AMID drumrolls and toasts next weekend, the Cultural Capital of Europe baton will pass from Luxembourg to Copenhagen, initiating a year long celebration of Danish arts and culture. Four years of planning have gone into this, and more than 100 million ECU - that's about £80 million, by our calculations - so it looks as if the ambition to be the biggest and best cultural capital so far has been passed on as well.
With culture being defined in the broadest possible terms, architectural and environmental projects feature strongly in the year's programme, so that a permanent imprint will be left on the city after the glitzy events are all over. Conservation and restoration of key historic buildings is underway, as well as the unveiling of new cultural centres: a Museum of Modem Art opening in March with the Emil Nolde exhibition that has been drawing crowds at London's Whitechapel Gallery; a Film House, which will be ready for the city's annual film festival in September; and a combined arts centre and urban renewal information centre. Architectural events include a major forum in the summer for architects, artists and researchers from all over Europe, called The City Now.
An international ballet festival in May, a choir festival in October, a Baroque festival from April to September and a series of symphonies, piano concertos and open air concerts should satisfy music lovers, while diverse theatre groups will be making a bee line for the Copenhagen International Theatre during the year. Ireland will be represented by the Abbey's production of Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, directed by Patrick Mason.
Other theatrical highlights include the ever inventive Theatre du Soleil, and Peter Stein, currently director of the Salzburger Festspiele, who will stage his acclaimed production of Aeschylus's Oresteia in May. The great trilogy will be performed by 50 Russian actors in a single six hour version.
Did we mention opera? Or literature? Or jazz? Or contemporary dance? Or photography? Look, why not just buy an open ended ticket to Copenhagen...
