A Nutcracker Dressed by a Queen
Travel
Audio By Carbonatix
By Kevin McCullough
I’ve always liked a Christmas outing that gives the family something to talk about on the way home. Copenhagen has one that might keep us talking until breakfast. At Tivoli Gardens, you can walk through the Christmas lights, hear Tchaikovsky played by a live orchestra, and see a Nutcracker whose sets and costumes were designed by a queen.
That would be Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II. The credit alone would get me in the door, but here’s what makes this production worth the trip: Tivoli has brought the story home to Copenhagen. Clara’s Christmas Eve begins in 1874, and when she falls asleep, her dream takes her into a snow-covered Tivoli. The park changes before her eyes, with its own Harlequin, Columbine, and Pierrot joining the Nutcracker. You spend part of the evening walking through the gardens, then sit down and watch the same place turn up in a child’s dream.
For me, the live music is worth getting there in time to settle into your seat. Tivoli Copenhagen Phil plays the score, and I’d tell the kids to listen for the little bell-like sound in the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dance. It’s one thing to recognize music you’ve heard every December. It’s another to hear it rise out of an orchestra pit just as the dancer steps into the light.
The ballet runs November 26–December 20 at Tivoli Concert Hall. Your ticket includes admission to the gardens before and after the show, and Tivoli recommends the performance for ages six and up. Christmas at Tivoli runs November 13 through January 3, so you can still see the lights if your Copenhagen dates fall outside the ballet’s run.
I’d book the ballet first, then leave the rest of the evening alone. Go in early enough to wander. Let the kids choose which path to take. Get something warm. After the curtain call, step back outside and see which part of the gardens looks different now that you’ve seen Clara’s version of it.
A queen’s name on the program is what caught my attention. But if you ask me what I’d look forward to most, it’s the walk afterward: coats buttoned again, lights reflected in the water, and somebody in the family still humming Tchaikovsky.
