Summary of artice in Billed Bladet #47, 2014.
Written by Annelise Weimann.
As you know QMII has been the scenographer of the latest premiere of the ballet The Nutcracker, to be shown at the Tivoli Concert Hall. This is the second time, she is scenographer to that particular ballet.
And she has been interviewed about it: "I believe that if you say yes to making costumes and scenogrphy for a show, you should without resevertions dispense with/look away from what people imagine you to be and what you might be capable of.
You should first and foremost do your utmost at what you have commited yourself to. In such a situation I certainly don't think of myself as queen. I only think about that what I contribute with must delight the audience, but also very much those artists who put an effort into getting such a show up and running. Then it's not relevant at all what I otherwise do".
Q: Has it become a better performance/show?
QMII: "I certainly count on it having become, if possible, even better. I thought there were some of the costumes I could do a little better, there have also been included slightly different costumes in among other things the Flower Waltz, and other features have been added to the ballet in regards to how it was two years ago. But the main line remains unaltered".
Q: Have you been sleepless prior to the premiere?
QMII: "Not quite as sleepless as the last time. But I can't help thinking: Is that detail working alright? So I have been thinking a lot about it. But I'm confident".
Q: Some of the scenes takes place during a snowfall and you have at least drawn some of the constumes and the scenography during the summer. Has that been difficult?
QMII: "No, that's not so hard. When you enter the universe you can think about snow, even though it's summer outside".
Q: A part of the ballet is about the little girl Clara's memories about Tivoli. What are your own childhood memories of Tivoli?
QMII: "I guess I was eight-nine years old or something like that, when I was in here for the first time. (*) I remember we tried both the rollercoaster and the ballon-swing and I thought the ballon-swing was so groovy. To let go and scream all you could - that's lovely"!
(*) Parts of Tivoli was destroyed in the last part of the Occupation during WWII. A Schallburgtage. I.e. a bombing done by pro-Nazi Danes. In contrast to a sabotage, done by resistance fighters.
The story about the Schalburg Corps and the DRF is intersting in itself:
https://app.box.com/s/8g31xvhl48vk16uez6xv
Including Princess Helena:
https://app.box.com/s/gfg13l8adm2j747su8zs
https://app.box.com/s/t3mpis346dia4bz3abf3
Within the past fifteen years or so we have had a sometimes painful and certainly uncomfortable review of how the Occupation really was during WWII here in DK. It was much more complicated than the collective memory of the Danes after WWII prefers to believe it was. I.e. that all who were not hardcore Nazis were against the occupation.
Some did fight back, but most adapted more or less willingly in most occupied countries, certainly in western Europe. A kind of live and let live attitude. While others again joined "the winners", the Nazis. In some countries that led to what was de facto an underground civil war, between what can most easily be labelled Communists on one side and Fascists on the other, especially in southern Europe.
That is still to this day an open wound in most countries and in some countries a topic best avoided entirely.
but I suppose I should be used to it.
