When the Danish PM (Anders Fogh Rasmussen) received the keys of the building, he could have thought he had just received the keys for the Star Trek's spaceship U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-E. 3'500 people had worked to the construction of the building, totalizing around 2.4 millions hours dedicated to the project, which was designed by Henning Larsen and financed by the A.P. Møller foundation. 4'700 tons of steel and 61'600 of concrete were used, along with 11'207 pieces of Jura Gelb granite limes, 364 cubic meters of maple wood, 25'683 squared meters of veneers and 1'450 glass windows. Inside, 1'100 rooms, a foyer of 7'000 squared meters, 6 main stages: one for the audience, the others for training. Stage elevators, movable ballet floors, for a total of 41'000 squared meters and 1'500 seats, could have easily given birth to the misunderstanding.
Officially inaugurated on January 15th 2005, the Copenhagen's new opera and ballet house is an impressive building, to the construction and decoration of which contributed several artists, such as Per Kirkeby, Olafur Eliasson, Bjørn Nørgard, Frandsen, and Tronborg, to name but a few. Any financial worry was left to Maersk Mc Kinney Møller, the shipping magnate of Maersk and head figure of the associated A.P. Møller foundation, who donated the building to the Danish people, who consider the Operaen as being an unrivalled temple of culture.
Everything about the Operaen is an experience in itself, ranging from the facilities to the spectacles, from the dimensions within which those performances take place, to its impressive virtual tour, realized by John Krøll of VirtualWorks.dk, the maker of projects such as the Cement Plant for AUCC Libya Panoramic Tour, the remarkable amusement park Tivoli also in Copenhagen and the Leptis Magna - Libya, still under development.
click here to view the Opera House of Copenhagen Virtual TourDive into this web page with an outstanding structure, with its introductory zoom of the area where the Opera is located, later magnifying on the building. Navigate throughout, with its detailed virtual maps, where you can zoom and discover, apart from the foyers, several backstage areas. The only thing that will escape to your eyes, is the package of the architectural and technical solutions that have been studied and adopted by Henning Larsen, in order to distill the experience of centuries into a perfect acoustic....
We had a conversation with John E. Kroll, who was more than eager to talk about his project to VRMAG's readers.
