This evening I go back to the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut to hear Pascal Mercier read from “Nachtzug nach Lissabon” (Night Train to Lisbon) an international best-seller that I’m working my way through, in English. He is very good, speaks German with a Swiss accent and the large room is packed to the rafters. He studied in Heidelberg in 1993 and later in Berkeley. The book, which I find very dense and slow reading, concerns an elderly college professor of Latin, Greek and other ancient languages in Bern, Switzerland; who suddenly changes his entire life by taking a night-train to Lisbon. Mercier, a Swiss philosophy professor living in Berlin says that, “its partly in homage to his teachers”. I was surprised at how much I understood; including his jokes and at question time I asked, “How he liked the English translation?” He gave a long answer, after all he is a Professor of Philosophy, about the translator coming to Berlin for 10 days and they worked together from 10 till 10 and he feels that the translation is an “American Night Train to Lisbon!”
This evening I had to choose between Pascal Mercier; a concert of Lieder by Franz Schubert based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe at the Musikhaus Hochstein AND a concert of Klezmer music!
On Saturday fireworks are planned for Heidelberg Castle and the newspaper warns that many streets will be closed, with traffic at a standstill. I have dinner at “Zum Goldenen Schaf” (Golden Sheep). In spite of the restaurant being founded 1749 and owned by the family of Dr. Kischka; the food is very mediocre, the service slow and the place full of Americans. Next time remind me to pass on this one! I then walk over to the Stadtische Buhene for ”Eugen Onegin” by Tchaikovsky. Once again an ultra modern production; the set is a 1920s fairground with a very dilapidated merry-go-round in the center and overhead a sign of lights “LIEBE MACHT GLUCKLICH” (Love Makes Happiness) which harkens back to “Arbeit Macht Frei” the sign over the gates at Auschwitz. For some reason, completely beyond me, most of the characters wear these large fiberglass (?) heads, taking them off and on and often singing with them on! The voices are unbelievably beautiful; Tatiana is a Russian soprano, Onegin is Spanish and Lenski sung by Emilio Pons, a tenor from Spain, who I saw previously in Idomeneo. This time I sit in the front row of the balcony of a very full house. As we come out of the theater the last of the fireworks are going off and traffic is a mess.
Photos: City Theater, Heidelberg 4#056
This evening I had to choose between Pascal Mercier; a concert of Lieder by Franz Schubert based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe at the Musikhaus Hochstein AND a concert of Klezmer music!
On Saturday fireworks are planned for Heidelberg Castle and the newspaper warns that many streets will be closed, with traffic at a standstill. I have dinner at “Zum Goldenen Schaf” (Golden Sheep). In spite of the restaurant being founded 1749 and owned by the family of Dr. Kischka; the food is very mediocre, the service slow and the place full of Americans. Next time remind me to pass on this one! I then walk over to the Stadtische Buhene for ”Eugen Onegin” by Tchaikovsky. Once again an ultra modern production; the set is a 1920s fairground with a very dilapidated merry-go-round in the center and overhead a sign of lights “LIEBE MACHT GLUCKLICH” (Love Makes Happiness) which harkens back to “Arbeit Macht Frei” the sign over the gates at Auschwitz. For some reason, completely beyond me, most of the characters wear these large fiberglass (?) heads, taking them off and on and often singing with them on! The voices are unbelievably beautiful; Tatiana is a Russian soprano, Onegin is Spanish and Lenski sung by Emilio Pons, a tenor from Spain, who I saw previously in Idomeneo. This time I sit in the front row of the balcony of a very full house. As we come out of the theater the last of the fireworks are going off and traffic is a mess.
Photos: City Theater, Heidelberg 4#056
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