Weekend

Sorry, no photos. Saturday was a nice break from directed group activities - a wander around the town with a friend. No tours, no politicians, no Nazi history, just relaxing.
Sunday we met with a couple in the Eastern part of town for coffee and cake at their house. They grew up in the former East Germany and he was imprisoned for possession of banned music and books. The Stasi Archives were interesting and a bit scary, but hearing these people's stories and seeing their actual Stasi files, really personalized life in the former East.
Then it was off to the opera. It was the opening night for 'The Abduction from the Seraglio". The music was great - its Mozart and the orchestra played it excellent. The leading characters - Belemonte and Konstanze were fine, but nothing special. The supporting roles - Osmin and Blonde were excellent. What was most offputting was the staging. There was not really a set to speak of. The only thing was a platform dividing the stage into an upper and lower part. The costumes were crap. Several were bought directly from the department store and there was no identifiable theme or reason for them. It was not recast in a different time period, they might have been going for some abstract thing, that really didn't work. I felt assured that it was not just me because at the end when the production crew came out during the applause, they were booed.
Today ... Leipzig.