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I am in Berlin for the Strauss, 5 Strauss operas in as many days.  Today is Elektra.

I was in Berlin once in the seventies when Germany was still divided.  I remember only a few things.  I went once to east Berlin to see Nefertiti.  The buildings were all black and dented.  I went two times to the Deutsche Oper where my friend Janis Martin was singing.  I saw her in Tosca and Le Nozze di Figaro.  After one of the performances we went out to eat steak.  She told me I should have come in the sixties.

Berlin has become very modern in the intervening years.  Here and there are old buildings, but not many.  It is less chaotic than New York and more orderly than Paris.  Somehow one longs for cars that drive recklessly and people that walk too fast.

I get to practice my German which is not bad.