The Babylon Experiment

I may be dating myself by admitting this, but there used to be a hilarious skit on SNL in the Mike Meyers days called "Sprockets" starring Dieter and featuring the phrase "Touch my monkey." "Sprockets" was all about high culture, at least in theory, but on Thursday I got to see a cutting edge premiere performance. I didn't understand much of it, which was okay because neither did my friends Wayne and Henrikje who both speak German. Besides, it was an opera about the Tower of Babel, so no one really got it...... I think. And that was probably the point.... or punkt!
Carl Orff would have been proud. All you Orff teachers out there would have been proud. This is how it worked:
The International Chambermusic Project commissioned a work from a British composer about the Tower of Babel. The idea was put forth of using children as the workers. About a year ago, the composer, Matthew King, came and did several workshops with disadvantaged children from schools in the Nuremberg area. Henrikje's students were part of this group. He took their ideas and melodies and incorporated them into the score. A choreographer was brought in from Munich to work with the kids on staging and movement. They did a lot of improvisation. It was far and away the best part of the performance. Each child was dressed in black and had runes written on their faces. (That bit looked a little like an episode of "Dr. Who" with the Ud. Long story, but take my word for it.) To symbolize each child's prison, they had what looked like a big picture frame. Sometimes they would frame their faces, sometimes they would use them as fences, it was all very cool. The whole production was in front of the Neus Museum which has a glass facade and a big spiral staircase by the entrance. I guess the staircase was actually the inspiration for the opera. The children would trudge up and down the stairs and it had a faint "Metropolis" angst to it. There was a lot of "Les Miz" about it too! Lots of cultural references! There were six soloists too, but I wasn't sure exactly what they were doing. One was the architect of the Tower of Babel, one the engineer, one the workboss, and 3 other people that seemed irrelevant but sang nicely just the same. The performance was outside and it was freezing cold (the weather here is still yucky) and those of us in the audience had blankets. Since it was a dress rehearsal, there were still a lot of technical things that were being worked out, so lights would go on or off at the wrong time, or the gobos wouldn't turn, or the mikes didn't work and there would be lots of swearing in English since the technical crew was all British. I have to mention here that the orchestra was great and the conductor was quite animated. Of course, he spent a great deal of his time trying to keep the kids on track. They had a tendency to rush. Kids are the same everywhere!
The overall effect was good and I enjoyed it immensely.
Today I spent the day accompanying voice lessons with a coach from Vienna. Tomorrow I'm playing in a concert in Bayreuth. It would seem that I am taking Europe by storm!! HAHA!! Not... Wayne is getting me gigs and he wasted no time in putting me to work. Seems sightreaders are in short supply on this side of the Atlantic too. I'm glad for all of my theater experience since musicals are a big deal here.
I think that I will be heading to Salzburg on Monday. Hopefully I will have figured out the camera by then and I can post some pictures. I've heard from quite a few of my classmates already and I'm even set to play chamber music with a violinist from Spain. How cool is that?

I love Bavaria!

It is beautiful here! I took a long walk (the weather finally was semi-reasonable) and took in some fresh air. It is cool and fall-like. There's a series of walking paths that networks through the valley and you can find health conscious Germans out at any time of day walking with trek poles, riding bikes, jogging, or walking the dog. The terrain reminds me a lot of upstate New York where I was born and raised and it feels familiar in spite of it being a foreign country. The plants are a little different, but a lot of them are the same. And cows smell like cows..... no matter where you are!

When in doubt, say "Genau!"

I'm here in Bavaria, staying with some friends in Hilpoltstein. The weather is cold and rainy, and me without a coat! I'm typing on a German keyboard and having adjustment issues. German uses far more Zs than English, so the Z key is where I'm used to having the Y key. Which brings me to another point! There are precious few (if ANY!) contractions in German and possesion is indicated by a marker on the noun (ask my daughter...she studies linguistics) so the apostrophe key is way off somewhere and you need the shift key to access it. It's a tough adjustment with jet lag.

At this point, you say "Genau" which means "Exactly" and nod your head vigorously.

I got here by way of Icelandair and Minneapolis. I LOVE Icelandair. I love all the announcements in Old Norse and the food is good too. For the obligatory complementary beverage service, pure Icelandic water is served. There was even an option on the touch screen from which you select your movies (you have to PAY!!) for learning Icelandic, which I was very interested in.

Your turn: Genau!

However, to learn Icelandic you needed a handset which you also had to pay for. When I asked the flight attendant about this she looked surprised. She didn't know you needed a handset. I said "Nobody has ever asked about it before?" to which she said no. I asked "No one wants to learn Icelandic?" and she said "Genau." She didn't really. She said it in English. Bummer! I thought learning Icelandic was the perfect diversion.

As you may or may not know, I have this little project going entitled "Everybody Knows This One!" which is a collection of children's songs from all over the world. The songs are indigenous to their countries and not well known outside the borders. I know an Icelandic lullaby and decided to test my theory that "Everyone knows this one..." I hummed it for the flight attendant and she said "Yes, I know that song. We sing it to our children. But how do YOU know it?" I'm actually working on an SATB arrangement of that one, so I sang another one for her, which my Anderson friends from this summer will know, and she knew that one as well. Guess you'll all have to wait and see how THAT turns out!

Icelandair owns eleven planes and each one of them has a name! The flights were very comfortable and I highly recommend them.

I got to ride on the S bahn (subway) and the regional train. Bavaria is just beautiful. The train would emerge from a tunnel in the middle of a hops field. Hops grow a lot like peas, only up a gigantic trellis. When the hops are harvested, they are hung up in a hops house to dry. These are the tall triangular houses that are so often associated with Bavaria. The first two floors contain living space, and hops hang from the rafters of the floors above. There are shuttered windows that open to let the air flow through to dry the hops. It would probably be easier if I just took a picture. Which I will at some point!

We all know what hops are used for. To make the legendary German beer!

Genau!!!

It is getting to be Oktoberfest time, and I saw some people at the train station dressed in traditional garb or "trachten." You know, lederhosen and drindls and all that.

I'm going to the opera in Nuremberg this weekend and I already have a gig accompanying some students at a workshop.

I think I am going to be busy.

Genau!

The furry chainsaw

    This is Gretl sitting in the dog's empty water dish.

Purring.

Gretl and the batcave....

I have this cat named Gretl. She is a unique and baffling feline. In all my years of cat ownerdom, which at this point is considerable, this one takes some kind of prize. Our neighbor girls found her in the ditch up the road. They were amazed to hear this sound that was a bit like a chainsaw and were further amazed to find this sound emanating from a scrawny scraped up kitten. They brought her back to the house and we knew she had arrived even before we saw her. The purring was disproportionately loud to the size of the kitten. And she was tiny! Fortunately, we just happened to be having dinner with our veterinarian that evening, so I called him and gave him a heads up that Gretl would be in tow. He checked her out, pronounced her a bit banged up but basically functional and told her that she was one lucky kitty to have ended up with us. I asked him about the unceasing and deafening purr, the likes of which I had never heard, and he said "Oh, they'll purr like that when they are really happy." This cat was ecstatic. We left her in  kennel with a can of food, a blanket, and some fresh water and went to enjoy dinner.

Some hours later it was time to go and we went to retrieve Gretl. The purr had not stopped and the formerly skinny kitten now looked like she had swallowed a grapefruit! The can of food was obviously now gone and the full tummy in no way dampened the purr. The vet laughed and reminded us that it was all going to have to come out at some point. We bundled her up and took her home, still sounding like a chainsaw.

Gretl has been with us now for two years. She is still tiny and still purrs in inverse proportion to her size. She has proven herself to be a mouser without peer and she is excessively fond of catnip. She loves to sit near you, but does NOT like to be held. Which leads to the Batcave....

I have an unfortunate habit of sitting on the couch sort of side-saddle. I know it's terrible for my posture, but it IS comfortable. (Someday it will cost me, I'm sure). But in the meantime, Gretl enjoys nothing more than to curl up in the now snuggly space enclosed by my folded up legs. I refer to it fondly as the Batcave. She will lie here and purr for hours. Can you imagine how safe she must feel to be curled up in the shadow of a warm, benevolent being?

She is curled up in the Batcave and purring as I type. She must be really happy.

I will miss her terribly when I'm in Austria. My friends in Germany have a cat, but she isn't as unique as Gretl. But still she'll be a reasonable substitute. There's no purr, but they both like to bite....

The First Day of School

..... for everyone else, that is.  Me, I am here at home, not believing that I really am not going back to the slammer, and not really believing I'm going to Austria either. There are so many things to do! Paperwork to get in order, bills to straighten out, things to pack. Yikes!

I leave on September 13th. That's less than two weeks from today. Tomorrow I'm going to my mother's in Philadelphia for what is probably a long overdue whirlwind visit. Both daughters are settled in to a new school year routine, one at Loyola in Chicago and the other at the University of Minnesota. My husband started back today. And here I sit in time suspension.

My flight gets in to Munich on Sunday the 14th. Thanks to a  fortuitous purchase on eBay, I'm flying Icelandair (which I like!) and it's their last flight into Munich for the summer season. My apartment in Salzburg is ready the 15th.... I hope. I'm staying with friends in Nuremberg until I get over my jet lag. Since they are on vacation in Sardinia, I will actually arrive at their house before they do! That ought to give me some quality time with their cat Mimi who was named for the character in La Boheme.

So far I know that there are 15 people in the class with me and I'm the only American. Three are from Spain, 3 from Columbia (looks like I should've studied Spanish instead of German), 2 from Iran, and one each from Portugal, Thailand, Japan, Italy, Germany and Turkey. I'm the only native English speaker. I'm looking forward to learning lots of new songs and I'm really excited about meeting the Iranian students. I've already had email from one of them.

I have a new camera, a new laptop and a new telephone so I can post and keep in touch. My phone number is 715-330-4433. You can just dial from the States like it's a local number and I can call without the international rates. Vonage is a wonderful thing.....

And so the REAL adventure is about to begin. I'll keep you posted! HAHA! Get it? 

In the meantime, here is a sentence that I learned in German:

Der Pferd frisst ein Karotte.

My friend assures me that I will NEVER use that sentence, but I am going to find a way to use it.  If you don't speak German, you'll have to wait for the appropriate post. I promise that there will be one.