Bine - University of Vienna Medical School

René Bine is 22 as he writes his accounts of medical school in Vienna in 1904. He's full of observations on professors and fellow students as well as the cultural and political events of the day. 

Since Sigmund Freud was at the University of Vienna at the time, I am surprised that I have yet to come across any reference to him in René's cards. He does mention Alfred Fuchs though, who was also a professor of psychiatry and nervous diseases at the time. He also speaks of Dr. Edmund Neusser, another professor and, like René, an ardent music lover. In fact, Professor Neusser was himself a very accomplished pianist and married Paula Mark, a soprano with the Vienna Court Opera.

This is a picture of Professor Edmund Neusser.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Here's the card that René sent to his family back in San Francisco.
 

And here's what what he had to say:
 

Fuchs, the nerve man is popular as ever. Occasionally he hypnotizes a patient + thus livens up the otherwise quiet but most instructive and interesting demonstrations. Brother Eserich I have forgot to call on but 4 times this week as I preferred to favor Prof. Neusser for a change. Neusser gives lectures + demonstrations, but his voice is poor + hard to catch unless one be accustomed to it. He is to-day said to be the greatest diagnostician in Vienna, if not in the world, being chief over Kovack, ex-chief over Ortner, tho' for us Ortner seems as good. -

Nothing new otherwise. Everything is OK + I hope you can say ditto. Papa's foot I suppose is now a bobo long forgotten. Ma's cough, I know she does not want to lose, for without headaches she'd have no kick coming - Give my best regards to all the folks + receive best kisses from loving brother and son

René

You can read more about Dr. Norbert Ortner here. Of perhaps more interest is René 's reference to Brother Eserich, if as I believe, he is actually referring to Theodor Escherich, who was a professor at the University of Vienna at the time. It was Professor Escherich who discovered the bacterium Escherichia coli (also known as E. coli), which was named after him. He was also a very distinguished looking man.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

This is one of many posts on the correspondence of Dr. René Bine of San Francisco. If you'd like to read more, go to the bottom of the web page and click on the tab for Dr. René Bine.

Here's the back of the card.

René Bine Visits the Vienna Opera

The young René Bine of San Francisco appears to have been very enthusiastic and dedicated to his study of medicine in Vienna in 1905, but not so dedicated that he couldn't find time to enjoy the sights and sounds of the great city.  If you happen to be an opera history buff, this firsthand account of the opera performances should be especially interesting. If not, you may just enjoy the pattern of his tiny and meticulous handwriting and be glad you don't have to decipher it.

René was 23 at the time and regularly sent cards addressed to his sister Marie, one year his junior, but with news intended for his parents as well. Last week, I suggested that René's father might also have been a doctor. That turns out not to be true. Leon Bine, an immigrant from Châtenois, France, was a cloth merchant who worked for Reiss Bros. & Co. in San Francisco, before opening his own business, Bine & Co. sometime before 1908.

Here's card #204, sent from Vienna.

The message reads:

Dear folks. Friday evening we all went to see Tannhäuser which afforded us a most enjoyable evening + now I realize how superior to Frisco is the Wiener opera. Before all I will admit that the singers i.e. the stars do not compare favorably with Grau's collection, but the tout ensemble is what counts. And further Tannhäuser affords an opportunity for beautiful scenic effects + magic-like stage transformations of which I little dreamed. 

And I must add that having seen quite a few operas since I'm in Wien (including Lakme Queen of Sheba, Hoffman's Erzählungen, die Fledermaus, La Bohème, Norma, Freischütz, Lohengrin) I Prefer the following in about this order Tannhäuser, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, though for all I'm told, I believe I will modify this opinion ere long + put Fidelio at the head of the list. To-night, Saturday Paul + Tillie are seeing Pagliacci+ C.R., while I'm taking it easy at home. This A.M. as  is my wont I was at 8:15 at Ortner's. It is a bit cold + dark mornings + out of the whole crowd of Americans who usually come, we were only 4 to-day + the less present, the...

I have a card #205, but it doesn't seem to be a continuation of this one. The system is confusing. Let's move on to card #206.

Monday Jan. 23. 05.

Went to Fidelio last P.M. + it was the most enthusiastic audience I've ever found myself in. The tenor, Winkelman, Wien's old tenor had but little do to (?), + with his usual ready-to-bawl voice did it well. Lilly Lehman was at her best. She is no spring chicken, this once beautiful Lilly, + is retired from the opera to stage, but Adeline-wise now + then comes out of her beautiful suburban residence to sway the hearts of her fellow citizens with her melodious voice. As an opera I cannot give Fidelio 1st place in my list. The ouverture to the last scene, as far as my personal opinion goes, is far + above any other music in the whole piece. The cast was about the strongest the opera boasts of it, + it was also beautifully staged. - Tonight we go to the Rhinegold. Prague's best tenor will shine as guest. Some new stunts have been performed with the piece + they shall play it 4 times this week so great has been the demand. Paul + Tillman were down early yesterday + procured...

I'm afraid we'll never know what they procured.  I'll post more of René Bine's adventures and observations as soon as my eyeballs recover. Although I don't know who Tillman was, Paul is presumably Dr. Paul E. Biber, a classmate of Dr. Bine's.

Here's the back of the first card.

Metropolitan and Not-so-Metropolitan Operas

The Metropolitan Opera was not the first opera house in New York. There was a smaller, more exclusive one, the Academy of Music, but it catered exclusively to the old-money families and excluded the new rich, such as the Vanderbilts, the Roosevelts, and the Morgans. There were two-short-lived opera houses before the Academy of Music too, the Italian Opera House and the Astor House. When the Metropolitan Opera House opened at 1411 Broadway in 1883, it quickly became the opera house, and the new rich were able to see and be seen.  Here is the Met in a pre-1907 view:

It nearly burned down in 1892, but was rebuilt and reopened in 1893. The Met remained at its original location until the opera company moved to Lincoln Center in 1966. The building was demolished in 1967. I have never been to the Met, but I have been to a few of the live in HD performances at a local movie theater.  I'm sure it doesn't compare to being there in person, but I recommend it anyway.

So, while New York City was building itself an opera house in 1883, what was happening up in the  Amazon rainforest? It turns out that they were finalizing plans to build an opera house there too. While they started construction at about the same time, the process in Manaus, Brazil was a lot slower. Building materials, including marble for the stairs, columns and statues, were imported from Europe. The first performance, Ponchielli's La Giaconde, took place in 1897. No expense was spared though, resulting in a lavish building with electric lights, all funded by riches from the rubber industry. My friend Karin visited the place and sent me this picture of the Teatro Amazones.

Karin also mentions that: The pavement in the plaza in front of the Teatro is by Roberto Burle Marx, a famous landscape architect.  It represents the ‘meeting of the waters’ where the black Rio Negro and the latte-colored Rio Solimoes meet, just outside of Manaus.

Here is a gallery of photos from the Teatro Amazones.

And here's the back of the first card.

Berlin State Opera - Germany

This opera house, now known as Staatsoper Unter den Linden, was destroyed not once, not twice, but three times, only to emerge each time like a phoenix from the ashes. The original building was inaugurated in 1742 and burned down 100 years later. The reconstructed building was inaugurated in 1844.  The opera house was bombed in 1941, but managed to reopen in 1942. A more severe bombing in 1945 resulted in ten-year rebuilding time.

After 1961and the Berlin Wall, the opera house was a bit isolated over on the east side. I went to see an opera here in 1981 when the wall was still up. The street was oddly quiet and there was something eery about the surroundings in general. Since the reunification, this street is once again vibrant and lively.

This card is from about 1898. Here's a picture of the opera house taken by Josef Lehmkuhl in 2005.

And here's the back of the card, printed on the strange blue card stock.

Paris Opera - Palais Garnier

On Monday I posted a card of the Hippodrome in New York. Then I saw that this week's Sepia Saturday theme is theaters (or theatres, depending on where you live.) So, I decided to post a couple more, including the Frankfurt Opera house and La Scala. I will have additional theater-related posts over the next few weeks, but I'll intersperse them with others, because I know some of you have already had enough of opera and theaters. But today, we're off to Paris.

The Palais Garnier certainly dominates the focus of the Place de l'Opéra. The building housed the Paris Opera from 1875 until 1989, when the new larger Opéra Bastille was built. The Palais Garnier is now primarily used for ballet performances. I have visited the building and the Paris Opera Library-Museum, but I have never been to a performance there. I did see a performance of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Opéra Bastille in 2007, which was roundly booed by the audience, in part because of the modern reinterpretation and the spare set with its glaring gold backdrop.

Here's the Palais Garnier at the turn of the century. The card is embellished with lots of glitter, which unfortunately doesn't show up well on the scan.

And another view from decades later.

Here's the back of the first card, sent in 1906 to Cherry Morgan, staying at the Mount Hotel in Scarborough, England. The message reads:

Dear Cherry

We have put across the Channel. Some of the Channel was on ___of us Rough. Paris is very gay - hope you and your Ma are enjoying yourselves. Send love.

E.M. Costaline (?)

This is a post for Sepia Saturday, which is as entertaining as any theater. Click the box below to be transported.

La Scala - Milan, Italy

The building we see here was inaugurated in 1778 and named after the church (Chiesa di Santa Maria alla Scala, built in 1381) that was demolished to make way for the opera house. Over the years, numerous operas by Verdi, Puccini, and Rossini, among others, premiered at La Scala. The first performance at La Scala was the performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.

It may not look like much from the outside, particularly on a black-and-white postcard, but it seats 2,800, and the interior looks pretty fabulous. I have never been to La Scala, but if I did I would want to sit in the cheaper nosebleed seats (known as the loggione) above the box seats. If you sit there, I imagine you can watch the opera and all the people in the box seats too.

La Scala was severely damaged by bombing in 1943, but was rebuilt in 1946.  The opera house is currently facing a tough budget year, with a drop in both private and public contributions.

Source: Wikipedia

Here's the back of the card.

Opera House - Frankfurt, Germany

The grand old Frankfurt Opera House still stands, although it is now known as the Old Opera, having been replaced by a newer building. The original Opera House was inaugurated in 1880. Kaiser Wilhelm attended and remarked that he would not be allowed such an extravagance in Berlin.

Carmina Burana premiered here in 1937, but only seven years later, a bomb nearly destroyed the opera house. It lay in ruins for many years amid proposals to demolish it and build an office building. Instead, a citizens' initiative started raising money for a reconstruction fund in the 1950s. The opera house was finally reopened in 1981.

At the time this card was sent (sometime before 1907), senders were not allowed to write a message on the back of the card. Many people scribbled message over or around the picture on the front. Salomon Marx simply imprinted the front of the card with his personalized stamp.  He sent the card to Rachel and Esther Rousseau of Ghent, Belgium.

I couldn't find anything on the Rousseau sisters, but I did find that Salomon Marx was born into a prominent Jewish family in Frankfurt. I can only assume that this is the same Salomon Marx. He was born in 1863 and was able to emigrate (to the United States?) sometime after 1933.

Fritzi Scheff

Fritzi Scheff was an opera singer and an actress. She was born in 1879 and made her debut at the Munich Royal Opera in the  title role of Martha. She had immense success as Fifi in Mlle. Modiste in 1905-1906 and is still remembered for her rendition of Kiss Me Again from that Operetta. This postcard, sent in 1906, indicates that Fritzi Scheff is coming to Elmira, New York soon. Considering the time frame, she probably would have been performing the role of Fifi. Fritzi Scheff died in 1954.

For a vintage paper doll of Fritzi Scheff, check out this post at the Paper Collector.

Draw that Bridge- The Golden Gate

In case you didn't tune in last week, that's when I posted the card of San Francisco's Golden Gate before the famous bridge was built.  I invited you to draw your own bridge, either a likeness of the one that was built or something different. It's no surprise that people are very busy this time of year, so I didn't expect a lot of results. In fact there were only two, but they're both fabulous! Thanks for your submissions (round of applause.)

Here's a view of the bridge and the one from last week without the bridge:

And here are the brilliant ideas that you submitted:

Eric was inspired by a newspaper headline: "Red Tape Holds Up Bridge." The headline referred to another bridge, but it fits nicely with this one. His Golden Gate Bridge looks very realistic and is constructed of red electrical tape.

 

Ferdinand was inspired by music; his span across the Golden Gate consists of part of the bridge from Prokofiev's Sonata #8.

 

Ferdinand also sent along a musical clip, played by Dror Biran. I'm including it because I think it's a piece of music that represents the bridge very well.

As long as we're looking for a musical representation of the bridge, I also like the idea of the Barcarolle from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman to represent the bridge on a moonlit night with the fog rolling in. The duet makes me imagine of the two land masses on either side of the bay singing to each other.

This piece is performed by soprano Irina Iordachescu and mezzosoprano Cristina Iordachescu - two sisters, together with pianist Gonul Apdula.

Tetrazzini in San Francisco

This card states that 100,000 people gathered on Christmas Eve, 1910 to hear Luisa Tetrazzini sing at Lotta's Fountain in San Francisco. Other sources report that as many as 300,000 people showed up. Luisa Tetrazzini was a famous opera singer with an extraordinary voice. Legal difficulties temporarily prevented her from performing in New York. At this point she declared, "I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing there in the streets, for I know the streets of San Francisco are free." Tetrazzini lived in San Francisco for some time and it is thought that the dish "Turkey Tetrazzini" was named after her.