The starting event for the day was getting to the train station, riding the crowded train to Leipzig, Germany and then to our hotel. Easy to do just eat breakfast, pack up, take a taxi each way. The main highlight of the trip was seeing both windmills and solar panel parks, Germany is going strong with alternative energy sources.
In Leipzig, we realized our train stop because it is quite noticeably a big city with lots of interesting architecture, I missed the best picture of some storage containers that I hope to get on the way out of town. I took horrid pictures with my phone during the trip but hopefully picking up some of the local companies. Bob had a brilliant guess that one of the crops we've been seeing is beets.
At the hotel, we were told we must wait for our room but they'd check our bags. When we finally return to our hotel, our room key's are waiting for us and we're set to go up, very quick helpful service.
Our first taste of Leipzig involved a walk through downtown central which is closed to traffic to get to Thomas Kirke where they held a Bach motet.
The service involved a talk by Professor Andreas Schule, a selection from Mendelssohn on the organ, Jesu meine Freude by Johann Sebastion Bach sung by the boys choir with alternating straight lyrics and lyrics sung in a round, a lovely piece by Brahms, a piece by Lesung which encouraged the audience to participate every other verse, the talk, and then a concluding piece by Bach played by the orchestra featuring several vocalists and the choir.
The church is quite huge and the music sounded very well acoustically, especially from our position in the balcony. The end of it concluded without applause which surprised me. While we waited for the performance, we ran into a very nice woman who often attended Covent Garden performances and she gave us some local tips and tips for Dresden.
Throughout the main part of Leipzig, we witnessed couples waltzing, a flutist, a guitar player, a group playing, a man talking to the crowd along with the numerous old buildings which we'll see more of tomorrow.
The main standout is the old Townhall and we saw the New Townhall on our way to the hotel and it is equally fine in architecture.
The most beautiful building is the University of Leipzig across the street from our hotel.
After we ate our late lunch, we dressed for our ballet. Bob had a fright when he thought we were late but it turned out to be tomorrow's tickets.
The ballet Deca Dance was a world premiere featuring work by choreographer Ohad Naharin and it turned out to be a standout.
When we arrived, we were able to pick up our tickets for both performances, go upstairs and find our seat with ease in a very lovely building with extremely comfortable seats with plenty of leg room to allow others to get by to their seats. I hope Orlando's new performance hall is as well designed. A dancer was on stage as we sat, pretty much adlibbing to a jazz selection, but as the audience arrived and the performance actually began, it seemed his piece was more choreographed than expected and fit into the next pieces.
Other dancers showed up and began to mimic him exactly or almost exactly. The next piece was a standout featuring unusual lighting to start with and showed the superb training of the Leipzig Ballet. The performance was very crisp, very sharply conveyed. Other selections followed including a duet, trio, quintet, solos, and male and female group pieces and joint pieces. The crowd pleaser was a selection featuring a surprise invitation onto stage. The Leipzigers selected held their own quite well. Mr. Naharin chose very unusual music with striking differences in quality while having movements tie the pieces together nicely.
The German audiences are always so pleased with their entertainment, applauding quite generously.
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