Watches in Waltz Time

On its New Year's Eve program the Berlin City Opera included selections from Johann Strauss's frothy Fledermaus. Orchestra and vocalists, whirling through the three-quarter-time Second Finale, finally reached the lines:

" . . . Dass ich sehe, wer mich besiegt Und wer meine Uhr gekriegt!" (". . . That I may see who conquered me And who got my watch!") The audience roared, clapped, stamped, and the conductor had to oblige with two encores of the passage. The handful of Russians in the auditorium, well-aware that their habit of appropriating any watch they can lay their hands on is a pet German peeve, were more hurt than annoyed. Said one much-decorated Red warrior after the concert: "I did not think it was at all funny. If these people only knew that I shall be able to buy two cows with a good watch back home. . . ."

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