Three Gentlemen in Berlin, briefly

Here’s a tale of three friends, longtime members of the USA’s Jussi Björling Society and each eager during late summer 2024 for some insight on the upcoming opera scene of winter 2024-25, especially in Berlin with its three world-class houses: the premier Deutsche Oper Berlin (“DOB” below), the Staatsoper Berlin, and the Komische Oper – (currently not in its usual hall and missed by us due to our time constraints). Our main guide to the available musical choices was the UK’s Opera magazine, where the sheer volume of offerings available in Berlin week after week was impressive. Our personal schedules were forcing us to look at mid-January 2025: what were our chances of decent weather at that time of year? Actually, pretty good, at least to us three (one from England, one from Washington State, and one from Wisconsin). We decided simply to be optimistic about weather.