Wicked

The musical 'Wicked' has been the best selling musical worldwide since The Phantom of the Opera - this Friday, I watched it at Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen. The theatre had as the first theatre been allowed to make their own production, i.e. do costume- and set design themselves rather than have it dictated by the copyright owners (something which has so far not been allowed with Phantom of the Opera). It has received very good reviews in the Danish papers, around 5 out of 6 stars mostly - and it is a good musical. 

Opening scene, Glinda greeting the people of Oz.

The opening scene had us worried about the vocal performances; Glinda (Anette Heick) starts of with a rather high-pitched number (picture above), and the actress had evidently not done her vocal warm-up thoroughly enough, as she missed a lot of the high notes and sounded generally very strained. Not the best start to a musical. Luckily, she steadily improved through the course of the story, and by the second act she did a decent job. The other main character Elphaba, played by Maria Lucia Heiberg Rosenberg, was a better singer by far, which also helped us to move on from the bad start. But none of the singers ever really managed to reach the level I've experienced in London - although they were quite good singers, a lot of the songs seem quite challenging, and it mostly sounded as if they just barely got there, a tinge of strain in their voices. I've posted some links to recordings of the Danish production and the Broadway production below - judge for yourselves :) Reading this through, it all sounds very negative - but my point is that it's a pity we don't really have any really good musical actors in Denmark, perhaps except Maria Lucia - and they are kind of a must for a musical like this one. 

The Wizard of Oz and the history teacher Doctor
Dillamond (who happens to be a goat)

But a few things we do have: Brilliant musicians and set- and costume designers (or at least... we're good at importing them - Paul Farnsworth, an Englishman, was responsible for the two latter). As I haven't seen the original, I can't say how costumes and sets were compared to that, but I thought they were marvellous. The Ozzian costumes on the picture above I particularly liked - and in general, Farnsworth had managed to hit just the right combination of oddity and recognizable signals with his costumes. One of my favourites was the costume (and acting) of Doctor Dillamond, Elphaba and Glinda's goat university history professor (played by Kristian Boland), on the picture to the right. 

You can see some of the costume drawings here.

One of the interesting things about the musical is that it turns the traditional "Wizard of Oz" story completely around - but in a way which fits into the original. The Wicked Witch of the West is in reality the good one, the only one who stands up for the animals which are made into scapegoats by the Wizard - banned from speaking, kept in cages. The wizard is turning Oz into an increasingly totalitarian society, and he wants Elphabas help to do it - which she refuses. Similarly, Glinda is a spoiled, selfish brat who only learns magic because Elphaba insists on it - because she thinks Glinda has helped her sister (when she in reality has simply used her to get rid of an unwanted admirer). The musical opened with a crowd cheering over the death of the Wicked Witch, singing "Alle hader ondskab" (translates to "Everybody hates evil"), which is what "no one mourns the wicked" has been translated to in Danish. This recurring phrase of course takes on another meaning as the 'true' story is unfolded, and it is one of the many criticisms of the use of scapegoats and fear of the unknown, utilised by those in power, which extends beyond Oz to our everyday lives. 

Elphaba and Glinda singing  "Jeg har forandret
mig" ("For Good" in English)

As always, I was slightly bothered by the English to Danish translation; and listening to the original songs here afterwards they are clearly better. But it was not as much as when I watched My Fair Lady - I haven't had the chance to watch Wicked in English. There were a couple of things I picked up on, but I think generally the translation seemed okay.

          

I guess when it comes to musical-music, I have my favourites: The soundtracks of Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret, West Side Story and My Fair Lady are all on the 'most played' list on my iPod. But I'm not sure the Wicked music will be - at least not the Danish. The songs were good, but they seemed to land somewhere in between The Phantom of the Opera and West Side Story - they had the ambition of becoming goose-bump-evoking songs, but few of them really made it; on the other side they were neither the kind of musical songs that you walk around singing for ages afterwards like those from West Side Story or Chicago, simply because they're too difficult. Too many canons were fired to begin with, and there is a limit to how many 'grand' songs you can cope with. I know I'm comparing this musical with some of the greatest classics of the genre, which is perhaps not fair - but on the other hand, that must be the aspiration. That said, Defying Gravity and For Good were really good songs (if a little too Disney-ish for my taste in musicals) - and I might even end up downloading the soundtrack at some point ^^

As I said in the beginning, Wicked at Det Ny Teater was a good musical. Alltogether I wouldn't say it was brilliant though - 4 out of 6 stars perhaps. Costumes and set design, along with the music was great - but I was a bit dissapointed with the singing, mainly in the beginning. I know Copenhagen is not London, and that we don't have as many good musical actors - but then we'll just have to make an effort to find them wherever they're hiding.

Jeg har forandret mig (Elphaba & Glinda) - and in English (For Good):


Mine vinger bær' (Elphaba) - English (Defying Gravity):


Populær (Glinda) - English (Popular):

Ta too or not ta too

A while ago, I got this thought into my head: Wouldn't it be kind of nice to get a tattoo? They've always sort of fascinated me, especially the old-school pin-up ones etc - there's this makeup artist in MAC in Magasin du Nord with fantastic red hair and sailor-ish sleeves; her I kind of admire (I saw her often in the period where I worked there). But those wouldn't really fit me I think...

          There are also those very 90s/gang member type ones, which are abstract but in all black with lots of pointy corners and stuff, which makes you look very agressive or at least as if you'd like to come off that way - not really my style either.

No, what entered my mind was what I've tried to make a collage of to the left; three strands of pearls with some kind of 'clasp' on each shoulder. I came up with some years ago, and I've actually done quite a bit of research to try and find someone with something similar - but so far without success. I've only found pearls as a part of a pirate-themed tattoo or the temporary Chanel tattoos as on the picture to the right (I by the way think I came up with the idea before I saw those - but I'm honestly not 100% sure). But what I think I want is still different - I don't want it quite so stylized as the Chanel ones, I want it to look more realistic. 

But then comes the ever present questions: What if I don't like it? Won't it look stupid when I'm old and wrinkly?

Well, the last part doesn't worry me too much - I sure would think it was cool to have a tattooed grandma. But the first part sort of does; because it is permanent I need to be sure that I'll want to keep it - and judging by how dramatically I fell I (and my tastes) have changed in the past few years, I don't feel certain. It is a quite big tattoo, so even though covering it up with clothes wouldn't be too difficult, it's still different from a dolphin on the ankle. 

Decisions, decisions. I want the tattoo, but I'm afraid I'll regret it in a couple of years - on the other hand I've thought about it for a while.. how long do I need?

(P.S.: Going to see Wicked at Det Ny Teater tonight - so expect a review within the next couple of days ^^)

Growing up is hard to do...

Codie Young by Nicole Bentley for
Vogue Australia April 2011
(from fashiongonerogue.com)

I've always felt quite old of heart - at 12, I was sure I was as mature as I ever needed to be. And sure, I read newspapers every day when I was 11, went to Thailand for a month on a summercamp without my parents, and in many ways felt more at ease when talking to adults than people my own age - but of course, I was still a child. And once in a while the last couple of years, I've noticed just how much I've grown since last I checked; not measured by my political interest, my independence, since that's really always been there - no, by how much more comfortable I feel in my own skin.

Last week, I read through my personal statement from last autumn, when I was applying to British universities - realising how much I've grown. I wrote about aesthetics in business management, and even though the essence of what I wrote still holds, I would probably have expressed myself a bit differently if I'd written it now. Having received a bit more experience with the actual experience of 'management' when we did the play was a very important part of me growing since last fall - and if I'd written my PS now, I would probably have been able to write thing which were slightly less commonplace ..

I've never really idolised neither childhood nor youth - rather, I've always been busy growing up, annoyed whenever there was something I couldn't do because I was too young, unappreciative of the advantages that comes with the rest of the world regarding you as somewhat of a child. I spoke to a friend about this, and she told me her ideal age was 17 - old enough for people to respect your opinion, too young to have to deal with the full responsibilities of adulthood. For me, it was in a way opposite; ever since I was 5 or something, my ideal age was 19 years old; old enough to not be limited by age in any way (at least by the laws of Denmark), young enough to, well, still be young. 

         But recently, I've begun realising some stuff about childhood that I will miss - or at least that I'm perhaps not as busy growing up as I used to be. Today, I have a total of 10 school days left at Nørre G - then exams start, and then we'll be done. Although being finished is an exciting thought, it is also terrifying to move away from something you know is good - for what if what comes next somehow isn't as good? I guess this worries me especially since I'm hoping to move to St Andrews where I most likely won't know anyone - it wouldn't be as rapid a change if I stayed in Copenhagen. I also realised Monday that I've never actually contemplated not moving away from home - a classmate asked me a question about accomodation if you went to Copenhagen University, and I helped her figure it out. In the process, I saw some different student housing, and started looking them through, comparing location, prices etc - realising after 10 minutes that I could actually just keep living at home. Which scared me - that it hadn't entered my mind before. And suddenly, I felt like the whole process of growing up was happening just a bit too fast.

Fashion Gone Rogue

Nimue Smit by Sebastian Kim for Numéro #122
(from fashiongonerogue.com)

One of my favourite places on the web is the blog Fashion Gone Rogue. There is posted mainly editorials from fashion magazines from all over the world, USA to China to Russia. I do read some magazines as well, but having found this blog means I don't have to buy Italian Vogue to see their amazing pictures - at 120 dkkr (≈$24), it feels like a bit of a waste to buy it when I don't understand any of the other contents of the magazine. 

          I like the idea, not only of accessing many of these pictures for free, but accessing them at all. I am not limited by my magazine-budget or by what they choose to sell in the Magasin du Nord magazine-department; and I gain access to the international fashion world, rather than merely what Western editors choose to show me. There is for example always a marked difference between Asian editorials (which again vary between countries) and e.g. Danish; even if the photographers might be the same, and the model European, the influence from the Japanese or Korean magazine makes the final result entirely different. And just as I enjoy the cultural diversity of my IB class, getting to either confirm or affirm prejudices on my own, I like to be able to get a truly international sense of fashion :)

And speaking of international - I shall now be off to my job interview at SOS International, which is a travel insurance company I will hopefully be working at this summer. Which means, if any of you get hurt while you're on holiday, I might just be the one arranging your flight home ^^

Art, Poetry, Spring shopping

Last night, I had a long discussion about different kinds of creativity - and the different kinds of art produced by it. I really admire people who need nothing more than their own imagination to create beautiful and thought-provoking pieces - paintings, sculptures, music, litterature etc. I find, however, that I myself work better within some kind of 'frame'; as for example creating the costumes for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play and characters are already there, and the creative process has the set task of somehow enhancing the audience's understanding of both - this I did by using different colour schemes in the different 'worlds' (fairies, lovers, mechanicals), and make variations within that to show the personality and function of the individual characters. It did once in a while lead to some silly situations, where I could hear myself forbid someone to wear red shoes or whatever, exclaiming "NO! You can't, that's Titania's colour!"- luckily, in the end, it worked out. But I'm not sure if I would be any good at designing clothes as haute couture designers etc do - because that you make completely from scratch, coming up with a vision, deciding what you'll be inspired by, all beginning with a blank piece of paper.

We also talked about poetry in this context - I've never written any just for myself, but my discussion partner seem to write a lot, and the ones I heard were beautiful. We did however not so long ago receive a task in our English class, where we were to write a poem based somehow on the movie Whale Rider; a task I actually ended up enjoying, although I wasn't completely crazy about the movie. I like to read poems with a rather complex structure and with a set rhythm, so I tried to create that. The title ended up simply being "Whale Rider":

          Whale Rider

                     Waves breaking

                     Worlds shaking

                     Silently.

                     But tide life, tide death,

                     the tide rolls in most

                     Piously.

                     Silent weaping

                     Habit's reaping

                     Fruits of sons.

                     But the un-dead half

                     is greeted by the 

                     Olden Ones.

It was fun to do, and there is some of the same litterature-puzzle to writing a poem like this as there is to reading Shakespeare, only reversed. Starting out with a couple of lines, then trying to build a structure and rhyme scheme around them, making sure you end up with something which actually makes sense can be a bit complicated - and fun. Not sure how easy the poem is to understand if you haven't watched the movie, though ^^

Spring has finally come to Denmark! And even if it's still a bit below 20 degrees celcius and quite windy, I have stubbornly (and once in a while shakingly) been sunbathing in my garden for the majority of the afternoon. But aside from the steadily improving weather, spring also means lots of new summer clothes to buy everywhere! So far, I have limited myself to a cottoncoat and a dress from H&M - plus a Rossi leather bag I found in Time's Up Vintage in Krystalgade yesterday (I have been searching for one I liked in which my computer could fit for 2 years now - have only found the Mulberry Bayswater, which for the moment is sadly a bit out of my price range). Finally, I bought the DVD of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky to save for some day when the Danish spring/summer does not show itself from its best side, and I need a break from studying :)

Buying beautiful things makes me happy :)