Meet Jesus

On May 15, the Passion Play will open in Oberammergau. This will be start of opening the floodgates to more than 500K people coming from all over the world to attend this spectacle that is staged once every ten years. Only people who were born in the village, or have lived there for at least 20 years, may participate. Jesus is played this time by Andreas Richter, a psychologist. Meet Jesus in the video.

Although the ticket was steep (200 euros), the pot was sweetened when I was told that this price includes:

1. Shuttle bus … no vehicles, other than those of the villagers will be allowed in the village of 5,000 people.

2. Lunch and dinner … but I will have to buy my own wine

3. Program … this will most probably my most sacred memento ever, even more sacred than my ticket stub from the Leontyne Price workshop of 2000.

The big joke is that I do NOT have a physical ticket. I have a voucher. Upon arrival, I will present my voucher which contains my name and then will have to show proof that I am the person whose name appears on the voucher. Upon this, my admission and meal tickets, as well as my program will be handed over. This is done in order to avoid ticket scalping. If you check on the internet and see how many people are looking for tickets, you will understand. However, I cannot see how anyone who has a ticket for this, can sell it. Only a fool would!

Finally, fair is fair. On the gravatar on the home page, you will notice two men. Andreas Richter, whom you had “met” in the video, is to the right. The guy on the left, is Frederik Mayhet, the other guy who will play Jesus and who is depicted here to the right. Thus you have met two Jesuses!

You go girl!