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Visit of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and her husband Prince Henrik made a private visit to the Mikhailovsky Theatre on 12 September. The royal couple was accompanied by the Danish Ambassador to Russia, Tom Risdahl Jensen, and the Danish Consul-General in St. Petersburg, Klaus Sorensen.


The high-ranking guests also included Prince Dmitry Romanov, Nicholas I’s great-great-grandson and a relative of the Danish royal family.  


As well as fulfilling the obligations of her position with dignity, the Queen also finds time for creative work. She translates works of literature (in particular, she participated in the translation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings into Danish) and also illustrates books. The Queen has a special love for the theatre. There are several current productions in Copenhagen for which she has designed the costumes and scenery.

The royal couple’s visit to the Mikhailovsky Theatre began with an inspection of the auditorium and the stage. General Director Vladimir Kekhman told them the history of the theatre, emphasizing that in the mid-20th century it was a kind of laboratory for creative experiments. The Danish guests were interested to learn that the Mikhailovsky staged the world premieres of Shostakovich’s operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and his ballet The Limpid Stream, as well as Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace.

Margrethe II paid particular attention to the collection of theatrical costumes. With a professional eye, she studied every detail of the tsar’s robes, the boyars’ kaftans, and the Russian traditional headdresses embroidered with pearls from operas based on themes from Russian history. After The Tsar’s Bride and Prince Igor, the Queen examined the ballet costumes. She was delighted by the snow-white tutus from Swan Lake and the lace skirts and cloaks from Don Quixote and Laurencia. The Queen especially remarked on the elegant velvet pinafore dresses the colour of red wine from the ballet Nunc Dimittis, made to sketches by Nacho Duato.

From the costume workshop, the high-ranking guests headed for the ballet class, where Irina Perren and Marat Shemiunov were rehearsing excerpts from Prelude. The Queen did not conceal her admiration for the expressive duet to Benjamin Britten’s music. She thanked the choreographer and wished him every success in the future. The conversation with the theatre’s management, particularly concerning the plans for the coming season, continued over a cup of tea. At the end of her visit, Queen Margrethe II left a note expressing her gratitude in the theatre’s visitors’ book.