Opera has always tended toward grandeur. Berlin, home to three world-class opera houses, regularly takes things to the next level.

This week, for example, each of those houses is putting on a different production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” At one, larger-than-life serpents slither across the stage, spurting real fire from their nostrils. At another, animated pink elephants flying across a giant screen deliver a character to his salvation.

Overall, violent crime fell 3 percent and property crime fell 2.6 percent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 percent and larceny down 4.4 percent. Car thefts, though, continue to be an exception, rising more than 12 percent from the year before.

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But with cuts to the city arts budget looming, this looks increasingly like a last hurrah for a system of largess under threat.

ImageA scene from the Staatsoper’s “Magic Flute,” which reconstructs the staging of a 19th-century production.Credit...Monika Rittershaus

Next week, Berlin’s Senate looks set to pass a 2025 budget that will slash funding to the arts scene, which relies heavily on public money. Institutions large and small have warned that these cuts put Berlin’s identity as a cultural capital on the chopping block.

According to a plan released last month, culture funding, which makes up just over 2 percent of the municipal budget, will be reduced by around 13 percent, or about 130 million euros (roughly $136 million).

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