A public rehearsal
The theatre makes magic. That's its job.
Like all jobs, magic entails work. Very few elements of an actor's art are truly spontaneous; it is her craft to conceal this fact.
Artistic inspiration comes only when the nuts and bolts are tight, when we have dispensed with the practical demands of putting people around each other in a limited space. To paraphrase Noël Coward, magic happens when everyone knows his lines, and nobody trips over the furniture.
A good rehearsal is like carpentry. At the end, you've built a functional object, the performance. Like a door, you can open it and close it as many times as you like, and it will always do the same thing.
In my student theatre days, I used to love rehearsals; nowadays, I treasure the moments when I stumble across one. Cycling home from work today, I did just that.
The Altstadtfest happens this weekend, a highlight of Munich's 850th birthday celebrations. One of major performances is the München Revue, in the Odeonsplatz. It will, it seems, involve an acrobat on a trapeze suspended above the crowd.
Just another workaday job on a working city street. Very few of the passers-by even noticed.
Just another workaday job on a working city street. Very few of the passers-by even noticed. 
Plenty of workers sitting around, leaning on their shovels. In the theatre, that's forgivable; indeed, it's necessary. They're waiting for a cue.
The craft of the theatre doubles in complexity when you put it on film. If managing actors in a physical space in a theatre proves a challenge, imagine the same thing with the audience wearing blinkers. That's film. 
These filmy types are working for Bayerische Rundfunk, the German version of the BBC. Actually, it's not quite the German BBC: that's Deutsche Welle, based in Cologne. Bayerische Rundfunk is the Bavarian state BBC. They've covered Munich's birthday celebrations diligently. Though not a national institution, BR is a broadcaster of considerable standing. Listen to any classical music station on the planet, and you'll soon hear a recording made by the so-called Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. That's BR.
With 20 million inhabitants, Bavaria holds as many people as Australia; why shouldn't our local broadcaster be on a par, at least with the ABC? BR broadcasts throughout Germany.
These pictures are much better if you embiggen them, BTW. By a neat coincedence, this week's Photo Friday challenge is Flight.
9 comments:
Clearly I need to wander aimlessly through Odeonsplatz more often. You seem to happen across the most fabulous things there.
I love that first image, Headbang. Makes me miss Europe.
I'm not convinced yet that the ABC should be held up as a goal for journalistic standards. I will admit that it's better than most American news outlets, but that's not saying much either.
Whoah, Chris! You think I said far more than I actually did.
I didn't talk about journaistic standards, if you read my fine print. Rather, national and international standing.
The Abe TV leaves a lot to be desired. So does BR, particularly when one is an atheist, and notices how many so-called Bavarian cultural events involve putting taxpayer-funded cameras inside a church.
And full of Bavarian pride, Ratzi can't boil an egg without coverage and analysis from BR. Master Right and I are totally over flicking on the Fernseher to find endless coverage of World Youth Day.
Radio--that's another story. Both BR and the Abe really do it well. Better radio than the Beeb, I think--especially the Beeb's turgid World Service.
We have four BR radio-sendung to choose from, ranging from the exquisite Bavaria 4 Classical, right down to Folk-hokey Bavaria 1. "Bayern Eins! Wir Lieben Oldies!" goes the slogan. Those who understand German better than I, tell me that BR radio documentaries are superb.
The ABC has a similar gift for radio. I have one of those Wi-Fi radios in the house, and it can get almost any radio station in the world. The one which stands out for intelligent content is ABC Radio National. (My other fave is KQED in San Francisco, incidentally.)
Further, the ABC funds at least as many orchestras as the BBC.
Neither BR nor the Abe have the powerful news resources of the BBC, but they hold their own when it comes to enriching their respective cultures, and producing some world-class content.
(On the subject of the ABC--Bananas in Pajamas. It could only come from Australia, because Australia is the only place on the planet where the two words rhyme. Parenting a child in Australia, you will soon come to know and love BiP. It is an open secret in gay circles that B1 plays Top.)
Wonderful - agree with Chris about the first pic.
Another example of why it pays to carry your camera around.
Your stumbling across this reminds me of our last time in Amsterdam. We enjoyed 45 minutes of the most beautiful singing as an 80-member choir rehearsed in a little alcove behind a cathedral near the canals. Wonderful.
Ian, I prefer a rehearsal to a performance. One can see the craft.
hahaha... so now you've outed the Bananas for all of germany to see...
Definitely a good argument for looking up while walking around! That first shot is wonderful - I love the sillouhettes of both the acrobat/aerialist and the building dome.
And I agree - rehearsals are more fun to watch - they have so much energy!
Happy Birthday, Headbang! You will be pleased to know that the Miss Betty blog is back ... with one of your previous entries featured! Hope you had a great birthday weekend ...
Just came across your blog. Very funny. Congratulations to your Lebenpartnerschaft. Because I am a Klugscheißer, I have to add some more detail about the BR - not all the statement of yours correct - is mine? - I hope so:
1.) Deutsche Welle is not the German BBC, it is rather something like BBC World (with satellite you can watch DW in Germany these days, but it was intended to be the foreign broadcaster)
2.) BR broadcasts five radio services on FM - not four - (you forgot the 24 news service, B5) and a sixth on AM.
3.) BR broadcasts two own TV channels (BFS and BRalpha).
4.) BFS, the so-called third channel was historically limited only to Bavaria, but since the age of satellite and cable TV all so-called third channels of all reginal broadcasters are available nearly anyplace. So you can watch NDR TV in Bavaria, too.
5.) ARD is the umbrella organisation of all regional broadcasters.
6.) Das Erste is a joint channel of all ARD members that contribute to the programming.
7.) ZDF is not an ARD member
8.) Deutsche Welle is an ARD member
9.) There are two national radio channels on FM, DLF and DLR.
10.) ZDF and ARD (thus in parts BR does) contribute to/coproduce Kika, Phoenix, 3sat and arte.
11.) There are three more ARD and three more ZDF digital TV channels that mainly rebroadcast old stuff.
12.) arte is co-produced by a French public broadcaster.
13.) 3sat is co-produced by the Swiss and Austrian Public Broadcaster.
To confuse everybody, programming is often exchanged. For example a WDR documentary is broadcast by BR, a BR radioplay is broadcast by DLF and so on...
If you ever come across watching Tagesschau, you will see that when somebody is interviewed you can see on the microphone which ARD member the journalist belongs to - Tagesschau is produced by NDR, but for example the Tel Aviv correspondent of ARD is a BR employee.
This all sounds anarchic, but after WWII, because of the misuse of mass media the "1000 years" before, public broadcasting in Germany was intentionally set up to be as much decentralized as it could, to impede misuse...
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