"And, there are simply too many notes."

Evidence emerges that Mozart and Salieri collaborated.

Exchanging Portraits (Part 53)

Probably Vienna, Austria, about 1948. This is my Dad's friend, Casey.

Musical Memory

My Mom has been a lifelong opera and operetta lover. She and Dad occasionally bought season tickets to Chicago's Lyric Opera, and we usually listened to Saturday opera radio broadcasts (but I always preferred ballet). We celebrated New Year's Eve by watching Die Fledermaus on television, and we caught a staging of The Merry Widow in Central City, Colorado.

When Mom was growing up, the three most popular sopranos where Jeanette MacDonald, Marta Eggerth, and Deanna Durbin. Mom collected cards with images of each singer, and she and her friends went to the cinema* to watch the dubbed movies in which the starlets appeared.

In about 1934 or 1935 Marta Eggerth arrived in Kaunas for a concert. The city officials prohibited Eggerth from singing in the opera house because Eggerth specialized in operettas, a musical form, according to authorities, beneath the dignity of the opera house. Eggerth therefore sang at an outdoor theater. My Mom's maternal Aunt Dora took Mom to that concert. Mom recalls Eggerth wore a white gown on stage. When we watched a few Eggerth clips on YouTube, Mom even got a bit misty.

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. This is the Vienna State Opera. It was natural for Dad to photograph this building when we visited Vienna.

*The same cinema at which Dora used to accompany the silent movies.

Narrative Reunion

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. There's a story on every pillar.

There's not much to do in a big city.

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. Dad admires the fountain near the Opera House. I like this clip because the movie camera captured some of Dad's mannerisms.

Exchanging Portraits (Part 43)

Vienna, Austria, about 1948. Someone painted a portrait of my Dad's friend, Casey, and Casey photographed the painting.

City Tour

Vienna, Austria, about 1949. My Dad's friend Casey visits Maria-Theresien-Platz.

Karlskirche, Daytime

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. We visited the church grounds several times.

Economy Class

Over the Atlantic Ocean, July 1971. We've boarded the Pan Am 747 "Jumbo Jet," and we are on our way to Vienna.

Roundabout Reunion

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. Visiting a large city is rarely relaxing.

Eating our way through Austria.

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. Food was a highlight of our European vacation; we didn't skip a meal.

Mom and I wear two of the polyester dresses we sewed for the trip. That's Hofburg Palace in the background.

Palace Tour

Schönbrunn Palace, Austria, July 1971. After Dad sets up a shot, we tour the palace. We visited Schönbrunn during our stay in Vienna.

This clip captures some of my Dad's body language and charming sense of humor. Tears welled up in my eyes when I first saw the end of the clip, in which Dad and I enter the palace.

Karlskirche

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. Some things look better in the dark.

Ringstraße

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. We visit the famous boulevard. It's the place to find an elegant café.

Why don't you post some photos from the 1970s?

Mr. Irene asked me that question a few days ago.

So here you go, Mr. Irene. But these snapshots may not be what you had in mind.

In 1971, my Parents took me on a European vacation. The original plan was to go to Norway. My Parents had just seen Song of Norway—the movie about the life of Edvard Grieg starring Florence Henderson—and they thought a tour of the fjords might be fun.

Everyone had the same idea that season, so my Parents scratched the Scandinavian itinerary. Instead, they decided to structure a trip around my Parents' fluency in German and my favorite movie, The Sound of Music. We spent the month of July traveling through Austria, Germany, Switzerland. At the end of the vacation, we realized there was no place as beautiful as Glacier National Park, and we returned there for our vacation the following year.

What do I remember most about the European trip? Four things.

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(1) Air travel is glamorous:

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. Mom and I get our "sea legs" upon landing. The trip from O'Hare to Vienna was my first flight. We flew on a 747 "Jumbo Jet."

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(2) I ate my way through Europe. I gained about twenty pounds in four weeks:

Hungarian border, July 1971. I dive into some rye and goulash at a cheesy place that was part of our tour along the border.

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(3) We dressed up whenever we left the hotel. Mom and I sewed a number of polyester dresses that would travel well, free of wrinkles:

Salzburg, Austria, July 1971. I stand with Mom at a spot made famous by Julie Andrews and the "von Trapp children."

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(4) I got altitude sickness—badly—during the two-hour train ride straight up to the Jungfrau. When we reached the summit, I needed oxygen:

Jungfraujoch, July 1971. Mom and I hang out of the train that took me to a bad place.