Today is the shortest day of the year: in Berlin the sun rose at 8.14 am and set at 3.54pm. Dusk starts about 2.30pm! It can be pretty brutal, especially considering the often overcast and rainy weather. In contrast in New York City the sun rose at 7.16am and set at 4.32pm. My daughter used to complain that in winter she went to school and came home in the dark. Of course now she lives in London, which is hardly better and has even worse weather! It’s just one of the things you’ll have to get used to if you live here and should be taken into consideration. It’s balanced by the long bright summer evenings.
When I sang Turandot at the summer festival in far northern Eutin we delayed the start as long as possible so Nessun dorma wouldn’t take place in broad daylight.