Singers in Germany are dusting off their Fracks (tails) and concert dresses because Silvester is coming. Not the cat who wants to eat Tweety Bird in the old cartoons, but New Year’s Eve in Germany and that means lots of fireworks, both vocal and incendiary. The country is a madhouse of fireworks which makes the Fourth of July look tame. Whole cities erupt for hours starting at midnight. It’s really intense for an hour or so, then sporadic until 3 or 4 AM.
It’s also a time for lots of celebratory concerts both on Silvester and New Year’s Day. For opera performances and members of theater ensembles it can mean silly but popular inserts into almost any show. Vienna’s (wien) Die Fledermaus and London’s Proms are the tip of the iceberg and cities all over Germany have concerts of their own. Audiences are in a good mood, many of the gigs are guest contracts, so singers earn extra money and a good time is generally had by all.