The Copenhagen Opera House 2005

The Copenhagen Opera House (in Danish usually called Operaen) is the national Opera house of Denmark, and among the most modern opera houses in the world. It is located on the island of Holmen in the center of Copenhagen. It is also one of the most expensive opera houses ever built. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1268 KB) The Copenhagen Opera House. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1268 KB) The Copenhagen Opera House. ... New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Opera Bolshoi Theatre. ... Holmen is the common name for a row of islands in the waters between Zealand and the northern tip of Amager. ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ...

History

The Opera House was donated to the Danish state by the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation in August 2000 (A.P. Møller was a co-founder of the company now known as Mærsk). Some politicians were offended by the private donation, in part because the full cost of the project would be tax deductible, thus virtually forcing the government to buy the building; but it was accepted by the Folketing and the government in the autumn of 2000. It was designed by the architect Henning Larsen, engineer Buro Happold and Theatre Consultant Theatreplan. A.P. Møller had the final say in the design of the building, however, adding steel to the glass front, among other things. Construction began in June 2001 and was completed on October 1, 2004. It was opened on January 15, 2005 in the presence of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and Queen Margrethe II. Arnold Peter Møller was the founder of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, the largest Danish company to day. ... The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (Danish: A.P. Møller-Mærsk Gruppen) is an international business consortium involved in a variety of business sectors, primarily transportation. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ... The Folketing [], or Folketinget, is the national parliament of Denmark. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Architect (disambiguation). ... The Copenhagen Opera House Henning Larsen (born August 20, 1925) is an internationally known visionary, Danish architect. ... // View of the Great Court Buro Happold is a professional services firm providing engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of buildings, infrastructure and the environment. ... is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller (born July 13, 1913) is a Danish shipping magnate and businessman, and currently Denmarks richest man according to Forbes List of Billionaires 2007. ... Anders Fogh Rasmussen , also: (born January 26, 1953) is the current Prime Minister of Denmark (in Danish Statsminister, meaning State Minister). ... Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II (Margrethe Alexandrine Þorhildur Ingrid), styled HM The Queen (born April 16, 1940), is the Queen regnant and head of state of Denmark. ...

The supertenor Plácido Domingo made a gala guest appearance as Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre on April 7, 2006 (production by Kasper Bech Holten). The performance was attended by Queen Margrethe II. This article is about Tenor vocalists in music. ... Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil KBE (born January 21, 1941)[1] better known as Plácido Domingo, is a world-renowned operatic tenor. ... Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as they were later called). ... Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. ... April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Location

The Opera House seen from the back/side. Amalienborg is just visible across the channel, and beyond that the dome of The Marble Church.

The Opera is located in Copenhagen just opposite the main castle Amalienborg at the shore of the harbor. The opera house is built in alignment with Amalienborg and The Marble Church, so that if one stands in the main entrance of the Opera, one can see the Marble Church over the water along the road through Amalienborg. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1260 KB) The Copenhagen Opera House. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1260 KB) The Copenhagen Opera House. ... Amalienborg, with the Marble Church at the top Amalienborg Palace (Danish: Amalienborg Slot) is the winter home of the Danish royal family. ... Front view of The Marble Church. ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... Amalienborg, with the Marble Church at the top Amalienborg Palace (Danish: Amalienborg Slot) is the winter home of the Danish royal family. ... Front view of The Marble Church. ...

The specific part of the island where the Opera was built is named Dokøen, which means the Dock Island. Just a few meters west of the opera, one can still see an old dock and a pumping station.

Besides being accessible by car and bus, the House can also be accessed by boat, and the public transportation system in Copenhagen makes it possible to get a boat-ride to the Opera using a normal bus ticket.

Characteristics

The house is administered by the Royal Danish Theatre and is one of the best-equipped in the world. It has a main stage with five other stages directly connected, where large setups can be moved easily in and out. Royal Danish Theatre and Hans Christian Andersen ...

There are between 1492 and 1703 seats, depending on the size of the orchestra. The 1492 seats are all individually angled in order to provide the best experience.

The orchestra pit provides room for 110 musicians and the building provides excellent sound quality for the audience. If the pit is filled, some musicians are located below a part of the stage, which has become controversial (according to tour guides in 2005), because this increases the sound levels beyond acceptable ones. However, the authorities have permitted this to happen. (Similar problems have dogged the smallish Opera theatre of the Sydney Opera House). If the orchestra is small or absent, the pit can be covered and more seats can be present in the auditorium. The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ...

The foyer

Just like the old Royal Opera House in Copenhagen, the Queen has her own balcony on the left side of the auditorium, closest to the stage. According to the tour guide, she decided that she preferred this arrangement rather than the more conventional central placement because she loves to be close to the stage to see the artists preparing behind the sidewalls before entering the stage. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x800, 211 KB) Copenhagen - new Opera House, interior - own photo, April 2005 23 April: contrast and brightness adjusted. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x800, 211 KB) Copenhagen - new Opera House, interior - own photo, April 2005 23 April: contrast and brightness adjusted. ... Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II (Margrethe Alexandrine Þorhildur Ingrid), styled HM The Queen (born April 16, 1940), is the Queen regnant and head of state of Denmark. ...

The foyer has been designed for comfort, based on behavioural research on operagoers maximizing the wall area for standing against, while still providing views across the entire foyer and one of the best views on Copenhagen.

Guided tours cover most of the building, including both the auditorium and backstage areas.

Takkelloftet

Besides the main stage, the building also includes a small stage for experimental theatre, a so-called "black box" theatre called Takkelloftet. It was named after the original Takkelloftet, a building just south of the Opera 280 meters long and built between 1767 and 1772 for storing ropes for the navy. Thus the opera maintains a connection to the marine history of its location.

Everything on the stage and in the audience area is totally black, and the audience's seats can easily be removed in order to make the room much easier to configure for alternative setups. There are up to approximately 200 seats for this stage.

Takkelloftet has its own foyer. In this room, some of the walls are decorated using the same Jura Gelb limestone as outdoor. These stones are mounted on the wall in a way that makes it possible to use the stone plates as a kind of music instrument just by knocking on them with bare hands.

Backstage

The Opera has 6 main stages: 1 visible for the audience, and 5 for preparations and training. It has almost everything needed for opera, ballet etc., including stage elevators, movable balletfloors, etc. The building totals 41,000 m² and has 14 floors, of which 5 are below ground. It contains more than 1000 rooms, including a large orchestral rehearsal room. Despite its luxurious equipment, there are only approximately 1500 seats because a larger number of seats would hamper the quality of sound. For the song titled Orchestra, see The Servant (band). ...

Unlike the old opera in Copenhagen, the artists are allowed to take the elevator from their dressing room to the stage, because the reliability is very good. Unfortunately, it takes more time to get to the stage than previously, which makes it impossible to get back to the dressing room for a quick change of clothes. This was forgotten during the initial design, but the scene technicians have constructed temporary dressing rooms near the main stage for quick changes of clothes or makeup. According to the tour guides in 2005, the artists are said to love this because it is not a perfect solution, and they don't like everything to be perfect.

The building makes it possible to go outside on the top floor, but it is only possible to walk comfortably at the south side of the building (opposite to the entrance). This is where the employees have their canteen, and the idea behind this design is to ensure that the employees are not seen from below by the visitors.

Architecture, art and decoration

The building was designed by architect Henning Larsen in close cooperation with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. Mærsk wanted to ensure that the building would last for many years, wouldn't look bad after a number of years and wouldn't be an economic compromise. He personally tested seats and materials, he visited many places in the world to see how Operas were constructed and how the building materials were looking after having been exposed to weather for years. The Copenhagen Opera House Henning Larsen (born August 20, 1925) is an internationally known visionary, Danish architect. ... Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller (born July 13, 1913) is a Danish shipping magnate and businessman, and currently Denmarks richest man according to Forbes List of Billionaires 2007. ...

The building itself has an outside surface of Jura Gelb limestone. Canals have been dug to make the Opera look as if it were placed on an island just a bit larger than the building itself. This also meant that bridges were needed, and these bridges were made using very old oak, that was planted in the 19th century for the purpose of growing trees for a new national fleet, after having lost the old fleet to the Royal Navy after their bombardment of Copenhagen in September 1807. The front of the opera was originally meant to have a large glass surface, where you could see the shell of the auditorium from the harbor side. However, as Mærsk put it, glass does not age well, so the front was changed to have a metal grid in front of it. For other uses, see Limestone (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Canal (disambiguation). ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus (from Latin oak tree), and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... A rare occurance of a 5-country multinational fleet, during Operation Enduring Freedom in the Oman Sea. ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... Combatants United Kingdom Denmark Commanders James Gambier Ernst Peymann Casualties 42 killed, 145 wounded, 24 missing[1] 5,000 soldiers and militia[1] The Second Battle of Copenhagen, (16 August - 5 September 1807) was a British attack on the civilian population of Copenhagen in order to seize the Danish fleet. ...

The foyer floor is Sicilian Perlatino marble. There are three very remarkable lamps in the central part of the foyer, created by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Each lamp consists of a very large number of pieces of glass, which are semipermeable (some light passes, some light reflects) with different permeability from different angles. Per Arnoldi designed the logo for the opera, which is visible in the marble floor just inside the entrance, and Per Kirkeby created four bronze reliefs for the wall to the auditorium, just below the marple wood part. Per Arnoldi also designed the large main curtain for the main stage, which is not only very special, but also impossible to take a picture of. It uses optical tricks to obtain a kind of three-dimensional effect, and the colors are rarely reproduced well on photographs. ... Sicily ( in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ... For other uses, see Marble (disambiguation). ... The Weather Project at the Tate Modern, London, 2003 Ólafur Elíasson (born 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is an Icelandic artist, arguably most famous (at least in the UK) for his Weather Project exhibition at the Tate Modern, London, in 2003. ... Permeability has several meanings: In electromagnetism, permeability is the degree of magnetisation of a material in response to a magnetic field. ... Per Kirkeby (born 1938) is a Danish painter, poet, filmmaker and sculptor. ...

The wall of the auditorium towards the foyer, and the wood of the balconies, is maple wood. It was originally the intention to make the maple wood look exactly the same way as the wood from a violin, by using the same technique, but that would have been far too expensive. Instead, they have tried to imitate the color using more traditional dying techniques, and the result is very close (the official homepage says differently, but the guides in the Opera tell this story). Due to the orange color and its form, it is suitably known by locals as the pumpkin. An auditorium is the area within a theatre, concert hall or other performance space where the audience is located in order to hear and watch the performance. ... A balcony comprising a balustrade supported at either end by plinths. ... Distribution Species See List of Acer species Trees or shrubs in the genus Acer are commonly called Maples. ... For other uses, see Wood (disambiguation). ...

The ceiling inside the auditorium is made using 105,000 sheets of gold leafs, almost 24 carat (100%). Pure 24 carat (100%) wouldn't stick well enough. This intricate ceiling is part of the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, designed by architect Walter Burley Griffin. ... GOLD refers to one of the following: GOLD (IEEE) is an IEEE program designed to garner more student members at the university level (Graduates of the Last Decade). ... Carat is a measure of the purity of gold and platinum alloys. ...

The floor in the main audience room is smoked oak. The balconies have been designed with holes in a very special pattern, that improve sound quality, as well as an LED-based lightning that can be used in a variety of ways. External links LEd Category: TeX ...

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Copenhagen Opera House

• The Copenhagen Opera House
• The Royal Danish Theatre
• 360 degree panorama of the Copenhagen Opera House
• Henning Larsen's homepage about the Opera
• A description of the construction project
• New Copenhagen Opera House in the Structurae database
• A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation
• Map of the opera area before the opera was built

Coordinates: 55°40′55″N, 12°36′02″E Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Structurae is an on-line database containing works of structural and civil engineering of all kinds such as Bridges, High-rise buildings, towers, dams, etc. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...