No, there aren't any vikings, try another opera...

Saw Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" last night at the Staatsoper Berlin. The opera house is on Unter den Linden, right across from Humboldt (on Bebelplatz adjacent to St. Hedwig's Cathedral). It's gorgeous. I only got a few pictures inside (my camera died again due to its battery-eating habit), but it's really nice--all done up in marble with inset mirrors, lots of gilt trim, and shiny candlabras. The view from the second tier (yay cheap students tickets!) was quite good (that was not sarcasm; the actual nosebleed seats were in the back of the 3rd tier, we were just left of center in the second row of the second tier).
The opera itself ran about 5 hours with 2 intermissions. The singing was superb (and I applaud the stamina of all the musicians, wow). The costumer has my unending praise (frockcoats totally need to come back in style, and I also want a cool fantasy-medieval dress like Isolde's); and the set design rocked. it consisted of a vaguely gothic graveyard backdrop (headstones for the mostpart), with a large fallen angel scupture serving as the main setpiece. The angel was fallen forward with face in her hands, one wing spread low to the ground, the other aloft but mangled, with a cascade of torn feathers. The singers were using the statue to make all the level changes for the scenes (the boat in Act I, a castle rampart in Act II, Tristan's father's house in Act III), and it really set the tone without being particuarly literal.

And, for the record, the fat lady with a horned helmet ends other Wagner operas, not this one.