Exegi Monumentum

[Katharine Kanter]

As M. Haydn has explained elsewhere on this site, on January 15th 2005 a new Opera House was inaugurated at Copenhagen.

It is described as a "gift to the nation" by 90 year old shipping magnate Maersk McKinney Moeller.

Photographs and floor plans can be seen at http://www.arcspace.com/architects/larsen/Opera/.

The very rich and/or the very powerful seem to crave to leave behind them a monument, some would say a mausoleum, to art.

Although the Opera Bastille looks a low cost chicken-hutch compared to the new Royal Theatre, built of the finest materials and to the highest specifications, the truth remains that day-to-day operating costs stagger the imagination.

I for one, would rather see the Royal Theatre take art to the people, and spend the money on touring. For financial reasons, it is virtually impossible at the present time, for the Royal Ballet to tour as a full troupe, while building costs for the new Opera - excluding overheads - mounted up to just under three billion crowns.

Pushkin had his priorities straight though. Maersk McKinney Moeller might have done well to read the poem below, before turning over the first lump of sod.


Exegi Monumentum.


I have built a monument to myself
Not wrought by human hand; well-trodden
By the people, its path shall ne'er be overgrown,
And it shall tower above Alexander's column.

I shall not wholly die. In my sacred lyre
Will my soul outlive dust and all corruption --
And my praise shall sound so long as there yet live
a single poet beneath the moon.

Through all Russia shall my fame ring out,
Her countless tongues shall breathe my name:
The Slavs' proud heir, the Finn,
The untamed Tungus and the Kalmyk, child of the steppes.

To the people long shall I be dear,
For my lyre has stirred noble thoughts,
Sung Freedom in this cruel age
And craved mercy for the fallen.

Hear, O Muse, thy God's command;
Fear no insult, crave no golden band,
Receive flattery and slander alike,
And leave off arguing with fools.

[haydn]

Merci Katharine

Pour les non anglophones, Katharine Kanter revient sur le nouvel opéra de Copenhague, qu'elle juge comme moi très bien construit, mais dont elle ne craint que le coût de fonctionnement ne soit ruineux.

Mme Kanter relève que la troupe du Ballet Royal du Danemark ne peut se déplacer au complet lors des tournées, pour des raisons budgétaires, mais qu'à côté de cela, on n'a pas hésité à dépenser plus de 3 milliards de Couronnes danoises (environ 450 millions d'Euros) pour édifier ce bâtiment somptueux.