Fairy tale ballet with queen's designs opens in Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark's Queen Margrethe has added a royal touch to a Hans Christian Andersen ballet that opens Saturday at a theater in Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens.

Margrethe has designed the costumes and sets for "The Tinder Box," a half-hour performance being staged at the Chinese-inspired Pantomime Theater. It's the third time the monarch has designed costumes for stage adaptations of Andersen's work.

"It has been incredibly fun to try again," Margrethe told reporters Thursday.

Andersen, whose more famous fairy tales include "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Mermaid," wrote "The Tinder Box" in 1835. It's about a soldier who finds a magic tinder box that brings him great riches but also nearly gets him killed.

Like many of Andersen's stories, it contains violence and includes a passage where the soldier beheads a witch. Margrethe, a graphic artist and scenographer, said she or others involved in the production never considered cutting the most gruesome parts.

"Can you imagine to censor works by Hans Christian Andersen?" the 67-year-old monarch said, laughing. "I have always accepted it when the soldier beheaded the witch. That's the way he is."

The 20-member troupe includes dancers from Europe, Japan, Brazil and Venezuela, who will perform until September.

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On the Net:

Tivoli: www.tivoli.dk/composite-3351.htm

Royal family: kongehuset.dk/english