a blog by Peter Leonard
Saturday night I was lucky enough to score some free tickets to the premiere of American Mixture at the Royal Ballet. Three cheers for co-worker connections. The ballet is a combination (thus the title) of three discrete pieces by different coreographers, ranging in style from hard rock to modern classical. The middle section is actually set to the music of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt -- I don't know the exact title, but I've heard it many times before on an album my mother owns. Above, a picture from that movement (not taken by me, obviously, although the seats we were in would have afforded a similar view.)
During the break in between the dances I wandered throughout the building, checking out the formal halls and reception rooms. I started to scan the crowd to see if I would recognize anyone from work or my classes -- Denmark is such a small country, you're almost guaranteed to bump into somebody you know at big events. Sure enough, I recognized Marianne, one of my Danish professors from the US, who had flown into Denmark for a week of meetings with various universities in the capital.
Interestingly the Royal Theater is constructing an entirely new building on the Copenhagen waterfront, not far from the Royal Opera / Black Diamond area. I believe it's going to be set aside only for theater productions, leaving the ballet to the old "Gamle Scene" at Kongens Nytorv.
