come sunshine … come rain … come jonas kaufmann!!!

You how knows me … know that I just LOOOoOOOove Berlin! Berlin isn’t a city … Berlin is a way of life!!!!!

Just back with 4 days of memories from this amazing city and the hard drive is a bit overloaded and my feet needs a good break. I feel really bad what I put them through, but it’s what it’s.

And my “sorry ass” … wasn’t too happy neither … most of the time, for some reason. But Oscar was on my side. *smile It has been 4 exhausting days and pleasant evening.

When it came the magical evening with Jonas Kaufmann at Waldbühne we all agreed, even if the weather was playing up.

Even if my feet had a hard couple of hours at Alexanderplatz with shopping after a couple of rest and another pair of shoes on …. we got the S-train 9 from Berlin Zoologischer Garten and 7 stops later was it time to leave the train at Pichelsberg and then a short walk … just to follow the stream of people. A lovely warm … and sunny afternoon, I reached the area around 5.40pm … they opened the gates just after 6pm, they were delayed. Me and 15.000 others was standing there in the afternoon sun sweating away.

As the gates opened up so did the sky … and we got soaking wet, got my rain poncho out when I felt the first raindrops,  but the rain was so heavy and the ground were just becoming muddy. We where out in the forest and no shelter was so ever. Some tried to get shelter under the trees.

Even if Oscar become wet too. He was in my bag and my bag was kept under the poncho and didn’t want to work at first.

It rained for about 15 min. My trousers was wet up to the knees and the rainwater full of mud was running through my sandals.

Even if it rained was it not hard to be amazed by the beautiful area … and the setting, out there in the forest was this massive amphitheatre. It was designed by German architect Werner March, and opened in association with the 1936 Summer Olympics.

It holds seats more than 22,000, in three ranks that rise 30 metres (98 ft);[ the last row of seats, the 88th, is also 93.5 metres (307 ft) from the centre of the orchestra pit, so originally 40 microphones were installed on-stage, feeding 10 coordinated groups of loudspeakers.In 1982, a canopy costing 200,000 € was erected over the stage, providing both a visual and an acoustic barrier.

In July 1989, Pavarotti sang a solo concert at Waldbühne  and The Berlin Philharmonic holds its outdoor concert there every summer.

Standing on the top of the area and looking down to locating the section where I had a seat was impressive.

I got a great seat in section B with a lovely Dutch couple of my left side. In front of so funny and life loving lady, Jane Fong, from Hong Kong with daughter that lives in Berlin. They made my evening at Waldbühne very special and the waiting for Jonas so much quicker.

The queues to the food and drink trucks was endless, so a young charming man saved my life with walking around the stands with a baskets of giant pretzels for €3.50.

The concert started as it should exact at 8pm!!!

We where lucky there were no more rain … even if we were informed by Jonas that more rain was going to fall, so let us get on with the show and so he did together with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) under the direction of Jochen Rieder and Anita Rachvelishvili, a Georgian operatic mezzo-soprano.

For 3 hours they held us delighted and enchanting. The settings were magical … as the stage was changing colours the whole time … in the dark warm summer night, that the wet evening had turned into.

When he finished off the concert with “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s opera Turandot, it felt like my heart was going to explode. *smile And I wasn’t not the only one … with that feeling. *smile It was the CLIMAX, he does it better than both Pavarotti and Domingo (sorry guys) … but I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t do “O sole mio”. After the all the concert had the title “Dolce Vita”

No stress to get back into Berlin … everything went so smooth, the area was emptied out in a slow passe and even time to visit the washroom (no queue) and at the station a train was waiting on me.

And 00.30am I ordered a big chicken salad at a restaurant opposite my hotel and about 1,5 hour later I was in bed.

We all agreed; my feet, my sorry ass, my heart and my soul plus Oscar  … that it had been a magical evening and fantastic value for money, €175 plus the train ticket €4.50.. Worth every cent.

And I’m still in love this powerful voice in a very sexy packaging. He has truly an unique voice and the most wonderful smile.

On Sunday evening 10pm they were broadcasting the concert on TV …. and to see the beautiful stage, Waldbühne from above out in the middle of nowhere … gave a wonderful sensation,

I was there!! I was a part of that magical evening.

Jonas Kaufmann … Ich hoffe wir sehen uns wieder !!!

“Music is the strongest form of magic.”
Marilyn Manson