This week I saw the opera Rusalka by Antonín Dvorák at the Komische Oper with new friend, book critic and Book Slut editor-in-chief Jessa Crispin. I hadn't planned to make a video about this - due to copyright concerns and because I just wanted to have a relaxed evening consuming art and not trying to be productive. Well, I couldn't keep the camera in my pocket. Although a theater was originally built in 1891/92, it has seen many changes over the decades and was completely rebuilt in 1965/66. So no, those are not original details - and the facade is a not very attractive gray block of cement. By the way, I'm actually not a fan of the gold and glitz combined with cherubs and heroic man statues. It's a little too Donald Trump for me. But it's still impressive. The opera itself was fantastic and, as I overheard someone else say, "kurzweilig" (meaning something that is entertaining and appears to be rather short). Music and performance were wonderful - although I have to admit that due to the German translation and the emphasis on certain words it almost felt comical at times, although not as bad as a sketch by Hape Kerkeling . I really liked the simple, but effective costumes and lack of set dressing and most of all the projection mapping , which projected the shadows of the stage back onto it and then warped it to give the whole stage an spooky underwater feel. Unfortunately I was so in awe, I missed getting video of it. Less