I drove right through Dresden to get to the Brücke-Most Zentrum where the singing workshops were being held and the singers were staying. Fortunately the traffic was slow and there are plenty of traffic lights, so I could look around. Cobbled roads are not pleasant with narrow tyres. Poor Bloo bounced around like a cat on tacks.
The houses are fascinating: each one is a slightly different shape, and the colours of the walls are many and varied. Some are villas; some look like minor castles. Many of them have added pieces on the corners, as if bay fronts had migrated to the sides. Of course, most of Dresden was destroyed in retaliation for the bombing of Coventry; now they are twin towns. One can't help thinking that, in the end, Dresden has been more fortunate in not being able to rebuild until more recently. Coventry suffered from the post-war backlash against history, whereas Dresden is being restored. There are modern blocks of flats too, but it's wonderful to see once-lost buildings such as the Frauenkirche rise anew.
The Brücke-Most Zentrum is often used for music projects, and boasts not only a grand piano in the Art Deco sitting-room, but a harpsichord. They'd recently had a project on the experiences of Jews in the Dresden and Czech border area, producing a set of photographs with attached stories which were both saddening and uplifting.
As usual, the music ranged the centuries and included pieces related to where we were, in this case by Czech composers. Martinu lived for some time in Basel where he was very homesick, and his memories of Czech folksongs resulted in the composition of a set of "madrigals" which are lovely. Unfortunately Monica had only been able to get the sheet music with a German translation which, as she said, demonstrated why one should always sing a text in the original language. We also had two songs by Dvorak in Czech, which was a first for me and actually easier to sing than German.
Each morning was entirely taken up with singing, and a couple of hours in the afternoon or evening as well, but there was free time to spend with HMV who came to stay for three days. She toured the city while I was rehearsing, and then we wandered around (talking all the time) and ate cake in a different place every day. We also sampled chocolate at a chocolatier's, where there was a remarkable display including a plaster hat with chocolate decorations of ribbons and roses! Several times we went out with some of the other singers, English people who live in Basel; on one of the trips we found a lovely cafe with a terrace by the river and an attractive range of cakes. Sadly we didn't taste the cake, because after about half an hour of trying to get service from three staff who didn't seem to be doing much, we left and went instead to the cafe-bakery across the road. The view there wasn't so good but the service was excellent and so was the cake.
It being just after Easter, many smaller trees were hung with painted eggs; so was the fountain outside the church in Bad Schandau where we performed a small concert on Saturday. Bad Schandau has experienced serious flooding over the centuries, but as with the Gironde it's happening more frequently now. The worst was in 2002: there are photographs of the flooded town decorating church and restaurants and offices all over the town.
Sometime I shall upload a few photos.
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