Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

city plunges itself into repentance with the same fervor:Confess your sins, repent your trespasses.At the exclusive Ball des Nations in the large ballroom of the Bayrischen Hof, whirled and turned self-importantambassadors and diplomats, the Bavarian aristocracy, the rich and famous, professors, artists, writers, opera stars, theentire corps de ballet. The Dahls had paid for their tickets.Italian beauties and gigolos, Tyrolians, Mauriskentänzer, Morris dancers, a tribe of American Indians, fakirs and Turkishsultans, an English gentleman a la Oscar Wilde, the Marquis de Sade, Marx and Engels, French Republicans, monks,and circus people.Konrad had come as a Georgian villain, a splendid, black, high fur hat, curve-tipped boots, long, tight pantalons, and ashort jacket, a dagger in his belt.He was dancing with a shapely, grey-eyed Russian beauty with two long, artificial braids. She spoke only broken Germanand had approached him in Russian hoping, as she expressed it, that this gruzinskoi costyum gavarit po russkiy, and hehad not had the heart to disappoint her.For days Katharina had been their indulging guide to this Munich madness. The night before they had danced till morningat the Weisse Fest at the Max-Emanuel-Brauerei in Schwabing, a small, neighborhood brewery, to which everyone camedressed in white. All food was white, white mustard, white radishes, Weisswürste, and Weissbier. Konrad had beenwrapped in his bed sheet, Alexandra in a scanty petticoat. The revelers had been mostly students, few wore masks. Thisball was, by comparison, a grand affair at which nearly all celebrants, desperately wishing to remain incognito, woremasks, especially the women.Somewhere lost in this eddy danced Niko and Claudia, Katharina and Friedrich, who had arrived separately, andAlexandra, dressed as a Tcherkassian beauty straight from the thousand-and-one Arabian nights. Immediately separatedand swallowed by the milling crowd, Konrad had not seen her since they had arrived.They had slept only a few hours during the day. Konrad felt drugged, his sensory perceptions heightened, his rationalcapabilities exhausted, over-tired after two nights of this strenuous activity. He found this dream state not unpleasant,and his Russian partner was leading him with determination. He did not have to think. She danced like a professional. Adance teacher? A ballerina from the opera?Ever since he had learned her name was Nina, she had warmed up and pressed closer. In a dark corner she kissed him.Even that was pleasurable, for the first time. But when she began whispering into his ear, "Rodnoi milogo kak tyzhazhdu," he felt she was getting obsessive and disengaged himself. "Izmennik," she hissed at him, when he left her."Yes, ‘traitor!’" Konrad laughed. "It isn’t easy to learn to cope with the West!"He sailed off with a tall wallflower, who had stood forlorn by the side and reminded him of his friend in Berlin who dancedso well. She was from Berlin all right, but she was as awkward as a stick and a poor dancer.Konrad got himself a large cognac from the bar and nursing it watched the whirling crowd. This was the dionysische Festthat Nietzsche talked about! The revelers did not shout "Yakkhos, Yakkhos!" like in Athens, but they were as possessedby the God as then. How different Munich was from Berlin, how much closer to the land of the Greeks! Such a chaoticallyextroverted scene would be unthinkable in the stiff Protestant North.The orchestra stopped. The lights dimmed. A Renaissance herald announced the arrival of the carnival delegations fromaround the world: "His Highness, the Doge of Venice, and the delegation from the City on the Lagoon."In true operatic style a splendidly decorated barga was rowed on stage, greeted by a chorus of local dignitaries, singingsome Verdi Konrad did not recognize. In their midst the mayor in tails and towering behind him a mighty Bavaria, thegigantic, secular protectress of Munich.The Doge, all in gold, disembarked, waving to the audience. He embraced the mayor. Bavaria rattled her weapons. Thesix figures of the Commedia dell’Arte in their bird’s masks scurried from the boat. They danced around the greetingceremony. The audience applauded.Bavaria pushed herself into the foreground and sang a duet with the Doge which was, Konrad thought, taken fromWagner’s Walküre. The Marriage of North and South, Figaro and Brunhilde. Two huge tankards of beer were broughtwhich the Bavarian Walküre and the Doge emptied to universal cheer. Lots of waving of blue and white checkeredBavarian and Venetian Lion flags.The orchestra changed to a South American rhythm. The Commedia dell’Arte masks danced from the stage into theaudience.The Herald blew his trumpet: "The King and Queen of Brazil."A fabulously built black couple descended from the rafters on ropes followed by a black King and Queen on a flyingtrapeze. They were barely covered by exotic, tropical flowers and faux bananas. The music exploded into a wild danceand the four performed an elaborate Ballet Brazilienne.The mayor kissed the hand of the Queen, while the black King wooed Bavaria with a Caribbean love song: "Do, doo, da,huu, dada, doo…" The orchestra fell silent.Like a panther Black Orpheus danced around his victim and first took her shield away, then her spear."Doo doo, Love, da, haa, do, do…"100