The sounds of the Italian campaign

Niccar

By any chance, was it in Klagenfurt where you saw Madame Butterfly sung in German ?

I was on a week's leave in Velden (in Austria) when I went to the opera at Klagenfurt and first wrote about it on the old BBC site;

Leave at Velden
After our spell of POW work finished I was sent on leave to Velden on Lake Worthersee, and this was a really first class holiday in beautiful surroundings. Apparently it had always been a well-known holiday resort and the large hotels were commandeered by the military authorities and turned into rest camps. The food was out of this world, or at least so it appeared to us at the time.
At the other end of the lake was Klagenfurt, and I can remember going by steamer to see a dazzling performance of" Die Fledermaus". On the way there and back we were entertained by an accordion band and there were coloured lights hanging from the rigging to complete the scene. The water was, as I remember, very cold, but the sun was hot and one could lay on the wooden planking that ran down to the lake's edge and up to the hotel terrace.



Full story here:
BBC - WW2 People's War - Life in Wartime Austria: 4th Queen's Own Hussars July to August 1945

Keep well !

Ron

 

Sounds of the Italian Campaign

Ron you were right it was in Klagenfurt that I saw Madam Butterfly sung in German and their language being guttural it was assault and battery to the ear drums unlike the round language of the Italians incidentally Ron when 78th Div opened the holiday resort of Veldon am see I was ordered to report there as the driver to the divisional welfare officer who’s batman couldn’t drive he possessed an Opel staff car and a Jeep
And on my time off he let me have whichever vehicle he wasn’t using it’s a dogs life considering I didn’t want the job originally. My job was to collect any acts that the officer had booked and bring them back to the holiday centre which included quite a bit of late night driving so I got time off during most days to drive around that beautiful lake after about six months I was called back to my regiment and we were shipped off to Greece to monitor the Greek elections until demob

Regards Niccar

 

Hi Tom
as you are aware we didnt get much time to hear the wonderful music that was available at our time in Italy but try telling the kids today about decent music that will be around for centuries and they come back with some crap that will be forgotten in a year or two and makes the perpetrators millionairs I think that makes me an old fuddy duddy well so be it

keep well Niccar

 

Niccar

Just out of interest, click on this link:
Ron Goldstein's Actual Army Album

Scroll down to Pages 27 & 28 and see if you can still remember what Velden looked like all those years ago.

Ron

 

Niccar - you are so right - the youngsters to-day just don't know what they are missing - sent my g'daughter a copy of "Carmen" with Domingo and Julie Megines -hasn't bothered to look at it yet but her ears are stuffed with this head banging rubbish - when they come to visit - I play the good stuff hoping it will get through to them - got to keep on trying - they will benefit- just think of the prelude to Traviatta - gets to me everytime but best of all is Tebaldi singing "Ebban" from Catalini's "La Wally "

Velden on the Worther see always looked good as did Villach but we had a ball at Strassburg in the Gurk Valley.....
Cheers