Sprechen Sie ein bisschen Deutsch? Luther 500th Year Poporatorium.
If you were lucky enough to have had Mr. Reinhard Jarsky as your high school German teacher, or you know where Bogenhofen, Darmstad, or Friedensau are (Adventist German Speaking schools), you might enjoy refreshing your German by watching this 1 hour long musical light opera ( they call it a “pop-oratorium” with a huge choir of over 4,000 voices (they planned 1,000 and got over 4,000), orchestra, and professional actors/singers celebrating Martin Luther’s 500 years of Reformation.
(If the link above doesn’t work try https://www.zdf.de/show/luther-das-projekt-der-1000-stimmen/luther—das-projekt-der-1000-stimmen-100.html)
Although my German was long ago, and some of the commentary is too fast for me, the words of the opera are printed on screen of this video, and I was deeply moved by the presentation. They start by spelling L-U-T-H-E-R (with German alphabet pronunciation of course) and then ask “Wer ist Luther?” or “Who Is Luther?” And the next hour does a wonderful job of answering that question, of presenting the important change in mentality and religion that makes this man’s life the turning point from the Dark Ages to modern times, at least in all Germanic countries.
The minimal stage props, and actor’s actions and voices, the orchestra music including modern instruments and rhythms, supported by the huge choir of over 4,000 volunteers (including some Adventists), is very effective. Young Emperor Karl/Charles V at the famous Diet of Wurms (Reichstag zu Wurms) is great in his gold baseball cap and bling!
I wish they would give an English translation version, but if you have even a smattering of German knowledge you may enjoy this very much as both history and religion and just fun music.
—Jack Hoehn
