Vienna City Hall with Xmas Market

We went to see Brecht's Mother Courage tonight at the Burgtheater. It's directly opposite the Rathaus or City Hall, which has a large Christmas market (one of many in Vienna), and that's where we had a spinach strudel before going into the theater.

Mother Courage and Her Children is widely regarded as Bertolt Brecht's best play; I've known it since majoring in German at college in the early 1960s. The production was distinctly modernized, but it mostly worked well; the acting was fine. The staging was excellent, with a turntable covering most of the stage, which allowed Courage's wagon to pursue its irregular forward motion.

It was a real thrill to be able to see the play, especially after experiencing the Magic Flute two nights ago.

The Burgtheater is one of the most important theaters in Europe, and is the second oldest, after the Comédie-Française in Paris. It was founded in 1748, though in another location