Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Saints & Tzadiks European Tour


Almost a week into the Saints & Tzadiks German/Danish/Austrian/French tour with Lorin Sklamberg, Aidan Brennan and Róisín…the news about the earthquake in Japan has been unsettling and it’s been difficult to get updates as we’ve been traveling almost every day. At the railway station in Copenhagen I picked up an English newspaper to read the recent reports, and have seen some shocking footage on FaceBook. It’s hard to fathom, hard to imagine how life is for the survivors in the devastated towns on the other side of the world in the aftermath of the earthquake and with the appalling threat of the deteriorating situation regarding the nuclear power plants.

On Sunday we performed at the Court Theatre in the Christianborg Palace, an amazing and well-preserved theatre which dates from the 1700s and which was frequented by Hans Christian Andersen. Mozart and Chopin also played there. Róisín has started to do a solo on 'River' and so she got to perform there too. We stayed in Copenhagen for our day off yesterday to explore the city and do our own Hans Christian Andersen trail. At noon we witnessed the changing of the guard at the Amalienborg Palace, and standing on the cobbled stones we talked about how soldiers in these pale blue uniforms had inspired many of Andersen’s stories. Suddenly I remembered that John Dowland had been court lutenist here and thought of him making himself at home here long ago. We had lunch at Nyhavn where Andersen lived on a few occasions, and then dropped into the Royal Theatre box office to pick up tickets for the ballet. The production, Et Folkesagn, is a modern version of a work by the renowned Danish ballet dancer and choreographer Bournonville and weaves a romantic tale set between the human and the otherworld. When we got back to the hotel room Róisín danced around for about an hour before climbing into bed and quickly falling asleep.

So Róisín and I return to Germany to join up with Lorin and Aidan for a performance in Hamburg tonight. Last week we performed in Augsburg, Kassel and at the wonderful Festival of Fürth where we were well looked after and enjoyed day-long workshops on Saturday with enthusiastic students.

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