“You Gotta Fight… for your Right… to Party”

One of the exciting new developments at the Komische Oper in Berlin is that you can now view the surtitles on the back of the seat in front of you. This means that you do not have to strain yourself to view the running commentary projected onto the top of the proscenium arch. This is the case at most other opera houses, and accounts for the preponderance of stiff-necked people at the opera.

The Komische Opera – one of Berlin’s 3 fully functioning opera houses – performs everything in German, the idea being that the work - to be rendered accessible - should be sung in the language of Das Volk.

Presumably this artistic decision would make surtitles redundant. However, opera – regardless of the language in which it is sung – is incomprehensible at the best of the times. This is a good thing: most opera libretti are embarrassingly bad.

This was not the case with last night’s offering – a newly composed operatic version of Hamlet by Christian Jost. Shakespeare offers the opera composer an immunity of sorts – even if the music and production values are horrible at least you cannot fault the text. Perhaps this explains the fact that there are literally hundreds of operas based on the Bard’s works, but only a handful performed on a regular basis. Of these precious few, only two are acknowledged as equal to the original plays – Verdi’s settings of Otello and Falstaff.

So where does this leave Hamlet by Christian Jost? - Somewhere in the vast middle, not that it matters. I will probably never see this piece again, which is in no way a reflection of its artistic value. Last night the number of people performing the work outnumbered the audience by a significant margin. Not so long ago, the premiere of a new opera was often greeted by mass euphoria, or at the very least general interest. Nowadays the best that can be hoped for are polite applause followed by some earnest discussions in the remotest circles of intellectual bohemia – where I now find myself.

In Berlin I often feel as though I am one of those people who got to the party just a little bit too late…sure, there are people milling about and the vibe is still pretty good, but you get the definite sensation that things are on the downswing – that in an hour’s time the DJ will have packed up and you will find yourself waiting for a cab in the cold.

For now at least, on this island, the party is still going strong. The DJ is spinning and there are lots of interesting people to meet. You can call up your friend and go to a different opera every night of the week. You can wear a tux or a pair of jeans – or a combination of the two. You can dye your hair green and wear leather chaps and nobody will care. This cultural bounty and this tolerance – Berlin’s greatest gifts to the world - have been hard won and have only come about after years of brutality and repression.

It is up to us to ensure that art and tolerance continue. It is up to us to ensure that there will always be a party to go to, and more importantly, that we will all be able to attend.