What do you do in a kingdom when the King discovers just before Christmas that there’s no money for Christmas presents because everything in the treasure chest has been spent waging war on the neighbouring country, Montania? And what do you do when the King finds out at the same time that he has to marry off his only daughter, the beautiful Princess Miamaja, to the Prince of Montania, when she would rather marry the Royal Huntsman? Can you get into the Christmas spirit at all – in fact can you have a Christmas at all?

The production Christmas at the Castle is based on DR TV’s popular Advent Calendar from 1986 and is now being staged for the fifth year running to contribute once again to the true Christmas spirit in Aarhus with lots of good music and opera singing.

The team behind Christmas at the Castle

As in DR TV’s Advent Calendar it was the dramatist Finn Henriksen and the composer Bodil Heister who pooled their artistic talents and in 2007 created the stage version of Christmas at the Castle.

Finn Henriksen wrote the script and directed Christmas at the Castle for DR TV. He was also well known for directing well-loved films like Forelsket i København, Flådens Friske Fyre, Jydekompagniet and many others.

Bodil Heister has composed the music for Christmas at the Castle including the catchy "Det’ sørme, det’ sandt, december". She has earlier composed the music for the Danish National Opera’s acclaimed audience hit, the children’s opera The Promised Land (01/02 and 06/07).

Kirsten Victoria Lind has created the sets and costumes for Christmas at the Castle. At Teatret Filuren she has most recently designed the sets for the sparkling children’s show Prinsesse Himmel i Mund (Princess Sky-in-Mouth)(’10).

Cast

This year again the production will be brought to life on the stage in a collaboration between actors and opera singers.

The opera singers Jakob Næslund Madsen and Hans Dueholm and the actress Merete Hegner have appeared in Christmas at the Castle since the premiere in 2007, while actor Søren Zacho Ruby appears for the second time.

The music in the production is supplied by Allan Dahl Hansen, musical director and piano, Dorte Rolff-Petersen, cello and Florián Navarro, clarinet.