Rosenborg Castle and Mozart

 Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Copenhagen Day 2

 After breakfast, we walked through a lovely park to the Rosenborg Castle, build by King Christian IV early in the 17th century.  Since 1838 it has been a public museum, and it houses treasures from the Danish rulers.  The art is only so-so, but the artifacts and the treasury are astonishing.

 


 I’ll show a small selection of the vast contents.  Here’s a chest with an integral clock:

 


The clock face is, we think, an enamel scene of the story of Moses striking the rock for water and the Israelites rejoicing.  This was the portion which Joyce and I read and taught d’vars on for our 50th anniversary celebration:

 


 Here are the thrones in the Great Hall, protected by silver lions:

 


 There is an extensive collection of ivories:

 


 Here’s a chalice with medallions, some of which are ivory cameos:

 


 A crown:

 


 We spent about three hours there, then walked back to the hotel and changed for the opera.  We walked to Nyhavn where we had dinner at a restaurant recommended by our hotel staff.  It was excellent.  We took a ferry from Nyhavn directly to the Opera House.  Built about ten years ago by a Danish shipping magnate, it was a gift from him to the city.  Of course, he also got permits to build a series of buildings along the waterfront which are under construction.  The exterior is not particularly impressive, but the interior is.  There is a large outer shell made of lots of glass, surrounding a wooden structure which contains the theater:

 


 The interior is very high; our seats were in the orchestra, but we took an elevator up to the highest level, and the view was about 45 degrees down to the stage:

 


 The set was very modern:

 


 The production was very modern too.  Nudity, guns, modern clothes and extremely busy staging (which both of us found ultimately distracting).  The voices were mixed—some quite excellent, some adequate.  The conductor (a young man with a beard and a thick ponytail down to his waist) mostly had control of his forces but not always.  But the music; it’s always glorious.  We both very much liked the staging of the descent to hell scene at the end (before the silly epilog).  If anyone would like a more detailed review, send a note.

 Tomorrow we meet up with our group and board our ship.  More when I can.

Comments

  1. Ralph LockeMay 24, 2022 at 2:47 PM

    Thanks for all these amazing glimpses! One gets a sense of where all the tax money from hard-laboring farmers and small landowners (or whoever) went...... I of course would like to hear more about the performance (perhaps by email).

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMay 26, 2022 at 9:10 AM

    you didn't mention what opera. your criticism sounds just like the critics appraisal of Hamlet at the Met; utterly distracting noise, music, surtitles! The opera house looks kinda like the old Met (before you were born I think) and much more appealing than the endless Family Circle.
    The castle interior looks like broque over-the-top ungepatchke! This is working out to be a wholly satisfactory virtual vacation!

    ReplyDelete

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