Written on 1/17/16
"O gioia ch'io non conobbi, esser amata amando!"
"What joy, such as I have never known, loving and being loved!"
-From La Traviata
The shows we have seen in the past couple days have provided quite the whirlwind of emotions. The Deutsche Oper Haus provided the venue for both the ballet Swan Lake, which we attended last evening, and the opera La Traviata, which we attended this evening.
As they say in A Chorus Line, "everything is beautiful at the ballet." Well, maybe everything except the audience, who exhibited some deplorable behavior (such as someone in the front row lifting their phone above their head to take pictures during the performance). Anyways, Swan Lake was absolutely exquisite. I did ballet all through my high school years, finally earning my pointe shoes Junior year, and I was absolutely amazed by the level of ease they were able to pull of extremely difficult steps. The swans alone could have made the ballet for me. There were about 25 of them and each danced with a level of synchronicity and grace I have never seen before. However, the four leads really pushed the ballet into a totally new level. They danced with unparalleled emotion and my feelings were stirred in a way that I have never experienced at a ballet before. The costumes and sets were also incredible. One of my favorite parts of the ballet was when they flooded the stage with fog and had the swans emerge and then sink back into it, just like real birds on a lake.
Something really unique about this production of Swan Lake was the small tweaks and shifts in focus they made to the story. In this version, the prince's mother is extremely attached to him and doesn't want him to leave her, leading her to conspire with Rothbart to quench his love with Odette. The ballet also introduces the princes best friend, Benno von Sommerstein, as having feelings for the prince that go beyond just friendship. This dancer was particularly impressive to me, not just for his dancing but also for his acting abilities. I can still remember clearly a moment in the ballet when he grabs the princes arm and puts his head against his arm. This simple movement, as well as the look on Benno's face when the prince pulls away, gave me chills. I am glad that this production decided to take a risk and portray a gay character in such a classical ballet. It was refreshing to see.
Swan Lake really touched on the subject of control and what happens when we try to hold those we love so close that they no longer feel like they have autonomy over their own lives. The ending of Swan Lake is different from production to production and, for this one, they chose to have the prince drown himself after realizing the way that outside forces have continued to interfere in his life. The ballet ends with the stark scene the mother holding her sons body, the message assumably being that we must allow those we love the freedom to make their own choices, even if it does not benefit us the way we would like.
While watching La Traviata tonight, I was really struck by the similarities in themes between this and Swan Lake the night before. La Traviata was also a phenomenal production, with both Violetta and Alfredo really standing out as incredible singers and the orchestra, once again, sounding wonderful. In La Traviata, Alfredo's father interferes in his relationship with his son and Violetta by convincing her to leave him. He initially tells Violetta that this is because their relationship negatively effects his families reputation and, subsequently, threatens his daughters marriage. However, he later reveals that he feels lonely in his home all alone and this contributes to why he pushes for Alfredo to come back through this awful deceit. The opera ends with him realizing the error of his ways while standing at Violetta's deathbed, where Violetta and Alfredo are finally reunited mere minutes before she dies. This sends another clear message about the disastrous effects of interfering in love for one's own selfish needs, which parallels the ending of Swan Lake.
In short, I've discovered two things in the last couple days in Berlin; that both ballet and opera are more amazing than I could have imagined here and that helicopter parenting is bad.
Sorry for the lack of photos in this post. The wifi here is moving ridiculously slow and the photos refuse to load. You can expect a huge photo-dump when we arrive in Prague, as I have hundreds waiting on my camera.
Bis Dann,
Megan Cummings
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