AMUSEMENTS IN COPENHAGEN.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3108, 3 February 1879, Page 1

AMUSEMENTS IN COPENHAGEN.

, Social superiority is greatly due to the good system of popular education which has long existed in Denmark. But my Danish friends, when questioned on the subject, attributed a high civilising in* fluence to the Thorwaldaen Meseum, and to the Tivoli-gardens at Copenhagen. The museum in question contains a nearly complete collection of the works of the great Danish sculptor, and it^j||ipptinai|ly; visited by all classes of Daflpt society, * including Danish and Swedish peasants, who come from considerable distances by excursion trains and steamers, but are as unlike our cheap-trippers in manneaa as can be conceited. But Tivoli is my more immediate topic. Tivoli is simply a pleasure-garden, close to the town of Copenhagen, and of no great extent. It is, no doubt, the line*! Jescend*?£t-«f— Oei»izei"ipr 'naireiagn, 6t Vauxhall. I fancy that the English have been in no way* backward in originating places of recreation ; from thj|ib|ginning of last century, a succession ofsuen pleasure gardens have been instituted in London; but, owing to the fatal folly of our legislators, they hare fallen successirely under the ban of public opinion. ; With«Tivoli it is very different; the royal family, o£ Denmark, and the upper classes, patronised and frequented it from the very first; and by good management the gardens are still thronged by equal proportions of all classes of the population. The principal attraction |in the gardens is a fine string orchestra, which, under a large, partially-open pavilion, gives semiclassical concerts every, evening throughout the summer. The programmes are chosen from the works of all the best musicians, including Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Rossini, Gung'l, Mendelssohn, Weber, Gade, Straus, Meyerbeer, Eeinecke, and others. In the intervals of* * the principal concert, the Harmoniorkes- / tre, or brass band, strikes up more popular tunes in another part of the grounds. In a closed hall, with a sniau extra charge, conjuring performances go on, with various minor entertainments. Qn festival nights there is a smjll dianlay of fireworks, in addition to an illumination of the grounds. More remarkable, however, are the performances on a kind of open-air stage employed fo# ballet dancing and pantomimes,, Bomewhat ins*, the manner of the opea-air-theatres of the Champs Elysees. Op>ourso,bur magistrates could not permit so demoralising a spectacle as ballet dancing in the open, air. But I wish they could see JTrofekan Leontine and Fanny Carey dance their pas de deux. They would then learn that among a truly cultured and a well-goversed people, dancing may be as chaste as it is a beautiful, performance. Dancing, per Be—the exhibition of a graceful figure in graceful motions and attitudes—may be as chaste as a statue, indeed a good deal more chaste than many statues, Bjnt we are so accustomed to see ballet gim m evanescent skirts, in ambiguous attitudes, or dressed up as wasps or cupids, or something extravagant and low in taste, that we have established inseparable association of ideals between dancing and immorality. I retain a grateful recollection of the Froeken and Carey, who opened my eyes moM, ; than anything else to the degramtjjßft qfffblie taste in England. I afterwa»ds3S|rned that Copenhagen is conndea^ii&great school for graceful and chaste dancing.— dta^T Jevons, in Contemporal^ Beview. ;' •- ' *