This week I saw the opera Rusalka by Antonín Dvo?ák at the Komische Oper with new friend, book critic and Book Slut editor-in-chief Jessa Crispin.
I hadn’t planned to make a video about this – due to copyright concerns and because I just wanted to have a relaxed evening consuming art and not trying to be productive. Well, I couldn’t keep the camera in my pocket.
Although a theater was originally built in 1891/92, it has seen many changes over the decades and was completely rebuilt in 1965/66. So no, those are not original details – and the facade is a not very attractive gray block of cement. By the way, I’m actually not a fan of the gold and glitz combined with cherubs and heroic man statues. It’s a little too Donald Trump for me. But it’s still impressive.
The opera itself was fantastic and, as I overheard someone else say, “kurzweilig” (meaning something that is entertaining and appears to be rather short). Music and performance were wonderful – although I have to admit that due to the German translation and the emphasis on certain words it almost felt comical at times, although not as bad as a sketch by Hape Kerkeling.
I really liked the simple, but effective costumes and lack of set dressing and most of all the projection mapping, which projected the shadows of the stage back onto it and then warped it to give the whole stage an spooky underwater feel. Unfortunately I was so in awe, I missed getting video of it.
