Il Trovatore and the Queen's Husband

On Wednesday night, I had the honor of seeing the Queen of Denmark's husband (he's not called the 'King') at the Opera. My friends Matthias, Sarah, Magnus, and I (along with one of Magnus' friends) went to see Il Trovatore at the Royal Theatre.

We sat in the nosebleed section, the highest you can go. Luckily, there were seats so we didn't have to stand (our tickets were standing room, I believe) but I swear my head almost touched the nicely painted ceiling.

I enjoyed the performance, I just wish I had better understood what was going on...a Wikipedia synopsis just didn't suffice. Since everything was sung in Italian, there were Danish subtitles above the stage. Of course, that did none of us any good...except when it came to "jeg elsker dig" and "hvor kommer du fra?" Sarah and I got a good laugh when we saw those words digitally pop up on digital screen.

Our cultural experience in Copenhagen was extended when we saw the Prince Consort of Denmark (a.k.a. the Queen's husband) sitting in a private box across from us. When we first arrived, rather, when I was rushing to get inside on time (long story short, I ended up going to the wrong theater). A car drove past me, and Magnus said that the 'King' was in it. When we finally got to our seats, after walking multiple flights of stairs, we saw everyone standing up and then sitting down moments after. I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was some sort of Danish ritual at a performance.


When the lights turned on and intermission was about to start, everyone stood up again (in unison of course). This was when I realized that we were doing this out of respect to "His Majesty" who was leaving his seat. It all made sense.

I made a few other notable observations that night: the five of us were some of the youngest attendees in the theater that night. Everyone was at least four or five decade older than us, I guess the young'ins are more interested in going to bars and concerts than they are to the opera. Also, the applause at the end of the show lasts at least five minutes. Many bows to the Queen's husband and then the rest of the audience by each of the main cast members took place before anyone could leave...and of course, royalty is always first to exit.

Our view of the orchestra and the cast

It's pretty dark, but on the right you can see the Prince Consort of Denmark