Today was vocational day in Bremen. The Bremen Theater every summer has one opera on a floating stage in an unused harbor of Bremen and I was given the opportunity to view the last rehearsal before dress rehearsal. This year the opera was AIDA (woohoo)!!

Some of the problems with outdoor theater are microphones, weather, moving stage, seating and perhaps motion sickness. I was curious to see how a theater in Germany might handle this. I realize what some of the solutions might be, but I was still curious.

As you can see from the pictures, the stage, on the bottom was a sort of ship that had several anchors to some pilings in the ocean floor. There was some rocking, but it seemed controlled for the most part. The body mikes worked very well even for the always difficult to capture high floaty and high loud sections with the soprano. Unfortunately the tenor was marking so there wasn’t a very good gauge.

The stage “set” was made up of about 20 blocks that were painted a neutral cream color. The soldiers/extras on stage moved the boxes appropriately to fit the scene. So at the end (SPOILER ALERT!) when Aida and Radames are entombed to die they were surrounded by these blocks on three sides and then the guards stepped in front to simulate an enclosed area. It was perfect! The singing was gorgeous and I loved the whole idea of persons enjoying a night at the opera on the water. I am going to see the Bregenz Festival AIDA as well and can’t wait to see the differences :)

I also got a chance to visit the Waterfront, which is a failed space center in Bremen turned shopping mall. While a very nice mall, I though the idea of a space center was even cooler. From the air that is what the shopping center looks like with rocket boosters and everything. Very cool!!