Open air musical in Walenstadt

I know I have not been very active on my blog for a while, but we are going through a move, so some of the basic things the blog needs (such as free time and a computer) are not always available.

Nevertheless, we are not arranging our new house all time time and here I am to tell you about how we spent our evening last Saturday: we watched the musical “The Beauty and the Beast” on the Walensee Bühne. It is performed on an open air stage at the Walensee shores in Walenstadt. It is a performance taking place every second summer, but this year it was an exception, as they performed two years in a row.

Bella’s father on the left and Bella and the Beast on the right

This year’s performance was the fairytale of The Beauty and the Beast. The musical started around 8 pm and lasted until a bit after 10 pm, so the first part was performed while there was still daylight, and the second when it is getting dark.

The stage was made really nicely! It did not hide the lake or the Churfirsten in the back, and once the daylight faded, it included lights that changed according to the emotions that dominated in the scene. It was definitely conveying the magical world that the story involves!

The stage from our seats with the Churfirsten and the lake in the back!

The Beauty and the Beast is a fairytale written originally in 1740 by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. According to the adaptation for the musical, a widower merchant lives in a mansion with his three daughters. Bella is the youngest and the most beautiful of the three, as well as the one with the kindest heart. The other two are vain and shallow. Gustav, the local handsome but stupid guy, is trying to get Bella to marry him, but she refuses. When the merchant’s ship sinks during a storm, they are forced into poverty. He goes on an errand to find out if something was saved, but gets lost in the forest and ends up in a strange palace, where he spends the night. The lord of the palace is the Beast, a prince who was cursed by a fairy because he had an evil heart and cared only about himself.  The merchant tries to explore the palace, something that angers the Beast who attacks him but in the end comes to a deal with him, that he can go home with wealth and presents for his daughters, but has to send one of them back in three days or otherwise return himself. The father arrives back to his house with the presents and his two older daughters are amazed and happy to get the presents. Bella notices that he is not happy and on the third day that he decides to return back to the Beast himself, she finds out about the deal and tell him she will go in his place. She stays in the palace with the Beast and through her kindness and her good mood she changes everything for the best. But she becomes homesick and begs the Beast to let her go back to see her father. The Beast takes pity on her and gives her permission to leave. When she promises that she will return, he tells her not to make promises she can’t keep. She keeps her promise, but when she leaves, the people in her village create a mob lead by Gustav and head towards the palace to attack the hideous Beast. They arrive a bit later than Bella and Gustav gets into a fight with him and shoots him. Bella weaps over the Beast, saying that she loves him and magically he is transformed to a beautiful prince. And they lived happily ever after!

The palace of the Beast

The performance was in german, which is not my strongest language yet. But it is a musical, so it is easy to follow the dialogues and then enjoy the singing parts even if I didn’t understand everything. It is already the second time I watch a Walenstadt musical and I find that it doesn’t tire me as much as I would have expected.

The house of Bella and the villagers getting ready to go and attack the palace of the Beast

It was a really nice summer evening spent with my husband and his parents, in beautiful surroundings and with a nice performance! See you in two years Walensee Bühne!

 

Säntis

During this week a very dear friend of ours from the Netherlands is visiting us in our home in Switzerland. Having visitors is a really nice opportunity to do activities in the country you are living. And since we are living in an area with mountains belonging to the Alps and she is living in the flattest country of Europe, one of the first activities we did was to go up on the most prominent peak of our area, the Säntis.

View from the Säntis

Säntis is a peak 2502 metres above sea level and is shared by three cantons (it would be more correct to say one canton, Saint Gallen, and two semi cantons, Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden). It is a peak with high prominence, offering impressive summit views, at least when the weather allows it!

From time to time we could see further down to the valleys

There is a myth connected with Säntis and how nicely spread the villages are around Appenzellerland. Once upon a time there was a giant called Santis or Samtis. He used to live in the area of Schwendibachtal and he was carrying his food in a huge bag made of a thousand goat skins and a hundred bear skins sewed together. He liked so much the numerous cute small houses that were built close to each other in small bunches, and the small people that were running around, that one day he decided he wanted to take some with him, so as to play with them at his ease. He grabbed with his huge hand a few villages with all their people and animals and put them in his bag. A courageous farmer, who noticed the movement of the grass, managed to jump and hide inside a ditch. When the huge hand passed over him, he sprang out, extended his hands as far as he could and sliced the rucksack at its bottom with his scythe. The giant that was used to crazy movements around him, did not pay attention to anything, but threw his bag on his shoulder and started happily towards his house. As he was ascending the mountain his bag was going back and forth and houses were falling all over from the slit. Once he reached his favourite bench, the Alpsigel, he sat down and noticed the loss. Irritated he emptied the remaining houses at his feet and disappeared never to be seen again.

Yesterday, it was not an absolutely clear day. There were several clouds around the summit, so we couldn’t see all of the grandiose views to the six countries around: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein and of course Switzerland. We did manage to get a glimpse of almost all the mountains around in between intervals of the clouds and we succeeded in teaching to our friend the names of the most amazing mountains in Switzerland, according to our subjective point of view: the Churfirsten.

We even managed to get a glimpse of the Churfirsten from the Säntis

This is how the Churfirsten look from our side

Despite the clouds, the visit was amazing. There was a mystery surrounding the peaks around us and our friend was totally happy seeing the tall mountains! And there was a surprise in the gondola that transferred us up and down!

The small cow was checking who was entering the gondola