My birthday

My birthday this year was one of the best ever. I didn't know what to expect, because these people at Sauen didn't know me at all a few days ago. But my birthday did not go unnoticed. The day before my birthday, after evening activities, we all went to a church in the village, to enjoy that space. In the church I taught Hava Nashira, a Hebrew canon that I learned at Walden (used the hand signs and everything, apparently really helped the non-musicians in the crowd). We also jammed on the organ, did some vocal inprovisations and just had a good time. When we were back, the remise (where we had most of our group meetings) was all decorated, and a party was about to start. We danced until midnight, and then they lit candles for me, gave me a cake, lifted me in the air, sang birthday songs, the whole deal... I was extremely happy. It was really like a child's birthday, with games and gummy candy and bamba, and it was very fitting, because I don't know how many people are that happy to turn thirty. At least, celebrating like a child makes you feel like birthday can still be a magical day. I also got a cake from the cooks in Sauen and a bouquet of red roses, and some people made sure that I was properly lubricated. I didn't get drunk really, just cheerful enough to dance until 2:00 am. The party lasted until morning, but I wanted to still have some of my wits left the next day, because it was another full day of activities.

That's it. Wonderful. I don't know much about Germans yet, but the ones I met in Sauen made a very positive impression.

Sauen theater workshop

Thank you for reading my blog despite the million other things you have to do right now.

I'm back in Berlin from Sauen, and had an amazing time. It's one of those cases where what happened and was achieved in nine days equals to what I normally achieve in six months. That means that I can't describe all that happened.

However, most days were like this: we met with a director/composer/choreographer/costume designers/video artist/ dramaturges etc. every morning, do discuss interesting works and watch/listen to examples. Each teacher brought not the whole variety of what can be done in his/her medium, but more focused on some interesting ideas. Then we divided into groups, each day we worked in different groups, in order to get to know each other closely. In our groups we had several hours to work on an assignment, which we displayed or performed in the evening, followed by a discussion of our work. Later in the evening, we usually had presentations of our teachers' own works.

Some of the assignements:

*Take a hat or two, create a character who has a life story, a personality, a way of interacting with others, and create a 10 minute piece.

*Create a video that is no longer than 5 minutes, and contains an element of loop.

*Find an area with an interesting sound, and add only one element to that area/environment. The piece lasts for 4:33 (John Cage reference, of course)

*Take a Kafka text and without actually acting out the text, create a piece that is based on that text.

*Take a Mozart aria, and extract only a fragment or two from it. Create a 5-10 minute piece.

*Find a space with some man-made architecture, and create a movement piece that relies on the angles and form of that architecture, on site.

There were more amazing ideas and assignments. For every single assingment, we used very diverse media, such as recorded sounds, recorded music, video, still photos, acting, projections, miming, dancing, all in combinations with each other. There was hardly one piece that only used one medium.

It was amazing to work with all these people - students and teachers, and I made a lot of friends, that I definitely want to keep seeing in Berlin. I am the most fortunate person in the world, because I just arrived to Berlin three weeks ago, and already I know all these fantastic people from different art disciplines. I couldn't ask for more.

not much composing

Today I had to run a lot of errands, so I composed for only an hour. You'd be surprised how errands that you thought will take you an hour or two, end up taking five and a half hours!

I'm going tomorrow to a nine-day workshop out in the countryside. I will be staying in a tiny village called Sauen, close to the boarder with Poland. It's so tiny - just look at this aerial picture: http://wikimapia.org/12561710/de/Rietz-Neuendorf-Sauen

So forget about finding a synagogue to celebrate rosh hashana, and forget about getting drunk on my 30th birthday. Oh, wait. You can always get drunk in Germany, regardless. But getting drunk with a bunch of strangers on my birthday? OK, so it's not just a bunch of random strangers - it's an "experiment phase" of a collaboration project between the different people that make up the theater: directors, choreographers, composers (that's me), actors, set and costume designers, etc. The list of things to bring was odd, including a hand written letter, a picture of someone, a book that I haven't read in a long time, a piece of clothing that I stopped wearing a long time ago, a toy, and the list goes on and on.

So I'm not sure that I will be able to blog on in the next nine days. Stay tuned - I might have some crazy theater stories to tell about, if the farmer's cow didn't forget to pay the wireless bill...

night at the opera

Went last night to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden to watch the opera Cosi fan tutte by Mozart.

As opposed to two operas that I saw last week (yes, a prolific concert goer am I), this one had very exquisite costumes and set. In the original story, the two men supposedly go to war, but actually just pretend to, and return to their fiancees in disguise to test their loyalty. In this production, the setting is 1960's US (they spoke Italian fluently then in the States, don't you know), and the supposed war that the men go to is the Vietnam war. When they return in disguise, they pretend to be hippies, and the women themselves, as they fall for the "strangers", transform from bitniks to hippies too.

The set was amazing: have you ever seen in a museum an example of a portable Bauhaus apartment? The girls' house looked exactly like that. A Bauhaus apartment, complete with a kitchen, a bathroom (a real toilet on stage!), a living room...

If I was sad last week that La Traviata and the Magic Flute were colorless black and white, I was a little sad last night that the elaborate set and beautiful costume, and creative directing distracted the audience a little from the beautiful singing and of course, Mozart's amazing score...

I sound like a critic, don't I? Well, I had a lot of fun, and although I'm not a big fan of going alone to museums, concerts and operas, I never felt like I was truly lonely. Plus, I can share my experience with you.

German food

Folks, when you come to Germany, be careful. After six years of American soft breads and foods fit for a granny in a nursing home, I got a jaw cramp from eating German breads! Now it's better, since I refrained from eating breads for a few days. Just a warning.

about the opera itself

Since this is a blog mainly for my opera (and also for Berlin experience), I thought it would be nice to share more about the background for the opera. Just in case you were wondering.

Synopsis:

Mauritzia is adored by Khutner, who tirelessly awaits her and woos her despite her indifference. The only man she welcomes into her bed is Jorge, her lover. When she and her companion Poomptz swap homes for a month with Madagascar and her companion Hotchks, Madagascar's own pest suitor, Laxner, comes along. Laxner and Khutner become rivals to the little attention that Mauritzia is willing to give. Swapping their own identities and putting on other identities, the two suitors do everything in their power to win Madagascar's heart. But once again, only Jorge is allowed into Madagascar's bedroom. When Mauritzia and Madagascar return each to their own homes at the end of the month, Mauritzia confuses between Jorge and Khutner, who are wearing the same wig. Khutner, aware of the unusual once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to be with Mauritzia, decides to give up the fulfillment of his fantasy in order to maintain the ideal of "the wondrous woman within us."

guests and more

My mother was here for a few days, and I got to live in a bubble for that time - surrounded by care and familiarity. I realize that there are two downsides (at least) to guests visiting me. One is that I don't get to sleep as much. Two is that they leave at some point, and then I have to get used again to living in a completely foreign country all over again. There's also the downside of not composing as much. OK, four downsides.

Still, I recovered from the little gloom that hovered over me yesterday after my mom left, and today I sat pretty much from 9:00 to 17:00 and composed. Took some breaks in the middle, but more or less worked very intensely for many hours.

Nowadays I'm orchestrating the aria of Mauritzia, a very desireable woman, unreachable, except for the charmant Jorge. She is approaching her admirer, Khutner, and puts his head between her thighs, and starts singing... She describes how she wants to be used by her man and thrown exhausted to the beach like a flapping fish... Khutner gets really excited, until she ends the aria with "oh! Jorge!" and then realizes that she wasn't talking about him at all...

This aria is very hard for me to write. It's a coloratura soprano role. I started it very clean, with a solo violin playing in Stephane Grappelli style, low brass providing a transparent measured accompaniment. I don't know - I feel as though this aria is almost too pure and transparent, like something that would be done by Verdi, not by a 21st century composer. Well - I did go to see La Traviata last week. And it's true that other parts of the scene are much more messy and contrapuntal, so maybe it doesn't hurt to have some simplicity and transparency as a contrast.

What do you think? If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I'd be happy to hear some.

Running around - still

Another day of bureaucracy... this time there's nothing really interesting to tell. I had to go back and forth a few times between several offices in different streets, but I said 'the hell with the map' and found short cuts from street to street in some of the university buildings. Hard to believe - I paid my tuition (which is actually not tuition, it's money for the student union, tuition is free) in 200 euro cash in an automatic machine. All I have to show for it is a tiny receipt, which I now have to take with me everywhere I go, proof that I'm enrolling as a student. There are several other documents that I have to carry around with me at all times, so I'm starting to become a walking office...

Composition went OK today. I called my neighbor and asked him to use his piano, so I could check the progress that I made so far since my landing in Germany. He was in his office, but said he needs to come home to eat anyway, so he will come and open the apartment for me. I jumped at the opportunity and offered him the lentil stew that I made today. Indian style. Yummy. He thought so too, while I was pounding on his piano, trying to figure out what's so wrong with what I've written in the last few days. Time flew by, because I thought I was sitting for half and hour, and it turned out it was two hours.

Now I took a little break to step outside and enjoy a local favorite food, and after blogging I have to go back to work and finish putting in all of the changes that I wanted to make.

Still no chance to go out at night and explore nightlife, or even just a little beer...

First bureaucratic day

Guten Morgen!

My friend Ayala stayed here last night. She just arrived from Israel, and it was a pleasure to have her around. We had fun together, seeing paintings in a museum and just chatting about how we found our way to Germany. I suggested that we both try to remain light-hearted about our experiences here - wink at every situation.

So this morning started a little off, because Ayala woke up early to get to her train to Leipzig. She set the alarm to 7:00am. Quite early, no? Well, guess what. She forgot to change her clock to Germany time, and we actually woke up at 6:00! I didn't realize this until I was already waiting for the U-Bahn on the way to the Rathaus, the city hall. So I decided to go to city hall that early anyway, and just wait around. There was already a big queue, lining up at 7:30, and when opening hour came, I was one of the first to enter. This is not necessarily so good, as I had to fill out a form in very short time, and had to do it right. Trying to overcome shyness, I asked some people around me if I filled it correctly. People tried to be helpful. When I got to the actual teller, I found that there was a whole lot to fill. She wouldn't speak English with me, naturally, so it was all a little bit frustrating, most of the frustration coming from her, since she's the one who probably deals with annoying foreigners all the time - I'm just new here.

Every day I make some kind of silly mistake in German. Today I had to fill a box asking me what my religion was. Imagine how that made me feel in Germany! I didn't really know how to say "Jewish". I probably should have declared atheist or something... Just imagine - I had to recall scenes from the holocaust in order to recall how to say "Jewish". In the end, I wrote "Juden", meaning "jews". A little embarassing, right? Oh, well, she got the picture anyway.

I think I will try to write about my silly mistakes here in this blog. The point of that is to be able to laugh a little at myself. If I'm too ashamed of a silly mistake to mention it here, than I must be taking myself way to seriously!

I haven't slept much at all last night (maybe 3 hours). I just got home from the Rathaus. I should probably compose now, but I don't have so much brain energy yet. Perhaps a little nap will help.

Stay tuned for more bureaucratic adventures in the next few days!

First Post

Welcome to my first blog ever.

I am an Israeli composer, and I just moved to Berlin 2 days ago, in order to write my first big opera here. Well, I'd like to write more, but I have to go and compose right now! Wish me luck!