When you are in Germany, you must travel by InterCity train at least once. Indeed, high-speed trains also exist in France (TGV), Spain (Ave), Italy (Freccia) or England (Eurostar), but the German ICE trains seem more welcoming. This is my impression maybe influenced by the fact that in 2010, it was the first ICE train I traveled with at 300 km per hour and since then, I have constantly traveled by it, Germany being "in my way" from Romania to England, Denmark, France, and others. I enjoy repeating the experience whenever I get the chance, like few days ago when I came straight from Cologne to Frankfurt with such a... lightning.

The journey continues to Frankfurt (am Main) with other slower trains and you arrive at the station of a completely unknown town, Bad Hersfeld. On the platform, above the board with the name of the city, there is another one that says... "Festspielstadt"! I may not know German, but I know for sure that "stadt" means "city", "fest" sounds like "festival" and "spiel" is "game", so... "Bad Hersfeld, the festival city"!

So... groÃŸer (big) to be the festival? I do not know how well-known it is in the "big" world of opera, but I found out that "Bad Hersfelder OpernFestSpiele" had, including this one, 54 years of activity! The year of its debut, 1951, is even more remarkable and appreciable, as only five years passed from the end of the Second World War, lost by the Germans, and, in that period, Germany was a completely ruined country.

StiftsRuine, the place where the festival was held, is not a ruin from the previously mentioned war, but the remains of a building that seems to have been made in 769 (not 1769! ). In 1521, it was visited by Martin Luther, whose actions led to the beginning of the Protestant religion, one of the most important in the world. I found StiftsRuine described on a Lutheran site as being the world`s biggest ruin of a Roman Catholic church!

Therefore, I arrived at Bad Hersfeld station on the third line. I descended the passage under the railway lines to get to the station - trivial, right? - But the passage...
The passage had glass walls, pictures with singers` silhouettes and musical motifs, theater masks, epoch images (all outlines). The walls were alternately illuminated by basic colors, such as purple, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, the transition from one color to another being made softly, nicely but a little bit fast. (In the article photo album, I introduced several photos from the passage.)

I asked how to get to StiftsRuine - as a tourist in Germany, you do not need to know German as over 80% Germans speak English - and I headed toward there. (Of course, you should know English.:-) ) The city is almost trivial, but the center area is really nice and has a medieval flavor, even though it was probably rebuilt after WWII, as it happened with most German towns. Step by step, I did not need to ask any more for direction because I could see more and more people heading in the same direction. They seemed aligned and although they were talking with each other, the silence wrapped the streets. Only a Romanian with a trolley clattering its small wheels on the stone slabs "broke" the atmosphere. :-)

StiftsRuine is like an old and small fortress. Architecturally, it resembles Chiajna-Giulesti monastery, located on the outskirts of Bucharest, with high walls, "holes" in the roof and walls, but it is larger and, most of all, utilized. The organizers mounted a canvas roof over the area where the spectators sat and in front of the entrance, there were about 15 flags, from which I easily remarked those of Italy, France, the US and, of course, Germany. Between the flags and the entrance of the fortress-church, there were few tables and some Germans drank a glass of what seemed to be champagne. I entered, the "room" had many chairs (about 1600 - all occupied), the area where the spectators sat was covered, but not the stage!

The show started at 20:30. At 20:30, the conductor appeared. And the opera began. Any surprise? :-)

The setting was plain, only two sphinxes placed somewhere on the stage in the center-left and center-right. The scenery seemed semi classical, inferring from "props", and Radames and the priest`s costumes, the first one wearing a shirt resembling a brown tunic, trousers and cream boots, and the second one, a white and long robe, golden belt and large collar with golden models.

The words began and... I burst into laughing!!! It was singing... in German!!! :-) ) )

"Aida" in German! :-) ) )

Celesten Aiden! :-) ) )

Of course, this is not the correct German translation, but I want to Germanize a little the name of Radames` famous aria from first act, all the more I am still amused to see "Aida" in German - unplanned, this time - only two weeks after I have seen "My Fair Lady" in German! :-)

Himmlische Aida! ;-)

At the end of the aria, another surprise: the Germans did not applaud, although Radames sang well! Maybe they did not like the German version! :-) ) )

Amneris wore a golden breastplate, a long white skirt with green on vertical and something white in her feet. Aida, gray and brown dress with dark orange and green on vertical. Both of them had Germanic features, but different physiognomy.

The first applause came surprisingly after the three sang together. The assumption that they did not like the score in German no longer stood! :-) I found another explanation... an economical one. The Germans must have thought economically, the previous cheers were equally in number and duration, but they were divided by three and satisfied the vanity of three singers at the same time. :-)

Now I am going to try to stimulate your imagination. It`s pretty hard, especially as I don`t have any score, or how to write one, but I will give it a try. Come on!
First, tone down, then two strikes break. "Tenfelt! " Tone a little higher and two other strikes break. "Tenfelt! " It follows three times successively with no pauses between, first tone higher than last time, then the highest, the third time in tone between the last two times. "Tenfelt" "Tenfelt" "Tenfelt"

Now smoothly, as described above:
"Tenfelt"
"Tenfelt"
"Tenfelt" "Tenfelt" "Tenfelt"

Gooooood! Who knows "Aida" identified easily what we "sang" "together" in chorus:
"Guerra"
"Guerra"
"Guerra" "Guerra" "Guerra"

Doesn`t "Aida" sound nice in German? :-) ) )

I leave the German connoisseurs to discover what my "Tenfelt" is. :-) I`ve discussed it with a friend of mine who knows German - and I thank him for his patience - and we "oscillated" among variants: "Zum Kampf" (exact translation from Italian), "Zum Feld", "Schlachtfeld", and the nearest as phonetic similarity, "Dem Feld".

"The little blacks dance" and the instrumental after the Triumphal March missed! And other arias, quite a lot, unfortunately!

Triumphal march, the prisoners were brought. They were all tied with a long rope from which they released their hands.
The Egyptian priests had some blisters on their head to make them look bald. Yet their costumes did not seem entirely Egyptian.
It also missed the dialogue between Aida and her father after the pharaoh gave Radames the permission to marry Amneris! You could hear lots of consonant like H, T (Tz), N and Z. :-)

No break given between acts 1 and 2! In fact, there was not any break till the end (! ) Then I understood why the show ended so soon, at 11, though it started at 8, 30. It crossed my mind that the German organizers acted in the lyrical style of their idol, Wagner, who composed long endless works, which kept the spectators tied to their chairs for hours.

The temple from the third act did not need to be built - after all we were in a temple-church:-) - some blue lights starting from the bottom to the top were sufficient to symbolize it. Amneris was now wearing a red dress.

Tzu Fliiiighen! Meaning "Zu fliegen! ":-)
Alias "Fugiaaaamo! "
"Ruuuuun! " :-)

"Abandonar la patria! " - In the back, among the cracks in the walls, the moon appears!

Amonasro and Amneris` escape scene, staged badly, as almost everywhere! I think it is the worst staged scene by almost all opera theaters! There are some strikes that directors ignore them, maybe by shallowness, or by... incapacity. In most stages, Amonasro has plenty of time to kill Amneris, and another common error is that Radames takes the knife out of Amonasro`s hand as if he gives it friendly, willingly. Shall I "incline", however, for the directors` shallowness?

Before Radames` judgment, there is a light change from blue light to scarlet. Under the auspices of this color, it takes place the judgment and the priests sentence Radames to death. Then the main and only benefit of staging the show in the local language reveales itself: Amneris` curses against priests sound better in German! :-) ) )

Thunderous applause at the end. Cheers and admiring whistles! It`s 22, 44, the show lasted only two hours and 13 -14 minutes!
Then, the room emptied quickly, although there were only two exits that merge into a single, wider one.

After seeing both my favorite operetta, "My Fair Lady", and my favorite opera, "Aida", in German, a grrrrittttted und inapppprrrropriaten fÃ¼r muuusic language, as Mozart himself said, the conclusion is trivial, but essential: authentic music sounds good in any language it is sung!

PS: I have learned another word in German. :-) "Bad" means "spa" in English, meaning "seaside resort". When about a show among ruins at Baile Herculane? ;-)

(Article translated by Cornelia Iordache)

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