For a night of culture, we headed to the Komische Oper, or Comic Opera House, which appeared to be a plain mid-century building on the outside but was splendidly baroque inside. The performance of the "Tales of Hoffman,"staged in a 1960s Rat Pack motif, did not disappoint. I knew of E.T.A. Hoffman because he wrote the stories of two famous ballets, the Nutcracker and Coppelia. In the opera, Hoffman falls in love with a woman who is really a mechanical doll and the singer portraying the doll was brilliant in both the singing and the physical comedy of the role. The first two acts of the performance ran a full two hours before intermission and the English-option subtitles in the backs of the seats made it easy to understand what was going on.
For something a bit less highbrow, we also attended a show at the Chameleon Theater called "Versus." The talented performers flexed and contorted themselves into every possible position while swinging above the audience on hoops and ropes. One German disparaged this event as "Cirque du Soleil for poor people," but I found the dancers thoroughly entertaining, if not terribly thought-provoking. Berlin has a tradition of cabaret and it was nice to be part of it.
For a night of culture, we headed to the Komische Oper, or Comic Opera House, which appeared to be a plain mid-century building on the outside but was splendidly baroque inside. The performance of the "Tales of Hoffman,"staged in a 1960s Rat Pack motif, did not disappoint. I knew of E.T.A. Hoffman because he wrote the stories of two famous ballets, the Nutcracker and Coppelia. In the opera, Hoffman falls in love with a woman who is really a mechanical doll and the singer portraying the doll was brilliant in both the singing and the physical comedy of the role. The first two acts of the performance ran a full two hours before intermission and the English-option subtitles in the backs of the seats made it easy to understand what was going on.
For something a bit less highbrow, we also attended a show at the Chameleon Theater called "Versus." The talented performers flexed and contorted themselves into every possible position while swinging above the audience on hoops and ropes. One German disparaged this event as "Cirque du Soleil for poor people," but I found the dancers thoroughly entertaining, if not terribly thought-provoking. Berlin has a tradition of cabaret and it was nice to be part of it.
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