- Vienna Opera Ball
The Vienna Opera Ball ("Wiener Opernball" in German) is an annual
Austria n society event which takes place in the building of theVienna State Opera on the Thursday precedingAsh Wednesday . Together with the New Year Concert, the OperaBall is one of the highlights of the Viennese carnival season. The dress code isevening dress : white tie and tails for men; floor-lengthballgown s for women.Each year, almost overnight, the
auditorium of the Vienna State Opera is turned into a largeballroom . On the eve of the event, the rows of seats are removed from the stalls, and a new floor, level with the stage, is built.Austrian businessmanRichard Lugner has attracted famous people as his guests to the ball. Among them have beenSophia Loren ,Geri Halliwell ,Carmen Electra ,Pamela Anderson , and, in 2007,Paris Hilton . In a joint venture,ORF and BR broadcast live from the ball for several hours each year.The Opera Ball was first held in
1936 , but was suspended duringWorld War II . It was revived after the war; it has been held annually ever since, with the exception of1991 , when it was cancelled due to the Persian Gulf War. Since2001 Elisabeth Gürtler has been the chairlady (supervising organizer) of the Vienna Opera Ball.In recent years, the "Opernballdemo", a left-wing demonstration along the
Ringstraße against the kind ofcapitalism represented by, as the protesters see it, many of the well-to-do guests at the Opera Ball, has regularly taken place on the same night. There have been occasional outbreaks of violence.In 1995 Austrian writer
Josef Haslinger published anovel entitled "Opernball" in which thousands of people are killed in a Neo-Naziterrorist attack taking place during that society event. The novel was the basis of a 1998 made-for-TV movie byUrs Egger with the same title.The only ball officially associated with the Vienna Opera Ball is the
Dubai Opera Ball . A similar ball takes place in New York City, but it is not affiliated with the Vienna Opera Ball.ee also
External links
* [http://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/Content.Node2/home/opernball/192.php]
* [http://www.postrealism.com/opera.htm Information on the Vienna Opera Ball with Video]
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