April 2012
4 posts
Jagdstilleben vs Flaming Death Monster
I know that it’s beyond cliché at this point for a visitor to Berlin to go on about the phenomenon of its street art. But I can’t stop myself. Not only is one of the most distinguishing elements of the city, it is such a great example of a prime cultural difference between Berlin and New York. So without further ado I present to you:
This is a huge mural by the Belgian artist ROA on the side...
Frühlingsgefühl
Things in Berlin are more or less exactly as I left them. A few old buildings have come down. A few new ones are on their way up. The city is chilly with a sky that alternates between a gloomy grey ceiling and an endless blue dome.
Even though spring’s progress is several steps behind the warm April days I left behind in New York, there is a general feeling of new energy and warmth in the...
March 2012
1 post
Words & Music
Back in January, I was feeling a bit sentimental about my autumn in Berlin so I paired some photos from my time there (most of which are familiar to regular readers of this blog) with a recording I recently made of Richard Strauss’ “Traum durch die Dämmerung.”
Even though this song was published in 1894, I was often surprised by how useful the words in the text were to me in...
November 2011
12 posts
Adventures in Singerland
Many thanks for all the good wishes for my auditions. It’s been an interesting process and my double audition day last Monday was a strange one! It had all the regular audition day challenges (showing up at an unknown location in a new city, looking good and ready to sing) but also – as expected – it was a serious adventure in communication. Most of the confusion revolved around my audition for...
Drückt mir die Daumen!
Fewer updates and picture this week, as I have spent the last ten days in an intensive blitz of opera business. Here are some highlights of the process:
- 36 audition requests sent - Three auditions scheduled - Two incoming phone calls auf Deutsch (From the Staatsoper Berlin!) - One cover letter translated into French
I have been frustrated that I have not been offered as many auditions as I...
October 2011
8 posts
Sprichst du Deutsch? (An overview of my progress...
Week 1: Either I am the rare breed of student that “tests well,” or there is more German grammar stored in the back of my cranium than I am aware of. I am placed in an A2 level German class, surrounded by 19 year-old Italian speakers. I cannot understand anything that is going on but am too proud to ask to be moved back one level: there is no way that these kids with their horrifying...
September 2011
14 posts
Ich habe ein Schnupfen
I’ve come down with a bit of a Schnupfen (the perfectly onomatopoetic German word for head cold). Over the course of the past week it has gotten significantly worse rather than better so I decided it was time to head to the pharmacist. In European drug stores you can’t just help yourself to whatever you think will work like in the U.S. Instead, you have to describe your ailment to the...
Word of the Day: die SIM-Karte
There are really two categories of vocabulary that I get stumped on in German: things I knew once and have forgotten and things I never knew at all. For example, back in 1997 there was no chapter on the vocabulary of buying a cell phone. I’m assuming this is now covered during week two of classes, right after the chapter when you learn how to introduce yourself and order ‘ein Kaffe...
Learning Curve
By the time I left Italy in 2005, my language skills were to a point that I understood almost everything that was said to me but stumbled a bit in my construction of responses. I had forgotten that the first edge of the learning curve is the reverse: carefully choosing what you say to people and then being completely baffled by what they say to you in return.
When I said “Guten...
August 2011
1 post
