Oddities with the Oper

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Oh hello there, it's rainy, and miserable, and I've got two finals in a day, so naturally I thought I'd perk myself up and talk about, well, the country I'm actually living in. Normally these blogs focus on my travels and the stupid crap and hardships that come with any such journeys, but don't mistake me, life's interesting back in humble Kleinmachnow as well. With only one week to go I guess it's time for me to sort of take a look back on a lot of what made life here good, bizarre, and well, what it was. Over the next few days I'll try and post a vignette a day about life here.

A Night at the (Cracked.com) Opera Most of those who know me/get tangentially annoyed by what I post I know on Facebook are aware that I'm something of a fan for the user driven site Cracked.com. In other words, I like to think of myself as a highbrow connoisseur of dick jokes, and no, that's not a paradox. Regardless, I didn't ever think I'd find a venue for that in real life. Anyways, every now and then I battle the encroaching chaos of old rubbish and receipts that clutter my desk, and a few weeks back I came across the complementary theater tickets the FU-Best program had passed onto me. Of course I hadn't forgot about the Mozart one at the end of the year, but somehow the other one had slipped my mind. Well apparently I had a ticket to the Barber of Seville for that coming Friday. That about tops the list of pleasant surprises one can get, so I took the night off from the usual fair, popped on my pinstripe suit (now looking even more like a classy thug) and headed to the Deutsche Oper. Honestly I'd never been to an opera before, so I didn't know what to expect.

Within five minutes I'll admit my interest had started to fade. Literally, out of about ten people with the ticket, I was the only one who'd showed from the program, and sitting in an empty row, in a sold out theater no less, can really pummel the ego. Adding to this Seville was going on in the original Italian. Bilingual be damned, Italian was out of my learning grade, and the German subtitles were a long ways away. So after about twenty minutes and two pointless music numbers later I was really falling asleep. Fortunately, nothing is quite like embarrassment when it comes to keeping me up, and the fear of talking in my sleep made me sit straight up. Still, after a while I figured something out. Opera doesn't always need the words they're using, the story is simultaneously verbal and not at all, sure they're singing their lines, but their actions speak louder. At least they did about a quarter of the way through. The leads are trying to find a way to give in to their passions without tipping off the girl's Guardian/creepy doctor, and so they pass the whole thing off as a dancing lesson.

After a few choice boner jokes, I started realizing that Opera wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Then, still singing, our hero slipped beneath the sweet lady's dress and-

Wait. Seriously? Is this Happening?

Judging by those high notes Rosina kept hitting apparently it was. It didn't take me too long to join the rest of the audience in laughing, and one suspects the school group in the audience got access to an education they hadn't expected. All told the night sort of followed this agenda, drunk chases, and a general sense of absolute silliness made it a wonderful time. Eventually I hopped forward a seat and struck up a conversation with a few of my seat mates, so it counts as an immersive experience right?

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Photos

The Cast
In all their glory. Rosina's skirt took flight in the last act, and with real class she managed to finish the thing