Lights! Action! Death! Screaming!

Last Saturday, the Staatsoper here in Berlin put on a production of Manon, and projected it live onto a big screen in the square next to the opera house. I was one of the twenty thousand people to show up and get the chance to stand for four hours, craning our necks to see the screen and read the supertitles. We were packed in pretty tightly (at about thirty minutes into the second half, the man standing behind me tapped at my shoulder and hissed that I needed to move back, he couldn't see any more. I was a little bewildered by the suggestion that I had moved forward at some point, since I thought that I hadn't had an opportunity to budge since intermission. Also, he was wearing a really stupid hat).

But, in general, people were pretty good sports and listened attentively. What I know about opera in general would have trouble filling a thimble, but I enjoyed the production. The cast seemed to be in good voice, especially the male lead, who was played by an understudy and clearly belting his heart out. He got a big roar at the end. Daniel Barenboim conducted, and during intermission he came to a window and waved, and we waved back and cheered for him. Various city bigwigs were also there, including mayor Klaus Wowereit, and there were stands selling beer and snacks.

We didn't have to pay anything to watch the opera, but there were raffle tickets for sale to help pay for the clean-up - the unlucky workers who would have to pick up the beer cups and napkins that people had left on the ground. (Digression: the Germans are much more environmentally conscious than most Americans in most ways, and it's something I admire about them. But they seem to have much fewer qualms about littering than we do, which I remember as one of the major evils that we were warned against in grade school. Most Americans I know will walk for a mile with a piece of garbage in hand, searching for a garbage can, rather than toss it on the ground). Anyway, littering bothers me, and I found myself having a typically American response to the idea of the raffle. Look at the European Way, I thought - everyone makes a mess, then gives money to a supervising organization, which then employs people to clean up the mess. Why doesn't everyone just keep their money and throw away their own goddamn garbage?

But anyway, like I said, I enjoyed the evening, and wobbled away from the square with stiff legs but a sense of contentment when the last bows were finished. And then I went dancing, just to continue the musical feel of the evening.