My mother also had her own career and quite a lot of success. She had composed an opera, Die schöne Lau, based on a text by Möricke, a tale about a mermaid. It was performed, perhaps mainly because of her name, and we were taken to the first night at the Opera House in Schwerin in Mecklenburg. This must have been about 1929. I only remember that it all took place at the bottom of the sea and I couldn't understand how they stopped the water from flowing into the auditorium or how the people could sing under water. I was not very musical at that time. When I was taken to my first real opera, The Flying Dutchman, I said that the story seemed good but that the music got in the way.