Parsifal, Pretzels and Pumpkins

Well, the Deutsche Oper Berlin has started its 2012-2013 run of Parsifal, and I went to see it last Thursday: really terrific!  Act II felt a bit over-the-top with, for instance, the sorcerer-king Klingsor slaughtering an erring knight in a ritual reminiscent of a Mesoamerican heart-extraction sacrifice (and yes, he "ate" the "heart"), but Wagner is a very sturdy framework that can stand a lot of intepretation piled on it. I had never previously heard unamplified (to the best of my knowledge and belief) soloists singing over, er, with a Wagner orchestra and was amazed at how well the soloists' voices came through most of the time. The choral singing was also fantastic: there's nothing like hearing a German libretto sung by German singers. It was a real revelation of what living in a major European city can mean performing-arts-wise, and I've resolved from now on to attend a concert or opera performance at least once per week, and preferably twice in December when the Christmas music gets going! (Die Zauberflöte next Friday; I have one of the cheap seats for that one, so we'll see if there's any noticeable difference in the acoustics of the hall, although maybe there's not really a common baseline for the listening experience across Wagner and Mozart.)

I had forgotten what a marathon Parsifal is, though: the overture began at a few minutes after 5 and the curtain didn't come down after the last bows until about 10:15. There were a couple of half-hour intermissions in there, but that's still a pretty big lump of music and a long wait till dinner.  Fortunately, the Kantine or snack bar of the opera house, like many many cafes and vendor carts and other food establishments in Berlin, sells the classic Berliner lye-dipped (!) Brezeln or "Philadelphia-style" soft pretzels for a couple of euros apiece. (I hear that the Berliner Philharmonie serves them with butter but I haven't checked them out yet.) It looks a little weird to the American eye to see elegantly dressed opera-goers chowing down on a soft pretzel, but don't knock it till you've tried it: that's what got me through Acts II and III without absolutely starving!

In other news, here's a jack-o-lantern (or "Halloween-Kürbis") that I carved for a hostess gift (accompanied by a few tea lights and the roasted pumpkin seeds; roasting at about 125 degrees Celsius for about an hour seems to crisp them up nicely). I had to be a bit creative about illuminating it with the desk lamp for a reasonably effective photograph (although it makes the pumpkin look bright pink, which it isn't!), since using actual candles in the offices or residences is strongly deprecated. (Other people have had a few incidents with unattended cookery setting off the fire alarms.  No serious damage, thankfully, but the fire department charges an arm and a leg just for showing up in response to an alarm, so the administration would rather we didn't invite them so often.)

Schlüsselkäfer says, "Take me, take me!  I glow in the dark too!" We've been over this already, Schlüsselkäfer: you're too dim to show up well on camera if there's little or no ambient light.

Oh, all right:

Schlüsselkäfer says, "Woooooooo-woooooo!  Wooooooooo!" Shut up, Schlüsselkäfer.

Happy Halloween to all!