My Fair Lady: Dinner at the Gendarmerie & Music at Komische Oper Berlin
About the Event
Indulge in a feast for all the senses in the cultural city of Berlin and enjoy a delicious dinner followed by the wonderful music of My Fair Lady at the world‐famous Komische Oper Berlin. See Katharine Mehrling, multiple award winner and a firm favorite with Berlin audiences, as the stubborn and charming Eliza Doolittle, and Max Hopp as the eccentric Professor Higgins in one of the most popular musicals of all time.
Professor Henry Higgins, a leading expert in phonetics and a passionate defender of proper elocution, makes a bet with the similarly‐minded Colonel Pickering: using the young flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who can only express herself in the coarse dialect of the lower classes, Higgins wishes to prove that the brilliant polish which proper elocution provides opens the doors to the highest echelons of society. Yet what Higgins forgets on his path to success is that Eliza is no guinea pig, but a person – with and without an accent!
In his acerbic criticism of the rigid class structures in 19th‐century England, the author of the literary template for My Fair Lady, George Bernard Shaw, drew on the ancient myth of the sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with an idealized woman he has carved out of stone. Director Andreas Homoki, the artistic director of the Zurich Opera House, has found grand poetic images for the worlds which separate someone like Eliza Doolittle from the »better society« of someone like Professor Higgins, and in his production fully emphasizes the musical and dramatic qualities of this 'perfect musical'.
The fact that an elocution exercise set to music – 'The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain' – remains a perennial favorite to this day says everything you need to know about the enchanting power of Frederick Loewe's immortalized melodies.
Based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and the film by Gabriel Pascal (1956). Book and song texts by Alan Jay Lerner.
Start the evening with a culinary delight and allow yourself to be spoiled with a delicious dinner before the concert. The Restaurant Gendarmerie is only a few minutes away from the Komische Oper and offers modern Berlin brasserie cuisine in a stylish ambience.
Practical Information
Schedule
Your e‐ticket indicates the starting time of the concert.
If you wish to book/have booked a concert that starts at 19:30, then dinner time will be/is at 17:30.
If you wish to book/have booked a concert that starts at 20:00, then dinner time will be/is at 18:00.
Please make sure to arrive at restaurant Gendarmerie on time.
The price categories of the event include costs of concert and dinner.
Round off your evening with an exclusive dinner and savor the many tastes of popular national dishes in Germany's capital. The restaurant Gendarmerie (Behrenstraße 42, 10117 Berlin) is situated within a short walking distance of the concert venue and will spoil you with the best of German cuisine in Berlin.
Menu:
Starters (choice of):
*Sautéed shrimps (150g) with garlic, olive oil, parsley and Harissa mayonnaise*
*Steak tartar (90g) of dry aged beef fillet with French fries*
*Lettuce hearts – aioli – parmesan – avocado with prawns*
Main Courses (choice of):
*Pan‐fried escalope (schnitzel) with potato salad and cranberries*
*Calf’s liver in Calvados gravy with apples, onions, bacon and mashed potatoes*
*Traditional meatballs in a cream of champagne with small red beets, mashed potatoes and crispy capers*
Home made Desserts (choice of):
*Crème brûlée from bourbon vanilla*
*Marquise au chocolat – berries*
*Fine French cheese platter*
drinks are not included in the price
Cast / Production
Musical Direction: Peter Christian Feigel
Staging: Andreas Homoki
Choreography: Arturo Gama
Stage Design: Frank Philipp Schlößmann
Costumes: Mechthild Seipel
Dramaturgy: Johanna Wall
Chorus: David Cavelius
Lighting: Franck Evin
Professor Henry Higgins: Max Hopp
Eliza Doolittle: Katharina Mehrling
Alfred P. Doolittle: Carsten Sabrowski
Oberst Pickering: Christoph Späth, Tom Erik Lie
Mrs. Higgins: Susanne Häusler
Freddy Eynsford‐Hill: Adrian Strooper
Mrs. Pearce: Christiane Oertel
Professor Zoltan Karpaty: Zoltan Fekete
Chorsolisten der Komischen Oper Berlin
