Over the years, Berlin has had an enduring fascination for me. In no other place have I had such a direct encounter with modern history. There was, in 1975, first the sight of the Wall dividing the city and, from the Western suburban train which looped around it, the curious experience of being on the other side, but not being able to alight. Then a day later, when visiting East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie, finding a totally alien world: an overwhelming impression of dark streets and decaying buildings, a joyless atmosphere with few people around, even in the formerly elegant Unter den Linden boulevard. There were also aspects which had strong Third Reich associations. The area around the ruins of the Reichstag, a symbol of the Nazi contempt for democracy, was, because of its proximity to the Wall, a wasteland, a haunting image of the savage turns of German history.
Cool cut-outs: Barrie Kosky’s production of Die Zauberflöte
IKO FREESE
Yet there had been an extraordinary paradox: in the context of a highly repressive regime, theatre in East Berlin, in 1975, was breathtakingly innovative. There was the Berliner Ensemble, still maintaining the ideas of Brecht; and at the Komische Oper, Walter Felsenstein who, by working his singer-actors strenuously, was able to infuse opera with a high level of dramatic impulse. I saw his famed, fantastical production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, along with a powerfully political La forza del destino, directed by his protégé Joachim Herz.
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February 2017
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