Gefühlssache Revolution

This was the title of our most recent colaboration project with the Blasorchester. They took players from three Orchestras: Zentralkapelle Berlin, Blasorchester das Jungen Ensemble Berlin (the one with which I normally play) and Bläser des Coppi-Gymnasiums, combined with singers for numerous different Choirs around Berlin plus three soloists (1 tenor, 2 basses) and together we performed some sort of Oratorium that was I think written by the guy who directed us. I don't know what it was about because I never read the words, and Miki couldn't get much out of it besides that he thinks it had to do with socialism.

I had gotten Miki a ticket since this was the first night he came to Berlin. The performers were allowed to watch the rest of the performance (our Oratorium was only about 20 minutes long) so I snuck in the side aisle along with a bunch of other young people dressed in black. I had no idea what to expect, because, like usual, I didn't really read up on anything or really pay attention when anyone said anything that didn't relate to when we had to be somewhere (even though I still ended up showing up late every evening thanks to the cat and my incredible cooking skills that set off the smoke detector one night).

**Side Note: I just answered the phone correctly in my office! I am learning how to be Germany.**

As it turns out the second part of the show that I saw (I missed a little during the transition) was at first two battling rock bands, one representing good, and one representing evil. They were getting challenges from the voice of God. He was asking them to answer questions about Revolutions (what makes a good revolution, what was the best revolution, und so weiter). They were earn points after each song and then the points were displayed on the walls (it was a multi-media production) and I learned later from Miki, that all of the point totals that were also years, were years of different revolutions. At this point, I was sitting on the steps and Miki was in the audience. It wasn't until after intermission that we sat together. It worked out nicely since my knowledge of European history doesn't really extend past the German boarders, and Miki doesn't have nearly the receptive German skills as I do (along he's studied it for about just as long). With our powers combined, his knowledge of unamerican history and my ability to understand fast speaking Germans, we were able to pretty much peice together the majority of the jokes.

Oh and I say rock bands because they were rockin'. However, they played a plethera of types of music and the instrumentation: flute/bari sax, 2 clarinets, 3 altos, 2 tenors, 2 trombones, 4 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 tubae, and a rythm section (minus a piano) so I guess they should be called jazz bands. And I actually listed the instrumentation for the band that played the entire second half, but the little bands were like that big one split in half essentially. They were really good. I was very entertained. They played until 11 and the whole thing started at 8, yet I wasn't getting tired or bored or eager to get going or anything. I'm not going to lie, there were some really bizarre guests they had come out to sing some songs. And some wierd costumes and/or videos that accompanied the songs, but that was all part of the charm.