That this opera was adapted (based off of) a story by the famous Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen!

If you haven’t heard of Andersen’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” before, I bet you’ve heard of some of his other great stories that kids still read today! 

Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805 in Odesnse, Denmark in a one room house. He only attended school at intervals, and spent most of his time in school imagining stories rather than reading lessons ( a lot like most kids!) Hans had a great memory though, and would memorize his lessons by listening to a neighbor boy who had a bad habit of studying aloud. When Hans was only seven years old he attended his first theatre performance, which he described as a “romantic, comic, magic opera”, much like “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. Hans thought this opera was so neat that he would go home, dress up in his bed-sheets and act out scenes from the opera, pretending that he was an actor onstage. He recited plays to almost anyone who would listen and would goof around by imitating ballet dancers, acrobats and pantomists. Eventually, his antics began to drive his mother up a wall, and she sent Hans away to apprentice a weaver, a tabocconist, and finally a tailor. But Hans was bored by these jobs, and knew it was NOT for him!

Eventually, Hans ran away to Copenhagen (the biggest city of Denmark) to seek his fortune in theatre and writing. He suffered many years of being poor, and failed miserably as an actor, but eventually some of his stories began to be published. Hans eventually published 168 fairy tales in all, and never even had kids of his own. Maybe it’s because Hans remained a kid, even after he grew up!

• Why do you think that Hans Christian Andersen never gave up on pursuing his passion, even though people told him that he should?
•  Do you have any dreams that you’ll never give up on? Like being an actor, a football player, a doctor or a newscaster? What is it?
• Can you think of a time from the opera “The Emperor’s New Clothes” when a character didn’t lose hope of something that he/she really wanted?

Hans Christian Andersen first published “The Emperor’s New Suit” (the original name for the story) in a volume of stories in 1837. This volume included “The Little Mermaid” as well as “The Ugly Ducking” and was enormously popular in both Denmark as well as across the rest of Europe. However, this time was way before the age of Disney came along, and most fairy tales back then did not have such happy endings. Andersen thought that it was important to keep his tales with unhappy endings because he wanted to be honest with his readers about the world. He also did not consider his writing to be children’s stories, and he thought that adults as well would benefit from the messages of his tales about honesty. 

“The Emperor’s New Suit” was a very different kind of story than Andersen had ever written before. This is because the storywas a “satire”. A satire is a funnyway that a writer uses wit, or humor to show someone’s bad side. So, in this tale, Andersen is poking fun, or “satirizing” both the Emperor’s vanity, as well as people’s dishonesty. In his original story, it is a child who finally points out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes, because the adults are all too afraid to say anything. So, Hans Christian Andersen was trying to point out the goodness and honesty of children, because unlike some adults they have nothing to hide!