Tuesday 7 October 2008

Copenhagen Opera House

The Copenhagen Opera House is the main stage of the Royal Danish Opera.
Designed by Danish architect Henning Larsen , the Copenhagen Opera House is located at the Copenhagen waterfront directly in front of Amalienborg Castle (the residence of the Royal Family).

Constructed 2001-04 and inaugurated in 2005 the Copenhagen Opera House replaces The Old Stage, now primarily used for baroque opera and concerts.

Technical specifications of the Copenhagen Opera House here.

The Copenhagen Opera House contains two stages - The Main Stage and the experimantal stage Takkelloftet.

The Main Stage has 1500 seats and 56 standing room spaces. Takkelloftet has app. 200 seats.

The cost of the construction was approximately 340 million Euro, all privately donated by the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation (the de facto benefactor being Maersk McKinney Møller, de facto chief executive and owner of the Maersk shipping empire).

The curtain, seen below, is designed by Per Arnoldi and Per Kirkeby has created four bronze reliefs for the foyer. Olafur Eliasson, Danish-Icelandic artist, has created three light sculptures (crystal light bulbs) for the foyer seen on most photographs below.

My only criticism of the design relates to the metal grid covering the see-faced windows, prohibing a completely unobstructed view of the harbour. That apart, the Copenhagen Opera is the over-all most sophisticated and elegant opera house I have yet visisted.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Transportation:
Detailed information on public transportation and parking facilities here - the best option is to take a public ferry from Nyhavn (in the old city center of Copenhagen), which crosses the harbour to the Copenhagen Opera House in 5 minutes, departing contiuously in conjunction with performances.

Tickets:
A ticket office is located at the Copenhagen Opera House as well as next to The Old Stage (the main office). A certain number of seats and standing room spaces are only available for purchase on the day of performance.

In my more than 20 years of attending opera in Copenhagen, I have never experienced not being able to secure tickets on the day of performance, one way or the other. Shows may well appear sold out in advance, however tickets eventually become available..

Website (in English) of the Copenhagen Opera House here.

Website of the Royal Danish Opera

























































All above photographs from October 5th 2008. Below a few professional photographs from http://www.operaen.dk/:












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