 A poster for the concert in Copenhagen |
I hadn’t originally planned to be in Europe on the day of this concert (I was supposed to arrive a week later), but when I heard about it, I decided to move the trip up a week so that
I could attend. And though I still haven’t *really* seen the show on stage, it was wonderful to be able to hear the show sung live by this amazing cast!
I had a bit of scare that morning when I missed my train from Berlin, and had to reschedule the entire day. I was supposed to meet with two online friends for the show, Clarissa and
Janne, but unfortunately, with all the mix-ups, I wasn’t able to find Janne, which was upsetting to me. But considering that there was one point in the day where it appeared I might
not even make the concert, I was pretty happy just to be there!
I guess I’ll mention first the two things that I was a little disappointed in, before I get on to gushing about the good stuff. 🙂 First of all, the venue was not exactly what I was
expecting. Here were all these elegant men and women dressed to the nines, and then we all went and sat down in a room that reminded me of a high school gym. And the second, and more
important problem, was that the sound was off several times, especially at the beginning. There was some feedback on the speakers, and the orchestra drowned out the vocalists at times.
However, if those are my only complaints with a show that I travelled 10 hours out of my way to see, then you know I had to enjoy it quite a bit. 🙂 The format of the concert was that
the MC (Søren Kaster, who I believe is a Danish TV personality) would introduce the songs, and explain the plot points between them. I’m sure I would have found this much more helpful
if I knew any Danish whatsoever. 😉 He was making jokes and everyone around me was laughing, and I’m just sitting there … the people next to me probably thought I had no sense of
humour at all. 🙂
Anyway, the show began with the orchestra playing the overture, and then, after a welcome and introduction, into “Stormen”. There was a huge chorus at the rear of the stage, and members of
the chorus sang all of the smaller roles in the songs, such as the sailors in the opening number. Nobody was in costume, but they did act out the songs as well as they could. This was the
first appearance of Anders Tiegen, and right from the start, you could feel his intensity as Jabbadoor. He was in great voice as well! So was Søren Launbjerg, who did a beautiful “Alle
Andre Steder”.
Some of the scenes did suffer from the lack of acting – “Voldtægten”, for example, just seemed a little silly. But I’m not sure what else the actors could have done.
There were several smaller scenes included that do not appear on the cast recordings, so it was great to be able to hear some of them! And most of the time, I was able to at least guess at
what was going on. For example, there was a small scene between Silvan and Salene before “Fra første sekund” that was really sweet. Hanne Thordsen was wonderful as Salene, though she
certainly didn’t look old enough to be Silvan’s mother. 🙂 After this, there was a scene of Jabbadoor pushing his case with Atlas, who will not consider him as his heir. Jabbadoor and Zan-Zan
plot to kill Atlas.
 The Tivoli Koncertsal |
“De sorte skyer” was very nice, with a longer intro as well than the one on the CD. Pernille Pettersen really impressed me, she sounded even better here than she does on the recording! The
interaction between the two of them was great, as was the work between Pernille and Nicoline Møller as Miranda, who did a fantastic “Den feber kaldes kærlighed”. I enjoyed all three women in
this show so much, which is honestly a pretty rare thing for me!
“Hold dig tel helte” is probably one of my least favourite songs in the show (these types of characters have just never been very interesting for me), but Michael Mathiesen did a nice job of it.
I was happy to see Anders Tiegen back for “Frøken Consida”, and then into “Hil Atlantis”, which was a highlight of the show for me! He sang it beautifully, and with the huge supporting chorus
it was just a wonderful moment.
“Rrokenka” was well done, though Silvan and Adalena did not kiss. 🙂 Ulrik Cold did very well with “Atlas’ elegi” – that is such a *low* song! And then the whole murder and flight sequence was
fantastic – again, there wasn’t a lot of room for full-out acting, but the things that the cast did with subtle gestures and facial expressions were great.
On to Act Two, and the “Requiem”, which was beautifully done by the chorus. There was a small scene with the priests, and then the seduction of Adalena by Jabbadoor, all of which I had not
heard before! Then it was time for three of my favourite songs in the show back-to-back! First “Hvor er du nu, Adelana”, which Søren did a great job with, it suits his voice so well. Then Anders
Tiegen’s gripping “Bøn til Baalzebub”, which was every bit as compelling as his earlier intensity would lead you to expect. And finally, a small scene between Adalena and Salene led into the
“Kvinde-terzet”, which was really just unbelievable! As I said before, all three women were fantastic, so to hear the three of them take on this song was an absolute pleasure.
I first got hooked on this show many years ago when a friend included a song from it on a mix tape that she gave me. The song? “Morgen på Atlantis”. So to hear Johnny Jørgensen sing it live was
a real thrill for me. Especially with the fantastic backing chorus! In a show filled with highlights, if I had to pick an ultimate one, that might be it.
After Salene’s death, it was “Vi er blinde”, which Pernille just nailed, it was beautiful. And then the whole denouement went by far too quickly, and the show was over! Though the audience tried
and tried for an encore, there wasn’t one coming. However, the entire show will be released on DVD in a couple of months, so it will be wonderful to be able to re-live the whole thing, and if you
weren’t able to attend yourself, I certainly recommend getting the video! Despite the difficulties I had getting to the city on that day, it was certainly worth the trip, and I’m so glad I was
able to be there.
The cast at the curtain call
The cast and some of the creative team leaving the stage
Atlas |
ULRIK COLD |
Silvan |
SØREN LAUNBJERG |
Miranda |
NICOLINE MØLLER |
Jabbadoor |
ANDERS TIEGEN |
Adalena |
PERNILLE PETTERSSON |
Koptos |
JOHNNY JØRGENSEN |
Salene |
HANNE THORDSEN |
Zan-Zan |
MICHAEL MATHIESEN |
Atlantis All-stars |
ADAM ENGELHARDT ANDREAS SCHOU KARLSEN ANNA-BRIT HJARNØ ANNE DORTHE KROG ANNE KATRINE NIELSEN ANNIKA MADSEN CAMILLA JO NØRGAARD CAMILLA LAUDRUP CASPER LARSEN CHRISTOFFER BRODERSEN DITTE LYKKE ECKSTEIN DITTE LEA PEDERSEN DORTHE BRUHN EVA BOLAND FRANK NIELSEN GITTE DEGN HENRIK EMMER HENRIK S.B. WINTHER ILIA SWAINSON JUDY JØRGENSON JULIE LUND KATRINE POULSEN KEN BLIESMANN LARS LINDHOLM LENE PALUDAN HASTRUP LOUISE LYCK MARIA THERESE S. STÆHR MARTIN PAGH LUDVIGSEN METTE DAHL TRUDSLEV MIA MICHELLE FLEMMING MICHAEL GJESING MICHAEL LYDIKER MICHAEL RAVN MICHELLE JENSEN MIE VELLING NANA ALVARADO NICKLAS PEDERSEN OTTO BOSERUP PEDER NØRDBY RASMUS OLSEN SARA JENSEN SARAH THORDSEN SIMON FALK SIMON KRUSE SIMON STOUGAARD STEEN-ULRIK IPSEN STINE DØSSING SUSAN TORRES ENGELIN SUSSIE LINDSTRØM SVEND LOMHOLDT SØREN SCHEIBYE THOMAS BARSØE TOM AARUP LARSEN TOMMY S. MORTENSEN TONI MARTIN DOBRZANSKI ULRIK HANSEN WINNIE FAUST |