The sky above Øresund

Sometimes the light above the sea is interesting. The upper picture is from this evening, the other one I shot a few days ago.

The Jewel of the Seas passes Helsingborg/Helsingør

Royal Caribbean´s stylish Jewel of th Seas tonight passed Helsingborg/Helsingør at  AM. The 290x30m ship with room for 2502 passengers is on its way from Copenhagen to Stockholm.

How to enjoy a "modern" version of an opera classic

With today´s high sound and picture quality, it is a great pleasure to listen to televised broadcasts of classical music and opera. Among the European/German/French channels, particularly ARTE, 3sat and ZDF kultur often include outstanding concert broadcasts in their programming.

However, with regard to the popular classical operas - such as e.g. Carmen, La Bohéme, Tosca, La Traviata and many others - there is a problem: Almost all contemporary opera directors choose to "modernize" their productions by completely discarding the intententions of the composer and the librettist with regard to the timeframe of the events in the plot. It is not nice to watch Carmen unfolding in a contemporary industrial slum or La Traviata in a third world setting.

Last night´s broadcast of Giuseppe Verdi´s Aida from Basel is a case in point. I was looking forward  to a great opera evening, but unfortunately the "modernized" staging once again almost ruined the experience.

Having watched the opera for about five minutes, I realized that there was only one way to prevent a total disaster: by closing the eyes and only listening to the singers and the orchestra.

The singing and the playing were outstanding!

Still, it would have been nice also to enjoy the performance visually!

The Queen Mary 2 leaving Øresund

This is probably the last picture this year on this site of the Queen Mary 2. The ocean liner left Helsingør this evening at about 6.30 PM. This was the Queen´s third an last visit to Helsingør this summer. Hopefully she will be back next summer!

The Queen Mary 2 on her last visit to Helsingør in 2011

They don´t make these anymore

The Queen is always a mighty sight

This morning at 7 AM "the grandest of the all", Cunard´s the Queen Mary 2 (345x41m) arrived on its third, and last visit to Helsingør.





The German cargo ship Mare in Øresund

The Mare had to push forward against fairly strong Northwestern wind

Just before noon, German dry cargo ship Mare (139x22m) passed Helsingborg/Helsingør on its way from Malmö to Hamburg.

Cruise ship Deutschland in Øresund

Deutschland (175x23m) passed my place at 8.56 PM. The ship, which has 302 cabins for altogether 520 passengers is on its way from Stockholm to Eidfjord in Norway.

A rainy August morning

This was the view from my balcony at 07.00 on this rainy Sunday morning, August 8, 2011.

Weather report for today:

7 m/s

20° 16°