Day 90, Saturday, November 23, 2019
I go to one last drawing session this afternoon. It is in a huge gorgeous apartment, with four large rooms used for an art school and three more rooms marked private. I can only wonder how much an apartment like this would cost! We had a great model, and snacks and drinks were provided, all for 7 euros. I am going to miss Vienna’s life drawing sessions. There is an opportunity to draw every day of the week.
After a few shorter ‘warm up’ poses there is one pose for the rest of the session. I struggled a bit today, but the model liked the drawing, which is always nice.
Bob comes to meet me after my drawing and we head downtown to the Opera House. I thought the building where we saw the performers from Tibet was the Opera House, but I was wrong. We are hoping to get last minute standing room tickets for a ballet tonight. We had tickets booked for an opera tomorrow but got an email that it was cancelled so we are going to try this instead. It is impossible to get regular tickets at this late date but we are hoping we might get these.
Success, we got our tickets! Here is the inside of the Opera House. 
A view of the stage, orchestra pit and some of the seating.
This is where we will be standing, at the very back right up under the ceiling!
The ballet is Peter Gynt. This is a short four minute video of the ballet we saw. Here is a brief synopsis of the ballet, from the Vienna Opera House site. It was certainly a very convoluted story!
“After being banished from his village for stealing a bride on her wedding day, Gynt encounters the Mountain King, a troll. He offers Gynt the chance to become a troll himself – an opportunity to live by his own rules – but he can’t face up to the responsibilities doing so would entail (including fathering the Mountain King’s daughter’s child).
Gynt leads a dissolute existence before returning to find Solveig, the woman who has awaited his return since the moment he was exiled. Bewildered by her reaction to his reappearance – happy and thankful rather than angry and resentful – Gynt is left in purgatory, still unable to resolve what he should have done with his life.”
I did a bit of drawing in the dark during the second act of the opera. Not easy as the dancers were almost constantly moving. I would try to fix a pose in my mind and then transfer it to the page, without being able to see what I was drawing. There was just enough light to figure out where I had placed a figure but not enough to see what I was drawing. Lots of fun! If you watch the video maybe these scribbles will make some sense.
It was a long time to stand but there was a railing to lean on and the ballet was interesting so the time went by fairly quickly. When I draw I tend to lose track of the time anyway. 
At the first intermission a lot of people standing in the two rows in front of us left. We were able to move to the front of the standing section and had a clear view of the stage, instead of looking between the shoulders of the people in front of us.
Bob’s assessment at the end of the evening was “Well, it only took 2 1/2 hours for them (the two lead characters) to die!” When we went to an opera in Barcelona he commented “It took 3 hours for her (the heroine) to die!
Of course no photos during the performance, but I did take this one during the curtain call.
By the time we get down to the main lobby there is just time for a quick photo of the grand entrance staircase…
and one of us, reflected in a mirror. Everyone is chased out of the building fairly quickly after the performance. 
There are lots of lights on the street outside the Opera House where we catch the metro home.
No photos are allowed and I was very good and didn’t try to sneak any! It would have been so nice to have a few photos though. These two photos were taken from posters advertising the performances. The stallions are gorgeous! 
I did a bit of sketching during the training and that was OK but it was hard to draw and watch what was going on a the same time. After a bit I decided to just enjoy watching the training session and forget about drawing.
Next stop is the State Hall of the National Library. It is so amazing! It is hard to describe such a magnificent place. The pictures probably do a better job, so here they are. This is our view when we enter the library. We both just stop and stare! This library is nearly 60 metres long and 20 metres high and contains over 200,000 books!
One of the first things we see are these ‘secret’ doors the open into rooms with even more books.
The cases Bob is standing by held illuminated manuscripts. I would have loved to be able to climb one of these ladders and pull a book or two off the shelves.
These are from 1400 and 1260!
The globes have been in this spot since the mid 1700’s.
This statue is in the central oval of the library beneath a painted domed ceiling.
We sit for a while just absorbing the atmosphere.
Looking towards the entrance from where I was sitting…
and towards the back of the library.
The second level is just as ornately decorated as the first. I wish we could have gone there as well, but it was not to be.
One last photo before we leave. Here is 
When we leave the library we pass the Lipizzaner stables.
I zoom in on these two beauties.
We stop at the Minoritenkirche because Bob says it has a mosaic life size replica of The Last Supper.
It appears to be painted on tiled panels rather than being a mosaic made with many small tiles.
We didn’t get to see The Last Supper when we were in Italy. We didn’t know we had to get tickets far in advance, so I guess this is the next best thing.
where there are lots of people sitting enjoying the sunshine.
I was surprised there were so many yellow roses in bloom so late in the year. Do you notice all the little white signs in the background? This is a memorial garden and each rose is planted in memory of a person who has passed away.
It is a beautiful sunny afternoon. Warm for November, but we still need our coats.
We stop at the Naschmarkt for something to eat. This roast pig is for sale by the piece, starting at the back end. Interesting but we decide on something a bit less exotic.
A ten and twenty minute pose.
I think I liked these two 5 minute drawings the best. It was a good night. 
Here is our model, Bettina, she is very pregnant. How wonderful! It has been ages since I have had the chance to draw a pregnant model so this was an unexpected bonus.
The drawing on the left is mine.
I did a couple sketches to warm up.
Then spent about two hours working on this drawing.
Bob came to pick me up after the session and on the metro ride home I did a bit more sketching.
This was interesting, the older man with the facial hair was sitting right across the aisle from me and he was only on the metro for one stop so I sketched quickly hoped he didn’t notice that I was sneaking peeks at him. The young man with glasses did notice I was drawing him and he smiled at me, I smiled back and he tried not to smile as I continued sketching. As he got up to leave I showed him the sketch and he said something in German, then he smiled and said ciao, so I think he liked it.
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