\My first impression of Berlin when I walked through its streets was that it was impossibly clean compared to Seattle. There were no cigarette butts, discarded alcohol bottles, or homeless encampments to be found, but signs advertising environmental change and an efficient public transportation system that can connect passengers to any part of the city. Berlin’s architecture, a futuristic take on the Bauhaus movement of the 70s’ and pillared, marble buildings left over from the Neo-Renaissance, creates a sense of time frames colliding and collapsing in on each other to create a mosaic of its rich and war-torn history.
But it is not only through architecture that this collage of time is created. From Mendelsohn’s Elijah to the contemporary opera of Oceane, the city’s music carries eras of art, religion, history and politics in its sweeping chords and immaculately harmonized melodies.
In the case of Oceane, Germany’s present-day issues of the male gaze and xenophobia are confronted in a monochromatic opera centered around a sea nymph regarded as an outsider by a sleepy seaside town. From the use of cinematic screens to the sudden, unexplained death of the fisherman, there is a cerebral coldness to the opera that invites the audience not into the psychology of the titular Oceane, but into the perspectives of the exclusionary pastor and villagers, the self-absorbed hotelier and the lovestruck baron. All misinterpret Oceane in grievous ways; the pastor blames her for the death of the fisherman and rallies the town against her, the hotelier asks for a loan, despite Oceane’s wealth being enchanted “dust, snow and leaves,” and the lovestruck Baron has visions of a wedding and starting a family. The abrupt ending echoes the unfinished novella that the opera is based on, Theodor Fontane’s Oceane von Parceval.
In contrast, Mendelssohn’s Elijah is abundantly clear about its message and intent; a glorious tribute to an Old Testament story that deeply resonated with Mendelssohn. With soprano, alto, tenor and bass parts, an SATB choir, and an orchestra including organ, the climactic moments of the oratorio seem to shake the very earth, while vocal solos beginning in a capella emerge from nothingness. The Berlin Philharmonic’s performance of this piece was nothing short of a spiritual experience. The technical precision, musicality and tone of the players created what can only be described as a perfect performance.
As I left Berlin, I felt that my time there was unfinished. In a city so large, four days barely scrapes the cultural iceberg. But even in that short timeframe are enough memories to last a lifetime.
A painting at the Bode Museum
Bust at the Pergamon
Sarcophagus at the Nefertiti Museum
Berlin’s famous radio tower
Jewish Memorial in Berlin
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