Saturday, January 01, 2005

Name

I suppose it would make sense to explain the title. I often proposed this as the title of my autobiography. All my German friends would say "no, it's not kinderkuchen, it's LebkuchenKinder." I couldn't explain why Kinderkuchen was funnier in English.

It was a brief summary of my operatic career. I was a member of the chorus of the Ulmer Theater and made my first appearance as one of the children in Hansel and Gretel (you'll recall that the children have all been turned into cookies.) "For the FBI" was a feeble attempt at self-aggrandizement. I was not singing in the chorus; I was infiltrating it. In this guise I discovered nothing at all political, but found out a lot about German beer and wine. I learned the beer may contain only 7 possible ingredients, for instance. That a Mosel is heaven.

I also learned that I was not destined to set the operatic world aflame.

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