November 29 Copenhagen

This evening we joined the locals for a performance of West Side Story at the Royal Danish Opera House. This 21st Century structure is on the canal: we reached it via a short dark foot ferry ride. We had great seats….front row first balcony…..that provided a good view of the stage and the five rounded balconies inside. The main material appeared to be wood and the overall impression was being inside towers of circles.

We were expecting the show to be in English but it was totally in Danish! It was a bit of a stretch to believe that these tall blonde young men were gang members, but the singing and dancing were great and the performers had a lot of heart. I did recognize Shark, Jet and Tony, and occasional words in Castilian Spanish, but otherwise we had to rely totally on our memory and the context to follow the story. The orchestra was situated in back of the stage, and it’s entire floor moved up and down. Without words, I paid more attention to Bernstein’s lush score and orchestration.