The Opera Tattler

* Notes *
Yesterday I had an outing to the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin-Mitte, a museum I've been to a handful of times before, but never grow tired of. The museum itself dates from 1910, and was built to house the Pergamon Altar, and it is set to be overhauled in 2011. It was raining, and I arrived a bit late to miss the crowds of school groups. The museum was filled to capacity, and they weren't letting people in, so I was first what became a rather long line. People became impatient, and came up to the people just behind me to ask what was the matter, as I apparently to not look like an authority. One particular woman with a school group was unsatified with the answers she got, although I told her the building was full, she pretended I did not speak and opened the door in front of me to talk to the guard. He basically told her the same thing I had said, and she was very concerned about how long we would have to wait. He told her he really did not know how long it would be before people started leaving the museum so that the rest of us could go in, and his best guess was perhaps 20 minutes. In any case, he did let a few of us in within five minutes or so.

The museum was filled with teenagers from Germany, France, and Italy, many of them with school groups. But since such groups tend to move people in and out quickly, it was not terrible, after 20 minutes the gallery where the Pergamon Altar resides was fairly clear. The Hellenistic altar is from the 2nd century BCE, and was excavated from near what is now Bergama, Turkey in 1879 and 1904. The work depicts a struggle between the Greek gods against the giants, and was especially interesting to me as I have just been reading about the representation of classical subjects in the Renaissance.

After admiring the Pergamon Altar, I went to look at the Market Gate of Miletus, but it was quite covered in scaffolding and plastic. Thankfully, the 6th century BCE Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way remained on view, and I was quite please to see all that lovely ultramarine blue tile again. Built on the orders of King Nebuchadnezzar II, this work features dragons, cattle, and lions.

Just upstairs from the Processional way is the Islamic Art Museum (Museum für Islamische Kunst), which I had not been to before. The Aleppo Room from Syria was most impressive. The painted wood paneling decorated a living room in a Christian household and dates from 1601-1603.

* Tattling *
Some German teenagers very excitedly complimented my shoes. A French school group was particularly inappropriate and spoke about me as if I could neither hear nor see them. They also pointed and stared, but I suppose one does not see brightly arrayed post-modern square dancers everyday. Even still French is hardly good secret code, even when spoken in Germany.