Berlin Weekend (Nov 24 -26)

Friday, November 24

After a spate of chilly days, temperatures rose a bit at the end of the week. So a Friday pre dinner stroll on the Ku'damm with Julia and Fabian was fun and pleasant.(Daryl stayed home fighting the beginnings of a cold.)
This elegant boulevard, Berlin's Champs E'lysée, is all lit up for the festive season. Twinkling lights around enormous 3D metal figures, adorning Christmas trees, and strung across the street provided a cheerful atmosphere. A welcome distraction from the early onset of darkness. Sunset is now at 4:00 PM. We peered into high end designer stores and scoffed at the absurdity of actually making purchases at these places.
Dinner at Nabucco, an authentic Italian restaurant near our apartment, was delightful. A friendly Italian waiter served up crusty bread and olives as soon as we were seated. Fabian's browned goat cheese drizzled with honey accompanied by a salad of vegetables and fruit was a hit. My tagliatelle with fungi porcini and Julia's ravioli were faultless.

Saturday, November 25

The chill returned on Saturday morning. Our local farmers market lacked its usual vibrancy. Fewer vendors, fewer customers, but still rewarding to browse and make purchases. White asparagus from Peru - plump, healthy spears at €1 a bunch - were impossible to resist. I thought "global" and helping the Peruvian economy felt right! Other purchases included deep orange persimmons, tender baby brussels sprouts, and juicy mandarins. For dinner I roasted the asparagus (after removing the outer fibrous layer of each individual spear) and OMG (!) the creamy, delicate taste was incredible!

Sunday, November 26

A €15 Sunday brunch at the upscale vegan restaurant, Kopps, convinced us that this has to be the best place in Berlin for this popular weekend tradition. A staggering assortment of meticulously prepared plant based cuisine displayed on two tables promises overstuffed tummies when you crawl out the door. On the cold foods table there were cereals, vegan yogurts, fresh baked breads, "cheese" and "meat" slices, fruit, spreads, and dips. Hot foods consisted of soup, tofu scramble, chili, polenta fries, grain salads and an assortment of vegetables. Thoughtful creativity and high quality in full evidence. Sweet stuff included pineapple pancakes with accompaniments and a few types of cakes. I served myself really small portions of pretty much everything. So why did my tummy feel like it contained all the meals for an entire week?

Hours later, when we could actually function again, it was time to head out to Deutsche Oper Berlin for Giacomo Meyerbeer's Le Prophete.

Photographer: Gregory Kunde (from Deutsche Oper Berlin website)

Of course we expected to love it. The music itself is so delightful and in the hands of a world renowned company and a highly esteemed director, Olivier Py, we were sure to spend four hours witnessing something extraordinary. Intrigue is already embedded in Meyerbeer's multilayered libretto, encompassing so many themes -- a love story, a complicated mother-son relationship, a despotic count, religious manipulation by corrupt anabaptists, the oppression of women, and power, power twinned inevitably with corruption. Beautiful, innocent Berthe is in love with Jean, a humble innkeeper. A cruel count denies her permission to marry, and imprisons her. Three conniving anabaptists sway Jean into believing he's a prophet. His power corrupts him, turning him against Fidé, his devoted mother. Berthe escapes and plots to kill the cruel Prophet who had taken over Munster and who, she believes, had killed Jean. Arriving at the palace with explosives she discovers the truth that leads to her suicide. Jean turns remorseful, seeing death and destruction of the palace with all its inhabitants as the only solution.
In this production, more layers were added to make this 17th century story relevant today. No time to let your mind drift and just focus on the music. The stage was constantly moving, revealing multiple scenes on different levels of the dull grey buildings. A constantly changing panorama revealing themes of abuse toward women, debauchery, suffering, poverty, manipulation, the greed and cruelty of powerful men, and crowds swayed by populist messages. And the ending was changed. We saw no deaths or explosions. But the crowning of an autocrat sent chills through us. An elaborate production with a huge cast of maybe 200 actors and singers.

And that brought to an end another exciting Berlin weekend!