Day 21 - My picture is in a German newspaper!/opening night for Jungfrau

This is from when we were in Doebeln to perform a concert this past week

Sammtag

8:00-11:15 - Relax, set up my IU email account, study IU course catalog, contemplate grad school funding

11:30 - Make spaghetti for lunch

1:00-3:15 - Card making for opening of Jungfrau opera performance

3:50-4:10 - nap

4:15-4:55 - sight-read Rach 2nd sonata and Janacek sonata--currently admiring that piece a lot

5:30-6:30 - Practice Bach at Theater

7:00 - Dinner--super delicious Bratwurst and Schwein im Brot

7:30-10:30 - Jungfrau Opera

10:30-11:00 - Practice Wolf

11:00-11:30 - Festive celebration in honor of opening night

Every opening of a show at the theater is made into a huge celebratory occasion. It's a tradition for all the cast members, orchestra musicians, directors, conductors, etc. to receive little gifts before the show...from everyone else? That is unclear to me, but in any case, we, the students, spent two hours in the afternoon making over 120 thank you/toi toi toi/viel spass! cards. We were given several index cards, markers, ribbons, and chocolate to tape to the cards. There was a point where we had 120+ cards lined up on the bar of the Alte Mensa where each of us did assembly line signing.

While walking around before the show in the theater, I peered into some of the dressing rooms and cast rooms, finding chocolates, candies, and various treats of all kinds. I'm not sure if I even saw the cards and chocolates we had prepared. Outside of the theater and the church where the performance took place, a grill and wine bar was set up for before the show sometime before 7, during intermission, and afterwards after 10:30. That is where I had the privilege of enjoying some delicious grilled meat with a kind of German mustard called senf, I think.

The performance was entertaining to watch, although I did not follow much of it. It was not just because of the German but also had to do with the diction of some of the singers and some of the abstract staging and concepts. This opera by Tchaikovsky (full name is "Die Jungfrau von Orleans/The Maid of Orleans) is supposed to be based roughly on the story of Joan of Arc. There was some sort of conceptual juxtaposition of modern day costuming (maybe characters, too) with more historical costuming. Also, for some reason at the end of this story in this particular staging, in the midst of flames and fire, which I assume depict the burning of Joan, the main lead randomly gets up and runs off stage in the arms of some guy dressed up in modern clothes. It was a baffling ending. Even more baffling was the curtain call at the end of the production. Everyone bows multiple times---and I mean MULTIPLE times. It was actually somewhat uncomfortable sometimes because it seemed like no one was really sure when the last bow would take place. It must have been 10 minutes of just bowing and repeated recognition of the directors and conductors. With all that aside, nonetheless, our students did very well.

Afterwards (after I ran back into the theater to sneak in some practice), I observed some of the post premiere festivities. Many of our students performed some American music theater numbers on stage, which the German public seem to enjoy a lot. People were enjoying wine, beer, bratwurst, and some other finger food/sandwiches--I didn't study them very carefully because it was past 11 and they would have costed me something anyway.

Here's some video footage of the celebration outside after the performance. You can see the beer bar, the mini-stage they set up for the Americans to sing, the many tables of people, the church on the right where the opera took place. I tried to zoom in on the grill at the end but it was too dark and concealed. I think you can see some sandwich buns. They really have a way of enjoying themselves! I believe this happens after every premiere.