18
Culture
The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk
15 - 21 March 2013
I
ndustry insiders claim that the diversity, quality and accessibility of Danish literature are threatened and want politicians to reintroduce fixed retail prices on books. On Monday, representatives of the publishing companies, booksellers and authors met with the Cultural Affairs Committee and the culture minister, Marianne Jelved, to discuss the situation of the Danish book market, which is claimed to be critical. The meeting was based on a joint motion prepared by the Danish Publishers Association, the Danish Booksellers Association and the two associations for Danish authors. According to Bjarke Larsen, the editor of the trade journal BogMarkedet, it is very surprising but positive that the four associations have been able to agree. “This was unthinkable half a year ago and shows how seriously the industry believes the situation to be,” he said. The associations believe that the root of the problem is the liberalisation of the Danish book market in 2001, when retail prices became free and the bookshops lost their monopoly on selling books. This led to supermarkets using bestsellers as loss leaders, forcing the bookshops to lower their prices in order to compete. A recent example of this is the latest book from the popular author Jussi Adler Olsen, ‘Marco
www.fullrate.dk
Government not helping matters by maintaining its 25 percent VAT on books and refusing to introduce fixed retail prices for a limited period
Cecilie Bech Christensen
Cecilie Bech Christensen
Pressphoto
Book industry united in resolve to address liberalisation damage Who is ... John Kelleher?
Sigrid Neergaard
Marianne Jelved is booked to attend another meeting before Easter
effekten’, which sold extremely well over the Christmas period and became the bestselling book of 2012. In spite of this, nobody (apart from Jussi presumably) made much money on the book because the supermarkets cut prices so much that the profit was minimal. Traditionally, bookshops have spent the profits made on bestsellers to invest in other types of literature, thus sustaining a literary diversity and a wide selection of books for customers. However, the competition from the supermarkets has reduced the prices on bestsellers so much that the bookshops cannot sustain their selection if they want to compete, causing the death of one bookshop after another. And the financial crisis has not helped matters either. Since 2000, the number of physical bookshops has dropped from 423 to 338, with no fewer than 18 shops closing down in 2012 alone. Looking at the experiences
of other countries, there would appear to be two main ways to regulate a book market. One of them is to lower the VAT on books, which a lot of EU countries have done. Denmark has the second highest VAT on books in the world (25 percent), but the politicians have made it very clear that this is not going to change. The other option is to introduce fixed retail prices on books for a limited period. This means that a book will cost the same for the first three months, whether it is bought in a supermarket, a bookshop or online. Denmark and Bulgaria are the only two EU countries that do not make use of either of these regulation methods. In their motion, the four associations from the Danish book industry suggest a book law with fixed retail prices for a limited period on new books, supplemented with “assortment obligations and subscription models” as well as “other initiatives that promote books and reading”. Larsen
A true Irishman who moved to Denmark in 1994 from Dublin. He can currently be seen in an ad for the media service provider Fullrate as Scotsman McCluskey, and he is the resident quizmaster at The Globe. The bookstores struggle to compete with the supermarkets
agreed that a reintroduction of fixed retail prices is the most appropriate proposal to the politicians. “I cannot think of other proposals that would not result in a lot of other problems,” he said. “It is the only solution that can really make a difference.” However, not everybody believes that the liberalisation is the cause of the book crisis and that the best way to solve the problems is reintroducing fixed retail prices. On February 20, the Competition Watchdog Forbrugerrådet sent an open letter to the culture minister in which they advised her against reintroducing fixed retail prices as this “will negatively affect the consumers”.
According to Forbrugerrådet, the liberalisation “has not been to the detriment of cultural considerations”. It claims that studies have shown that after the liberalisation “more people buy and read books, more books are being sold, more fiction is being published, the numbers of sales outlets have gone up and books have become relatively cheaper.” These claims are contested by the studies presented by the trade associations, which makes it hard to establish the reality of the situation. This will be the parliament’s task in the coming weeks, and will also be the subject when the culture minister meets the Cultural Affairs Committee just before Easter.
Tosca a hit despite the coughing fit Once smitten, twice the fun Tosca HHHHHH
March 5
Sigrid Neergaard
Miklos Szabo
Cathy Strongman
... and it ends TWICE HHHHHH
March 9
T
he Danish National Opera took to the Old Stage last night to perform Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ to a packed house that hacked and coughed its way through a gripping performance of this classical opera. Flu and opera season may have proved unhappy bedfellows, but no matter. As soon as The Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Puccini specialist Giordano Bellincampi struck up their first note, we were transported to the Rome of June 1800 and the studio of the artist Cavaradossi, Tosca’s doomed lover. While the set design by Herbert Murauer was unadventurous (perhaps partly because the opera is being lugged from one Danish town to another over the course of February and March) and the production by Elisabeth Linton was far from groundbreaking, this was still a mesmerising performance of the tragic tale of love, jealousy
T
It ain’t over until the fat lady sings ... oh, she appears to be singing
and betrayal. Puccini’s genius for weaving arias and choruses into one incredibly powerful and moving whole, combined with standout performances by key cast members, kept us gulping down lumps in our throats throughout the second and third acts. Victoria Nava, romping around the stage in indecently tight outfits that threatened to unleash her ample bosom, was the real star of the show. From flirtatious lover to demented victim, she sang and acted beautifully. The audience was captivated as was the evil scheming
Scarpia, sung by Robert Hyman and Cavaradossi, performed extremely well by Danilo Formaggia. In fact, it was the chemistry between Tosca and Cavaradossi that sealed the performance’s success. With crowd-pleasing music, a tragic if predictably predictable plot and a large lady who really can sing, this is an enjoyable and accessible opera. Catch it if you can before the final performance in Odense on March 20. This performance of Tosca is on tour throughout Denmark until March 20.
he spotlight focuses on the stage where a man is lying on the floor and slowly starts moving. A second glance reveals that the man is actually two men who appear to be melted together. The scene serves as a powerful introduction to Tina Tarpgaard’s ‘Tørst’, the first part of ‘... and it ends TWICE’. It deals with the emotions that emerge when humans find themselves in a desperate situation. The two male dancers make the audience feel the pain, frustration and basic human needs that naturally occur in such a fight for survival. Clever lighting turns the stage into a burning hot, dry desert in which the dancers fight, scream and sweat as well as hold and stroke each other. At first, one of them seems more dependent on the other, actually crawling around on him to get his attention, but as it will transpire, he is not the
only one who longs for human touch. It is beautiful to see human instincts like this come alive through such stunning choreography. Tarpgaard has really managed to express the animal within man. Nelson Rodriguez-Smith’s ‘Mente’, the second part, deals with the subconscious. Constant voices and sounds in the background trigger the delicate movements of the dancers. They are in a surreal world where nothing else matters but their own heartbeat. The clock is ticking, and the dancers take in every sound and respond with exquisite moves. The dancers move around effortlessly. But it sure isn’t as easy as it looks. Their flexibility, strength, balance and trust in one another add up to a perfect performance. Simply put, this is beautifully odd. The lights astonish, the choreography charms and the dancers mesmerise, although it does get a bit repetitive at times. Overall though, it is a triumph. Human nature has been thoughtfully transposed to dance, and the added bonus? It ends twice!
CPH POST: So what does it take to have an Irishman put on a kilt? Not much. I like a fun challenge, and Irish and Scottish people are very similar. In fact, several Scottish people went to the audition but admitted their defeat fast as I looked more Scottish than them. What a shame people in Ireland don’t see it Well, actually it is so popular that it has been sold to other countries, one of them being Ireland. My mother called because she had seen it on TV. Nice to have a proud family Well, my 14-year-old daughter is embarrassed. They call her McCluskey at school. But as I always say: it’s a father’s job to embarrass his kids and if he doesn’t manage that, then he has failed. So your kids aren’t proud of your Scottish debut, but what about their Irish roots? They are very proud of them. This St Patrick’s Day my daughter is planning on getting green highlights and of course wearing green. She and my son will help out at the 3-Legged Charity Race, which is organised by my sister and me. Are you going to participate? No, I am too old to run around Copenhagen drinking beer, although I have won it twice. So drinking for charity is in the past for you? Well, maybe I will have to do it one more time some day. Right now, my kids are too young to participate in the race, but someday they should do it. And maybe that will be the day I do it again. Have you done any other acting? I used to do some ads back in Ireland and when I came here I started doing theatre in Copenhagen with an Irish group called IDEA. I would like to do more, but it is a tough business, so I work full-time in IT.