Underground Opera Night

On Tuesday, continuing the spirit of trying something new I decided to go along to an Opera Night at a bar in Kreuzberg called ‘Max und Morritz’. A few people were meeting beforehand and being a Yorkshireman I was hungry so I went along to that also. Four of us met at a pizza place near the bar and spent about an hour there chatting and eating.

The Opera Night itself was held in a large room in the back of Max und Moritz. The term ‘Underground Opera Night’ was theirs and it described the event well. There was a mix of opera and songs from musicals, which made it a much more pleasant, easy-going evening. Sitting in the back, in the separate area often used for such functions felt like being in a 1930s speakeasy and the large grand piano sounded amazing.

There were two singers, a woman called Annette Betanski who sang mostly opera but some songs from musicals and a man whose name I forget. Paul Hankinson, who was introduced as ‘the coolest man in Berlin’ played the grand piano. The two singers took it in turns to sing. Annette's voice was truly stunning and really filled the room when singing opera. The male singer sang a lot of Broadway musical songs (including one from Chicago) and sang with a typical ‘New York Broadway’ kind of accent. The two also did a few duets which were really nice as they had a great chemistry.

All in all it was a very pleasant evening, and being back in Kreuzberg was especially nice as it felt as though I hadn’t been there in ages, when in fact it had been only a week. Berlin seems to be a place where time feels much longer, a week is like a month. Perhaps it’s just because I’ve been doing so much more than I would normally be doing.

Note: please excuse the poor photographs, I wasn't sat in the best place for taking them and I thought it'd be a bit rude taking lots of photographs instead of listening to them sing.