Gala concert held to commemorate Andersen
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-04-03 14:53

A gala event titled "Once Upon a Time" drew some 40,000 people to Denmark's national stadium and hundreds of millions more to their TV screens Friday evening to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Danish fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

A copy of cover of Anderson's world famous fairy-tale "The Ugly Duckling" [baidu]

Having fascinated generations of children with tales like "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Ugly Duckling," Andersen was honored with a right royal birthday party attended by celebrities from all over the world and royal members from many European countries.

Among the many celebrities were British actor Roger Moore, Chilean author Isabel Allende, US singer Harry Belafonte and Chinese basketball star Yao Ming.

People who came to the concert were each given a red book- shaped cushion printed with the words "Once Upon a Time" and a passage from Andersen's works inside.

The concert starred world-class entertainers such as US soul singer Tina Turner, French musician Jean-Michel Jarre and British- born Olivia Newton-John.

Many artists from around the globe demonstrated their imagination of Andersen's fairy tales. With high-tech electronic musical equipment and laser beams, Jarre amazed the audience as he reinvented Andersen's tale "Shadow."

An acrobatics troupe from China's northeastern city of Shenyang staged Andersen's tale "Nightingale," telling a story about a Chinese emperor and a singing bird with elegant and incredible performance.

The gala concert was the climax of the three-day "Andersen Weekend" starting from Friday in Denmark, where people showed such mania for Andersen that his images are seen everywhere, from coins, posters, beer labels, to clothes.

Similar celebrations are also expected in many other parts of the world for the talented story teller, who was born in 1805 in Odense, Denmark.

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