Lucio Silla in Copenhagen
January 2008 is soon to be a thing of the past and I couldn't be happier. To try to break up the monotony of it all, we decided to go to the opera. Last night, we visited the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen to see an opera called Lucio Silla, which Mozart wrote when he was only 16 years old.
Lucio Silla is Mozart's 7thopera and takes place in Rome around 79 B.C. Directed by German Christof Loy, the story revolves around a dictator named Lucio Silla who is hopelessly in love with a lovely lady called Giunia. Silla's love for Giunia is unfortunately, not reciprocated.
To rub salt on an already very open wound, Silla learns that Giunia is head over heels in love with his exiled public enemy numero uno "Cecilio." Silla tries to banish Guinia's thoughts of Cecilio by telling her a little fib. That being that the love of her life, Cecilio is dead. Heartbroken, Guinia and the rest of the cast sing away their blues in Italian with Danish overtext, displayed conveniently directly above the scene.
Before I go any further, let me set the record straight and say that I have never been a huge opera connoisseur but appreciate the talent that it takes to be successful in that genre. Perhaps, I have never given opera much of a chance but I found myself intrigued by the stage design of this particular opera and actually felt a sense of déjà vu.
I used to work as a scene technician many moons ago for a local theatre, when I first moved to Denmark. The scene for this particular opera, which was rather interesting, to say the least reminded me of that time. Without giving too much away, the scene itself, and the job duties of a scene technician are interwoven into the opera.
Last time we visited the Royal Danish Theatre, we sat in the balcony section and had a clear view of the action. To be honest, I think they were better seats. This time, we sat in the fifth row on the main level. I drew the unlucky card and ended up sitting behind a 6 foot tall Amazon woman and couldn't see certain parts of the opera.
Nonetheless, I decided to make lemons out of lemonade, closed my eyes and listened to the beautiful music and stared at the intricate design on the ceiling, which was an experience in itself. I heard what I thought was an angel's voice in Giunia - portrayed by Simone Kermes. Don't get me wrong, they were all incredible but her voice was mesmerizing and hearing it was worth the admission price alone. This unique and exciting opera runs from December 21st to February 1st and happens here:
The Royal Danish Theatre
Kongens Nytorv,
Copenhagen C,
Denmark, 1017 Tel. 70 25 65 85
Ticket Prices: 90-600 Dkr
Start time: 19:30 p.m. to 22:30 p.m.
Cast of Characters:
Lucio Silla: Michael Kristensen
Giunia: Simone Kermes
Cecilio: Mariselle Martinez
Lucio Cinna: Agneta Eichenholz
Celia: Susanne Elmark
Aufidio: Bo Kristian Jensen
