The Yard Magazine

A Passport to Knowledge: Jamie Danner ’12 (part 1 of 3)

David Rockefeller International Experience Grants Program

Jamie Danner (photo: Jazmin Perez)

Munich is finally warm! Summer, as it seems was the case back in the States, was particularly wet and hovering around 15˚C, which was really quite upsetting. However, now it has been beautiful and blue for a week or so, the way Bavaria is supposed to be, so summer is truly here. I have already been here for over a month, and so much has happened! The group of kids is really great, it’s been a blast being here with them—particularly discovering the city whilst simultaneously discovering the language, very daunting without partners in crime. In particular, I have had the incredible luck of being here with another student, Victoria Crutchfield, a senior in Currier next year, who is an opera director. Naturally, once we found out that we were going together, we both upped the ante in terms of the operas that we wanted to see. We spent two weekends out of Munich and have been to the Vienna Kammeroper to see Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave, a harrowing antiwar tale based on the Henry James story, and to the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden to see Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte—a production that took most of its visual cues from one of the original productions, and featured the base Rene Pape as Sarastro, which was incredible (look for him on iTunes and YouTube if you don’t know who he is). The opera festival is currently under way here in Munich, though we technically saw some operas that weren’t part of the festival proper as well. Initially, we had expected not to see anything here, as all of it was ausverkauft (sold out in German, loads of fun to say during intermission…), but there is a really incredible culture of standing room scalping—that is to say, no one makes any money selling the tickets—in fact, most of the time they discount them (perhaps due to the economy?), which is great for us—so we have seen several operas here! We saw Edita Gruberova (who is 64!!!) star in a simply amazing production of Lucrezia Borgia by Donizetti, Werther by Massenet, Jenufa by Janacek, and Lohengrin by Wagner, which was possibly one of the most musically fulfilling moments of my life. To see singers just be perfect is a sheer joy, in addition to being given (for free) a real seat for my first (five-hour) Wagner opera. The production elicited (well-deserved) boos, but the audience clapped for Anja Harteros, who sang Elsa, for 20 minutes.

This was beyond encouraging for me, simply because I’m hoping to return as a singer sometime in the next decade, and the enthusiasm just proves that opera will be alive and well in this part of the world for a while yet. Additionally, some of the more archaic grammar and vocabulary have been perfect for reading supertitles in German, which has been my most entertaining German exercise—particularly while seeing a Czech opera [Janacek]—talk about a language barrier! But I did manage to understand quite a lot of it, a testament to the program for sure. We also managed to get some really phenomenal seats to a concert of Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (the Brad and Angelina of the opera world, minus the children…or marriage), which was outdoors in the Königsplatz, which is surrounded by a Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian temple on three sides—truly awe-inspiring! We also saw a very modern production of La Bohème, which actually was quite interesting (phew!); a Liederabend (song recital) sung by Diana Damrau that was incredible—and for my birthday I met my brother (who has just left Munich, after studying German here for three weeks) at the Gasteig, where the Philharmonie plays, to see a concert of Szymanowski, Chopin, and Prokofiev: eight euros apiece for third-row seats.

Neue Rathaus (photo: Jim Reuter)

So, a little bit about Munich and academics; the program is incredibly informative and there is in fact a lot of work, though it might not sound like it from the above—most of the operas have been on the weekends! We are translating a history book about Munich, through which we are becoming acquainted with practical (somewhat practical…formal, certainly) application of the grammar and a whole load of vocabulary and lovely details about Munich’s history. Since we arrived in early June, our German really has gotten much, much better! We are generally in class 9:30-11:00 for grammar, 11:00-12:00 for writing, 12:00-1:00 for lunch, and 1:00-3:30 for either history, walks around the city, smaller field trips outside the city, or to museums. Pretty much every week, we have gone for a day somewhere really cool— for example, this past week, we went to Nuremburg, and, two weeks ago, to Schloss Neuschwanstein (the famous fairy tale castle). All told, the museums—particularly, the Pinakotheken (the major art museums) all have really incredible collections that span about 800 years of art. Because it is Munich, I have to mention the beer—it’s actually really incredible here, and perfectly analogous to those cheap, delicious wines one hears about in France. Also in abundance are schnitzel, lederhosen worn without a shred of irony (I bought some, very excited about that), sausages, a few more types of sausages, and three places where you can actually get a really good salad—something I never thought I would crave, but I guess after so much sausage, mustard, and bread, something happens…

In sum, I can really understand most German now, which is very exciting! I can speak it as well, but that is still a bit more difficult for me. But working on my lieder for the conservatory program that begins very soon (eek!) has proved linguistically much easier (however, the lack of a piano has been close to heartbreaking).

Till next time,
Jamie

Continue Reading Part 2 »