Going to Operaen

The new opera house in Copenhagen is quite the thing to see...I’m very proud of our new opera house in Seattle, but this theater has the additional advantage/disadvantage of being on the other side of the canal from the main part of the city. It is possible to drive up from the back side of the island, but for most patrons a trip to Operaen starts here on the far shore, waiting for a boat to come and whisk you across:



Once there, there’s plenty of time to be social in the lobby. One of the fun things about going to a Ring cycle is you always make new friends, because you’re with the same people night after night. The many Danes in the audience are taking special pride in THEIR production of the Ring; for many of them, it’s the first time they’ve ever heard the opera, because it hasn’t been done here in full since 1912. Below, Linda Jenkins and Laurel Nesholm pause for a photo in the very attractive main lobby space.



The lobby, with it’s four levels of tiers and balconies, is all windows and is especially fun because of these three weird iridescent shapes, the name of which I never heard:



You go into the main floor from the lobby through the space pictured below. I wasn’t able to get any good photos of the auditorium, which is a nice, intimate European-size opera house. (European opera houses, in general, seat less than half as many people as their American equivalents. The people in general are more slender, too.)



During the second intermission, opera fans go out to the watch the sunset across the canal:



The opera house has an incredible sloping roof above it, and below it goes down 30 feet below the water level for rehearsal spaces.



The money from the opera house comes from Mærsk shipping, the company with all the boxcars that you see in Seattle and around the world. Copenhagen is also building a new double theater for plays, across the canal from Operaen.

The point is, a really great theater building is a pleasure to visit even when you’re not finding the performance particularly pleasurable.