October 19, 2023

Dateline – Berlin, Germany –

Today is Lotte Lenya’s 125th birthday so how apropos that I spend it in Berlin, considering my long association with Brecht, Weill, Berlin Kabarett forms, and other artistic expressions of the Weimar Republic. I will admit to humming some of Pirate Jenny at breakfast. The waitstaff were mystified. But then they all looked like they were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After breakfast, it was out into a cold, dreary day with low cloud cover and occasional drizzle. It couldn’t be more Seattle if it tried. Fortunately, the first bit was a bus tour of the city for an hour or so. I hate seeing cities by bus but it is useful to get oriented and a feel for distances and how the various pieces relate to each other. And it was certainly warmer than walking the streets of Berlin. The city gives me the vibe of New York, had New York geography allowed it to spread sideways rather than ascend vertically, or perhaps Philadelphia (although I haven’t really spent enough time in Philly to truly understand that city and its moods). It’s modern, efficient, full of people intent on getting somewhere quickly.

I had expected the city to be still scarred by 20th century history but it doesn’t really give that vibe at all. Germany is prosperous enough that in the former West Berlin, damaged monuments and imperial buildings have been reconstructed and in the East, they’ve wasted no time pulling down the ugly Soviet style blocks and redeveloping with more classical streetscapes. As a matter of fact, it strikes me that the good Berliners are on hyperdrive to erase the physical signs of East Germany as fast as possible and, in another couple of decades, it will be gone. The wall is fully gone at this point. There’s a decorative cobblestone pattern that traces where it ran through streets and neighborhoods and there’s a recreation of a Checkpoint Charlie guardhouse for tourist photos but that’s about it.

After the bus ride, we ended up on Museum Island with a visit to the Pergamon which has an amazing collection of Babylonian, Hittite, Sumerian and other near east ancient civilization antiquities. This was followed by lunch at a Hofbrau consisting of beer, bratwurst and sauerkraut. I did not eat this last. Cabbage and I don’t agree with each other. I was then cut free of the group and, as it had warmed up a bit, I spent a few hours walking around and taking in the sights.

Then it was time for another impulse visit to the opera, this time the Berlin Staatsoper who were doing Aida this evening. Again, like in Vienna, musically sublime but suffering from modern European director syndrome. I have no issues with non traditional stagings and designs but they need to clarify story and theme, not confuse it. This Aida featured was staged in a white box with various carefully chosen colored fabrics which became flags and such. There were projections ranging from Sinking modern cargo ships to a midcentury American supermarket full of frenzied housewives. (No, I don’t know what they were supposed to mean). The chorus were at times abstract, and then showed up in full 1860s Victoriana for the triumphal scene. Perhaps the hoop dresses were on special at the local department store…. Then there were the clowns vaguely styles on Ronald McDonald. During the boudoir scene, the whole female chorus put on clown faces and long blonde wigs. At another point, at the end of Act II, the chorus produced what I think were supposed to be happy meals and threw them at the audience.

I shall have to think about this one…. But I think I prefer my Aidas with elephants and the occasional diarrheal camel.