Das Gespenst von Canterville

Volksoper Vienna, Vienna, Austria

All photos (5)

Select date and time

7 PM

Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Vienna, Austria

Starts at: 19:00

Acts: 2

Intervals: 1

Duration:

Sung in: German

Titles in: German

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Overview

History

Sir Simon is exhausted after centuries of haunting and would love to retire, but then the castle’s new inhabitants move in: an estate agent and his three children. The snot-nosed twins Leon and Noel play all sorts of tricks on the ghost. Only the daughter Virginia has a soft spot for the household spirit, who is condemned to haunting by a curse … can she redeem Sir Simon?

Synopsis

Act 1

Canterville Castle, a noble manor tucked away in an eerie forest in Scotland, is haunted by the castle ghost, Sir Simon de Canterville.

The housekeeper, Mrs. Umney, welcomes the new owners of the castle: the entrepreneur Dr. Georg König and his three children, a daughter Virginia and two brothers Leon and Noel. The two boys think the “old box” (their new home) is “totally wicked” and they immediately rampage through the house.

Virginia is not happy about the fact that Dr. König has also brought his assistant Frauke-Beeke Hansen along with him. After all, it is only a year since Virginia’s mother died …

Mrs. Umney introduces her son David, who takes Virginia on a tour of the castle. Frauke-Beeke notices a bloodstain. This was where a crime was once committed, explains Mrs. Umney. The bloodstain cannot be rubbed away: anyone who tries to remove it will provoke the castle ghost. When Frauke tries, the lights go out … and when they come on again, the bloodstain is still there!

It occurs to Virginia that David Umney bears a remarkable resemblance to the painting of Sir Simon de Canterville …

When they have all retired to their rooms, the ghost of Sir Simon starts to wander through the house. Georg König is not at all impressed with the apparition and advises him to rub some grease on his chains and to use some toothpaste. The ghost is offended by this lack of respect. When he is then attacked by Leon and Noel, he has had enough and disappears – for the time being …

Sir Simon recalls his past exploits, when he was still able to scare people properly. The company of house ghosts applaud him.

Next morning Frauke-Beeke appears, and she is in a good mood. The bloodstain is still there (and is now green), but the purchase agreement has been confirmed and the conversion works can now start. She also wants to turn Mrs. Umney and her son out of the castle. Virginia is horrified when she discovers this.

Sir Simon decides not to wait until midnight but to terrify these insolent new arrivals during the day as well. Frauke-Beeke has one of her attacks of hysteria.

Sir Simon overhears a conversation between Dr. König and Virginia, who misses her mother. Virginia would like to prevent Frauke-Beeke from carrying out her plans for the castle.

In her imagination, Virginia hears the voice of her dead mother singing her to sleep.

Act 2

Virginia is still asleep in an armchair in the castle hall. In her dreams she sees the ghost killing his wife, long ago. When she wakes up, Sir Simon is standing before her. She asks him how he could have done such a terrible thing. As the two are quarrelling, Leon and Noel appear and abuse the ghost, who eventually escapes through the chimney. Virginia thinks they are being mean to him. David and Virginia become closer. Mrs. Umney is beside herself – she has opened a telegram which was meant for Frauke-Beeke, revealing that Canterville is to be converted into a Halloween Event Hotel – with a genuine castle ghost!

Sir Simon returns, and he and Virginia are reconciled.

Next morning, Georg König goes off for a business meeting. Before he sets off, he makes Frauke-Beeke promise that she will not make a start on the building plans. But scarcely has he left when she lets in the workmen to carry out “the necessary preparations for the demolition of Canterville Castle”! Virginia, David and Mrs. Umney are horrified, and Leon and Noel also want Canterville to stay as it is. They hatch a plot against Frauke-Beeke: they pack her into a moving crate and have her taken away by the workmen.

Sir Simon confides in Virginia: he has been longing for sleep for 400 years. But only when “a child pleads for the sinner in her prayers” will the curse be lifted. Virginia bravely follows him …

Georg König returns and discovers that Frauke-Beeke has been “disposed of “and that Virginia has disappeared. A frantic search for her ensues.

Virginia returns: she has redeemed the ghost. Georg König now wants to renovate the castle and sell it. But he learns from Mrs. Umney that the line of the Cantervilles has not died out after all. The sale of the castle to König is therefore null and void …

Venue Info

Volksoper Vienna - Vienna
Währinger Strasse 78

The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions during an annual season which runs from September through June.

Volksoper Vienna was built in 1898 as the Kaiserjubiläum-Stadttheater (Kaiser's Jubilee Civic Theatre), originally producing only plays. Because of the very brief construction period (10 months) the first director Adam Müller-Gutenbrunn had to start with debts of 160,000 gulden. After this inauspicious startup the Kaiserjubiläum-Stadttheater had to declare bankruptcy five years later in 1903.

On 1 September 1903 Rainer Simons took over the house and renamed it the Kaiserjubiläum-Stadttheater - Volksoper (public opera). His intention was to continue the production of plays but also establish series of opera and operetta. The first Viennese performances of Tosca and Salome were given at the Volksoper in 1907 and 1910 respectively. World-famous singers such as Maria Jeritza, Leo Slezak and Richard Tauber appeared there; the conductor Alexander Zemlinsky became the first bandmaster in 1906.

In the years up to and through the First World War the Volksoper attained a position as Vienna's second prestige opera house. In 1919, Felix Weingartner became Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. He was followed as Director by Hugo Gruder-Guntram. After 1929, it focused on light opera, and under Gruder-Guntram undertook a number of summer tours to Abbazia in 1935, Cairo and Alexandria in 1937 and throughout Italy in 1938, with guest appearances from Richard Tauber. After the Second World War, the Vienna Volksoper became the alternative venue to the devastated Vienna State Opera. In 1955 the Volksoper returned to its former role of presenting opera, operetta, and musicals.

From September 1991 to June 1996 the Vienna Volksoper was under a collective leadership with the Vienna State Opera. In 1999 the Volksoper became a 100% subsidiary of the Bundestheater-Holding. Since 1 September 2007 Robert Meyer has headed the Volksoper as artistic director together with the business manager Christoph Ladstätter. Each season includes about 25 productions, a total of approximately 300 performances—a performance almost every day. In addition to opera, operetta, musicals and ballet, there are special performances and children's programs.