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FEBRUARY 18th 2009 (Friday)



February 18. 2009: Flemming Enevold and Teresia Bokor.


Before I went to Copenhagen, I found out from Mia Karlsson's website that it wouldn't be her playing Christine, so I assumed that it would be Teresia Bokor or an understudy. I know that the understudies can be really good, but it's always disappointing when you have one in a large role. I emailed Mia Karlsson and asked her if she had any idea what the cast would be for that night. She replied that she didn't know, only that she knew that she wouldn't be playing Christine. I really hoped that I'd have Peter Jorde as Phantom, Eva Malmgren as Carlotta and Mats Calven as Piangi. My wishes sadly weren't true. I didn't really mind what the cast was only that I REALLY didn't want Flemming Enevold or Preben Kristensen as Phantom. The only reason that I didn't want Flemming or Preben as Phantom was because the Phantom's role is designed for a man of about 29 - 45 years old. Peter Jorde just made it inside that age limit but Preben Kristensen was 56 and Flemming Enevold was 58! Also, Preben really looked old from his photos, far to old to be playing Phantom!

But if I have to choose between Flemming and Preben from their photos and audio clips, I'd have chosen Flemming. Also it was a bonus to see THE original Danish Phantom (who was Flemming Enevold) in that role. The only thing that I didn't like the sound of with Flemming (from the video, before I watched the performance) was that his diction wasn't very good. I'm not a Danish speaker myself, but I looked up the lyrics and saw that what he was singing wasn't too similar to what was written (and I know a lot of the Danish language pronunciation rules).

The day came, we had Malin Landing as Carlotta and Fernando Concha Viaux as Piangi, but to my joy - no understudies! Our Monsieur Reyer was the principal Kim Hammelsvang Henriksen. He looked really, really weird from his headshot, you could tell he was gay just by looking at him! When I saw him perform my theory was confirmed (note that I am not gay myself at all).

We bought a programme, it was 75 DKK which is about almost �9 (which is more than London for the small and sovenir programme put together!). But the programme was very chunky. It had the page stating the cast for that evening placed in it. I thought that was a very good idea. At the theatre, you had the option to leave your coats at reception for 20 DKK (�2.50) so that you didn't have to take it with you to the auditorium. But we thought, we are going to have to queue to get them back at the end, and would have to pay for the privilege! So we didn't bother. the inside of the theatre was very nice. After 15 minutes the auditorium doors opened and we took our seats. We were sitting in the 1. Etage (the middle of the three 'tiers' of seats) in the front row, directly in the middle.

The performance started on time. I don't like the bit where the indoor fireworks go off, the overture starts and the chandelier lights up (the instant when the auctioneer slams the plugs together), it makes me jump so I put my fingers in my ears slightly, not blocking off all sound. It was loud. The curtain over the angel at the top got stuck when it was tugged off, but that problem was soon sorted. The performance went on ahead and it was really good. Though, Malin had trouble with some high notes. Think of Me seemed to be translated from the original English lyrics, not the current ones. I liked Meg's sinde comment after she had a row off her mother: "Training, training, always training!". That's what I thought she said anyway. I've never seen that done before. Most of the dancers are English, so was Meg. I wondered if the dancers could actually speak Danish, the show is probably directed in English and all the dancers would need to leran would be some of the Hannibal and Masquerade lyrics and "Det' ham, det' Operafantomet".

The title song used the original London playback which is now only used on the US Tour and in Phantom in Japan (London used an updated version from 2004 - 2008, which I prefer, but now they're using the Las Vegas playback in London, Broadway and obviously in Las Vegas, which I don't like the sound of).

The performance went on, still keeping up a high standard until Malin struggled at the top note in Il Muto (not the one where she's meant to ribbit like a toad). The first act drew to a close and the chandelier fell slowly, like in Lodon and Broadway. The Phantom laughed for ages after the Chandelier fell. We took one photo of the chandelier on the stage but were asked quietly by an usher to put it away. But there were people all over the auditorium taking photographs, they were quite relaxed. If you even took your camera out in London you'd get ushers shouting at you from all directions and they were even worse on Broadway.

The second act started, the performance was still to a very high standard. I didn't like the fact that Christine's performance in Wishing you were Somehow here Again as I thought that it wasn't powerful enough. In Wondering Child in the London production, Raoul comes in early and sing against Phantom and Christine which I really like. They only do that in London and Budapest and they didn't in Copenhagen. That aspect was similar to Broadway. I thought that that part of the performance would have sounded a lot more compleat if that had happened. The Phantom's firestaff stopped working and the fire only shot out at Christine and Raoul once. The same happened when I was watching it on Broadway but it was fine all five times I watched it in London.

The Point of no Return was really good apart from the fact that Passarino failed to put the black cloak on Piangi in time which knocked the timing a bit, but they worked round it. Also, after the unmasking, Phantom and Christine ran off the stage too late as well. The performance ended really well, and without a hitch! The bowing (curtain call) took ages, but they deserved an applause. I think that I was right about being a bit prejudgisted about the two older Phantoms as Flemming really struggled to hold the long notes e.g. at the end of Music of the Night and the very last note. He sang them very quietly which I found was a drawback.

I think during this review I've concentrated to the bad things too much, so I'll now focus on the good things. I think that that performance was the best I've ever seen of Phantom. The fact that it was in Danish and I can't speak Danish held no drawback. I knew the words anyway and it's the music I concentrated on. I had heard from this website that the Danish production was probably one of the best in the world. I heard that back in 2007 and I vowed that if it ever came back then I would go and see it, and I've lived up to my vowe! It's only due to run untill May (from January) and I hope that they either extend it or put it on again a few months after it stops in May.

Operafantomet was brilliant as it was a mixture of all different Phantoms e.g. it had aspects of London, Broadway etc. and its own little ones. I also heard that Det Ny Teater was the smallest Phantom ever got performed in, but I didn't think that the theatre was that much smaller that the one in London and Broadway. I would throughly recommend anybody to go and see it in Copenhagen, but if you do, try and get seats in the front row of the balkon or 1. etage and a seat in that region with a low number e.g. 1,2,3 or 4 or you won't see much. If you get a high number e.g. 37 or 38 then you'll get a side view. If you and someone you know sit in seats 37 and 38 then you can easilly wave to each other, that's how curved the auditorium is. I flew all the way from the UK to watch it and I'm really glad I went. I'm going to see Phantom twice in April in London and possibly once again in Warsaw which is a non replica production, I'm not sure what that's going to be like. I strongly recommend to anyone to go and watch it.



Best regards, David.


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