The Viennese Opera Ball in New York has been combining business, culture and politics for 65 years. On Friday evening the anniversary in Cipriani was celebrated with a lavish ball night.

Once a year, the eastern metropolis rotates in three-quarter time. At the United Nations headquarters, the Viennese Opera Ball, organized by Event Atelier founder Silvia Frieser and the artistic director of the opera in the quarry Daniel Serafin, shows that the dance floor, in the good tradition of the Vienna Congress, is the right place for bilateral encounters. “Austrian culture connects people and brings business and politics even closer together in a globalized world. When it comes to waltzes, it's human, ”says Stefan Ottrubay, Chairman of the Esterházy Foundations and General Director of the Esterházy Companies.

Under the motto “Nessun dorma” (in German “Nobody sleeps”) from Giacomo Puccini's opera “Turandot”, night was turned into day under the patronage of Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. Even in the songs of Frank and Nancy Sinatra, the Big Apple was no more sleepless.

For the first time, conductor Matthias Fletzberger led the Viennese Opera Ball Orchestra and accompanied the soloists Ewa Plonka, Corinne Winters, Michael Spyres and Limmie Pulliam, among others.

"Have a key position in Vienna to shape relations between the EU and the USA"

“To maintain this wonderful tradition and to represent Austria with a brilliant culture is an honorable task. In New York we can show that Austria is indeed the cultural center of Europe and that it is loved all over the world, ”said the organizers Frieser and Serafin beaming in a duet. "From Vienna we have a key position in shaping the relations between the states and the European Union," said Vienna State Parliament President Ernst Woller.

The transatlantic tradition was celebrated by Consul General Helmut Böck, Elisabeth Muhr, Denise Rich, Jean Shafiroff, Florence Hvorostovsky, Ann Ziff from the Metropolitan Opera, opera singer Michael Spyres, soprano Corinne Winters, tenor Limmie Pulliam, MET star Angel Blue and soprano Ewa Plonka , the director of the Jewish Museum Vienna Danielle Spera, Stefan Ottrubay and Karl Wessely from the Esterházy cultural operations, the managing director of the United Theaters Vienna Franz Patay, the managing director of Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und BetriebsgesmbH (SKB) Klaus Panholzer, the president of the Viennese state parliament Ernst Woller, "Mr. Wonderful “Harald Serafin and his wife Inge or entrepreneur Ingrid Flick.

Charity: Viennese Opera Ball supports music therapy

As in the last two years, the income from the 65th Viennese Opera Ball will be used for music therapy Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in cooperation with the Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research supported.