM (e.g. Bruegel and Goya) as well as international loans, including a number of contemporary pieces.

And the KHM has a special birthday gift for its visitors: free entry to everyone on their own birthday in 2016 (ID required).

Feste Feiern - 8 March - 11 September 2016
www.khm.at

Emperor Franz Joseph: 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of his death

Emperor Franz Joseph died in Schönbrunn Palace on 21 November 1916. A number of exhibitions in Vienna show the life and works of the Habsburg emperor.

"The long-feared, unavoidable event has now happened," proclaimed the news after Emperor Franz Joseph died during the evening hours of 21 November 1916 in Schönbrunn Palace at what in those days was the biblical age of 86 years. He held power for 68 years from 1848. His reign witnessed the construction of the Ringstrasse as well as the return to absolutism, the settlement with Hungary and the outbreak of the First World War, which lead to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Danube Monarchy in 1918. His initials "FJ I" still adorn many buildings to this day.

Not always at his side: Empress Elisabeth, "Sisi" for short, who Franz Joseph was head over heels in love with to begin with. Yet later on she increasingly left him alone in Vienna as she traveled the world. When she was murdered in 1898, their son, Crown Prince Rudolf, had already been dead for nine years. Further misfortunes were to follow until Franz Joseph's death in 1916.

The 100th anniversary of the death of the longest-serving Habsburg emperor will be marked in 2016 by a number of exhibitions that deal with various aspects of his life and reign. An overview:

Franz Joseph 1830 – 1916 - 16 March - 27 November 2016, 4 locations

Schönbrunn Palace
People and Ruler: The focus here is on Franz Joseph as a person and on his predecessor, his descendants, his childhood and, of course, his marriage to Sisi.

Imperial Coach Collection
Prestige & Modesty: Coaches and clothing are used to cast light on the prestige and image of the emperor as well as on his wedding, his coronation in Hungary and his funeral.

Imperial Furniture Collection
Party & Everyday Life: This part of the exhibition examines the contrast between the monarch's modest personal life and the magnificent appearance he presented to the outside world.

Niederweiden Palace (Lower Austria)
Hunting & Leisure: This show focuses on Franz Joseph as a hunter and private individual.

Information: www.franzjoseph2016.at

Ten years of the Theater an der Wien and ten years of Mozarthaus Vienna

Two Viennese musical institutions celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2016. The Theater an der Wien, which is run as an opera house, and the Mozarthaus Vienna will be celebrating their birthdays with a whole series of events.

The Theater an der Wien is one of the most beautiful and traditional theaters in Vienna. It was built in 1801 in the spirit of Mozart by his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder and has been run as the new opera house of the city of Vienna since 2006. The Theater an der Wien opens the celebrations of its tenth anniversary on 13 January 2016 with the premiere of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera in a production by Keith Warner with Tobias Moretti, Angelika Kirchschlager, Anne Sofie von Otter and Florian Boesch. This is followed by two gala concerts: Beethoven's "Fidelio" under the musical direction of Stefan Gottfried on 17 January 2016 and Mozart's "Idomeneo" with René Jacobs on 22 January 2016.

The Theater an der Wien is known for its contemporary aesthetics and the high musical quality of the Baroque and modern opera productions. As a seasonal opera house, there is a premiere on the program almost every month as well as concerts and dance at the theater on Naschmarkt. The Theater an der Wien was the venue of historic world premieres, including Beethoven's only opera Fidelio.

The Mozarthaus Vienna also celebrates its tenth birthday in 2016, on 27 January 2016 to be precise - the 260th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The fully preserved apartment of the musical genius on the first floor is the heart of the Mozarthaus Vienna: the composer resided at Domgasse 5 from 1784 to 1787, where he created more music than in any other place. The museum offers a packed program for the anniversary: the Annual Exhibition deals with the many works by Mozart created in this house, especially with the world-famous opera "Le Nozze di Figaro", the string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn and the eleven piano concerts composed here.

Also dedicated to the topic of works created in the present-day Mozarthaus Vienna is the concert series "Mozart Akademie" , with artists such as the Jess Trio Wien, the violinist Christoph Koncz and the pianist Roland Batik. There is also a focus on Antonio Salieri with chamber singer Angelika Kirchschlager as well as a Mozart opera for children. Falco's world-hit Rock Me Amadeus will also be a topic in 2016, in an exhibition from March 9 to May 16.

Theater an der Wien - www.theater-wien.at
Mozarthaus Vienna – www.mozarthausvienna.at

OsterKlang 2016

The 20th OsterKlang festival fills Easter week with a high class musical program, including Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor and harmonious evenings in the Minorite Church.

On Good Friday, Georg Friedrich Händel's grippingly entertaining opera Agrippina takes to the stage at Theater an der Wien – which this year is also celebrating its tenth anniversary as the new Vienna Opera House. While the story here is about the lust for power and greediness in Ancient Rome, it is followed on Palm Saturday by the actual opening of the OsterKlang festival: The Wiener Symphoniker, directed by Philippe Jordan and accompanied by the Wiener Singakademie, perform Bach's Mass in B minor at the Wiener Konzerthaus.

The Minorite Church is the performance venue for particularly atmospheric programs: On Monday, 21 March, soprano Juliane Banse and eight cellists of the Wiener Symphoniker perform music by Haydn, Schubert and Orlando di Lasso under the slogan "Springtime faith". On Good Friday, the Camerata Schulz Wien presents "Sound of the Soul": works for strings by Mozart, Mahler and Pärt. On the topic of "Immortal", Baroque music from Bach to Janitsch is played on Holy Saturday.

An oratorio is performed in Italian at Theater an der Wien on Wednesday, 23 March: with Il primo omicidio, Alessandro Scarlatti created a notable musical rendering of the Cain and Abel story told in the Old Testament.

The following day in the Lutheran church, it's the turn of Sergei Rachmaninov's  Evening and Morning Hymns of Praise. 

The Wiener Symphoniker traditionally celebrate Easter Sunday with their program "Frühling in Wien" at the Musikverein, this year with music by Beethoven, Ziehrer, Strauss, Suppé and Schönherr. The French pianist Hélène Grimaud is this year's guest. In the evening, the Kammeroper invites audiences to Bizet's opera Carmen – excitingly arranged in a version for five vocal soloists, accordion, violin and double bass.

OsterKlang 2016 - 18-27 March 2016
www.osterklang.at

Friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. Very clean hotel throughout and breakfast was very good.

March / booking.com

HOTEL AUSTRIA WIEN

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