Classical music
It was truly in 1740, when Frederick II (the Great) came to power, that Berlin's musical life really took off. A passionate music-loving king, himself a flautist, he surrounded himself very early on with a group of brilliant musicians (a small private orchestra), including such great names as the brothers Carl Heinrich (1704-1759) and Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702-1771), the brothers Franz (1709-1786) and Johann Benda (1713-1752), Christoph Schaffrath (1709-1763), Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1762) and Johann Sebastian's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788). A few years later, they were joined by Johann Joachim Quantz (then Europe's greatest flutist) and Georg Anton Benda (1722-1795) and together they gave birth to a new aesthetic, a link between Baroque and Classicism, known today as the "Berlin School". Although long underestimated, the period nevertheless produced a great many works, most of which are undeniably charming and inventive.
An avid opera lover, Frederick II was also determined to make Berlin a capital of the genre and wanted to build a building that could rival the splendid Dresden opera house. Thus began the construction of the Staatsoper in Unter den Linden. Inaugurated in 1743, musical geniuses have paraded here, without exception, through the ages. Today, the place continues to nourish the musical prestige of the capital thanks to its musical director, the immense Argentinian-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim (also at the head of the famous Staatskapelle, the resident orchestra of the Opera).
It was not until a century later with the arrival of Friedrich Wilhelm IV on the Prussian throne (in 1840) that the capital saw the birth of a new great German figure: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). Called to Berlin by the king - who wanted to make the capital a major artistic centre - Mendelssohn was charged with reorganising the city's musical life. In less than a decade in Berlin, the composer would acquire phenomenal notoriety and compose some of his most famous works, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream
.Although the German economy was drained after 1918, the country experienced a recovery in the 1920s (between 1923 and 1929), accompanied by an artistic golden age. It is here, in this effervescence, that some of the most important figures of 20th-century German music, such as Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), crossed paths. One of the most revered composers of twentieth-century scholarly music, this self-taught man with a revolutionary spirit explored atonality and then free atonalism before developing the famous serial dodecaphonism, a process that he pushed to the extreme with the greatest virtuosity. Without going into detail, Schönberg's works and works seek to liberate music from its foundations - the tonal hierarchy - and use dissonance as a raw material. An avant-garde composer, to say the least, whose break with the classical codes of composition was to inspire absolutely all the scholarly music of the century, and in particular his Berlin contemporaries Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) and Kurt Weill (1900-1950).
Today, the richness and dynamism of scholarly music are very well represented in Berlin by the various symphony orchestras of the city, starting with the Berliner Philharmoniker. One of the largest orchestras in the world, the Berliner Philharmoniker is housed in the Philharmonie, near Potsdamer Platz, in a street named after Herbert von Karajan, the legendary Austrian conductor who remained at the helm for 35 years. After him, the orchestra has known only prestigious successors: Claudio Abbado (1989-2002), Simon Rattle (2002-2018) and now Kirill Petrenko (since 2019). Not as dazzling but almost as brilliant, the Konzerthausorchester is historically the orchestra of East Berlin. Founded in 1952 and housed in the Konzerthaus, it is somewhat the classical counterpart of the Philharmonic and lovingly defends the Romantic repertoire, under the baton of the superb Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer (since 2012). The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the last of the city's most important ensembles, was founded in the 1960s as a springboard for talented beginners. With no fixed residence, the orchestra performs anywhere, with a soft spot for the Philharmonic (understandably). Today conducted by Robin Ticciati, the ensemble has seen a number of prestigious conductors at its desk over the years: Lorin Maazel (1964-1975), Riccardo Chailly (1982-1989), Vladimir Ashkenazy (1989-1999), Kent Nagano (2000-2006) and Tugan Sokhiev (2012-2016).
So, in Berlin, going to the Opera is a special experience. Not only is the capital city home to three internationally renowned entities, but the institution itself is different from what you may have experienced in France. Wearing a much more democratic tradition, jeans mix with evening dresses and the staging (as in the theatre) is sometimes very daring, not to say provocative. In addition to the Staatsoper Theater mentioned above, Berlin has two other major opera houses: the Deutsche Oper and the Komische Oper. The latter is the Comic Opera of Berlin and is therefore traditionally specialized in operettas. The Deutsche Oper honours its modern architecture (destroyed during the war, it was rebuilt in the 1960s) and offers modern stagings of classics by Verdi, Mozart, Wagner or works from the 20th century. It is also worth noting that the Neuköllner Oper is a UFO in the margins of the great operas. Located in the once popular and working-class district of Neukölln, this theatre has made its mark with lesser-known creations in a wide range of genres, from experimental chamber music to great romantic operas and music hall.
Electronic music
Berlin is the European - not to say world - capital of techno. The genre is inseparable from the city and its nightlife and clubbing offer are responsible for a large part of its tourism. To understand the phenomenon, it is important to go back to 1989, the day after the fall of the Wall. At that time, thousands of young Germans from East and West Germany converged on the city to party and took over many empty spaces, particularly in Mitte, the former city centre of East Berlin. Power stations, bunkers, hangars, underground stations...: everything could become a temporary club. But for people to dance, you have to give them something to dance to. Born in Detroit in the mid-1980s, techno was introduced to Germany at that time. In the hands of legendary artists such as the Basic Channel duo, the genre was enriched by dub (Jamaican electronics) to gain in substance and depth. This is how minimal (or "minimal techno") was born and a typical Berlin sound emerged. At the end of the 2000s, personalities - who had become huge stars of the genre - such as Paul Kalkbrenner or Ellen Allien and films such as Berlin Calling played a major role in conveying the image of Berlin as a festive city and spreading its music around the world. Today, illegal squats have given way to clubs which, although official, remain spaces of freedom for youth and counter-culture. The most famous of these is of course the Berghain, the temple of techno that obsesses clubbers all over the world. Here, you're never really sure if you're going to make it back, it's all about the iconic physio, Sven, with his face tattooed. Inside, everything is allowed (or almost), to the sound of the crème de la crème of the DJs. As an artist, being programmed at the Berghain is a huge professional recognition. Over time, the Berghain has become the Holy Grail for all young tourists to Berlin, an international fad. Some "parties" last for several days, with daytime parties (especially on Sundays) being more open, sometimes with families and children. A few other iconic clubs are also to be found in Mitte, such as the KitKatClub, Berlin's most intimate fetish club, or the Tresor, a temple of the genre once housed in a safe (hence its name) and whose label - homonymous - is among the most influential. Other must-see attractions in Kreuzberg include the Watergate, with its magical view of the river, and the Club Der Visionäre, a small place along the canal, perfect for a before. In Kreuzberg, there is also a fabulous record shop, Space Hall, which is huge and has... absolutely everything. The trendy HHV shop (in Friedrichshain) also has some good vinyl records.
Theatre
In development since the middle of the 18th century with authors such as Kleist, the Berlin theatre had one of its best periods until 1814. A few decades later, it was with the arrival of Otto Brahm, the great director of the time, as director of the Deutsches Theater in 1894, that the Berlin theater regained its lustre. However, it was really during the effervescence of the 1920s that the great figure of Berlin's dramaturgy would emerge: Bertolt Brecht. Great spirit, he remains famous for his Threepenny Opera (1928), set to music by Kurt Weill, a fiery indictment against the rise of Nazism, or Arturo Ui's The Resistible Ascension (1941) about an astonishing topicality. In 1949, after his return from exile, he founded the Berliner Ensemble, which he used as a platform to promote the avant-garde of his time. After his death in 1956, the directors continued not only to perform Brecht's plays, but also to perpetuate his ambition. In the 1990s, the venue was directed by Heiner Müller, a giant of German dramaturgy whose work was marked by the decline of the West. More recently, Schaubühne has emerged as one of Berlin's most important theatrical entities, marked by the personalities of some of its directors such as Peter Stein and Thomas Ostermeier, who have become among the greatest European directors.
