Unscene Berlin

For people who come from anywhere other than Spain, waiting for clubs to open on a Friday or Saturday night in the winter can feel like Chinese water torture.  Things start late .  How late, you ask?  Imagine the time when you'd go home from a typical club back home and well, that's the time when you'll be expected to arrive at a club in Berlin.  And if you want to be there when the party is full-on, in some clubs it's better to arrive around the same time that you'd normally be waking up .   In the summer, there are glorious tree-filled green spaces to while away the endless pre-club hours by basking in the sun, drinking Sekt, flying kites, riding unicorns (at least, I thought it was a unicorn), but in the winter, there is nothing but bitter cold and bitter, bitter Berliners to fill the vacuum between dinner and dancing.  It's like waiting for Godot: an existential exercise in riding out an alien & arbitrary nightlife rhythm that refuses to adap...

Berlin's club scene can be a bit blah in February and that's why, this week, I'm taking my hat off to party people that are making an extra effort to keep it surreal. It was bound to happen eventually: a night fusing clubbing with opera and classical music.  This Friday all of the above will be melted down into a fluid new concept at the abandoned pool venue of Stattbad Wedding , on Gerichtstrasse.     The clinical tiles of a pool space seem ideal for an hour-long original performance entitled Insanity, a " dark, disturbing tale of a woman’s descent into madness, as she struggles to deal with a mysterious and tragic event in her past," (well, the name was kind of a giveaway).  "The timeless theme of insanity will be explored, evoking the chaos of a tortured consciousness." Sounds like the average winter day's train ride to work, but at least this one should have a better-looking crowd. The opera will feature live music by Gesualdo, Hande...