Today we went to the Zentral Friedhof and saw the grave stones of a bunch of composers, including Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Gluck, Shonberg, and the statue erected for Mozart since he was apparently dumped in an unmarked hole somewhere. Here's a good joke I heard a few days before departing on this trip:
When Mozart passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple
days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard
some strange noises coming from the area where Mozart was buried.
Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it.
The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate.
When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave,
listened for a moment, and said, "Ah, yes, that's Mozart's Ninth Symphony,
being played backwards."
He listened a while longer, and said, "There's the Eighth Symphony,
And it's backwards, too. Most puzzling."
So the magistrate kept listening; "There's the Seventh... the
Sixth...the Fifth..." Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned
on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the
cemetery. "My fellow citizens, there's nothing to worry about. It's just Mozart decomposing."
That's actually a lie, because the joke I heard was about graverobbers looking for a score he was buried with, and opening his coffin to find him furiously erasing it...but that's okay, because copy and paste.
days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard
some strange noises coming from the area where Mozart was buried.
Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it.
The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate.
When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave,
listened for a moment, and said, "Ah, yes, that's Mozart's Ninth Symphony,
being played backwards."
He listened a while longer, and said, "There's the Eighth Symphony,
And it's backwards, too. Most puzzling."
So the magistrate kept listening; "There's the Seventh... the
Sixth...the Fifth..." Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned
on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the
cemetery. "My fellow citizens, there's nothing to worry about. It's just Mozart decomposing."
That's actually a lie, because the joke I heard was about graverobbers looking for a score he was buried with, and opening his coffin to find him furiously erasing it...but that's okay, because copy and paste.
We also went to the Albertina and saw some fabulous paintings by Renoir, Degas (love him), Monet, Picasso, and many more. More art museum time tomorrow!
We finished out the night seeing Boris Gudenov at the state opera house...and my, oh, my it was technically stunning. The sets and the lighting design were absolutely beautiful, the musicians were great (especially the Holy Fool at the end of the production, and the house was just gorgeous. Plus, each seat had a personal translation screen. Score! And, in case you were wondering about the title of my post...they did the entire opera without taking a single intermission. I don't know what the heck that was about, because they took time for scene changes between each act but didn't turn the lights up. Sitting for 2.5 hours straight isn't the most comfortable thing, but at least we got out earlier, I suppose!
I don't really know how to wrap up this post, so I'll just leave this here. Goodnight!
**Photo courtesy of the strange and wonderful city of Berlin.
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