Birgitte Elisabeth Andersen (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Olsen; 17 December 1791 – 6 February 1875) was a Danish stage actor and ballet dancer. She was the daughter of Iver Olsen, a controller at the

Royal Danish Theatre The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first s ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. Student of

Antoine Bournonville Antoine Bournonville (19 May 1760 – 11 January 1843) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer, active in the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet and eventually ballet master in the latter. He is considered to have played a g ...

at the ballet school from 1801. In 1804, she became one of the first students at the newly founded drama school Den Kgl. Dramatiske Skole, and was considered the most notable talent the school produced. She debuted at the royal court theatre, Hofteatret, in 1806 and at the Royal Danish Theatre in 1808, and was contracted in 1810. She was described as beautiful, intelligent, and cold, with a gift for irony. She was deemed most suitable for solemn roles, but was criticized for a certain stiffness. She was the first Dane to play

Portia Portia may refer to: Biology * ''Portia'' (spider), a genus of jumping spiders *Portia tree, a plant native to Polynesia *''Anaea troglodyta'' or Portia, a brush-footed butterfly Other uses *Portia (given name), the history and usage of the give ...

(1828), Ofelia (1813) and Schiller's

Jeanne d'Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

(1819). She retired with a full royal pension in 1838. She married the conductor of the

Royal Danish Orchestra The Royal Danish Orchestra (Danish: ''Det Kongelige Kapel'') is a Danish orchestra based in Copenhagen. The Danish name for the orchestra indicates its original function as an ensemble geared to supplying the music for court events. The Royal Dani ...

, Caspar Heinrich Bernhard Andersen, in 1815.

References

* 1791 births 1875 deaths Danish stage actresses 19th-century Danish actresses 19th-century Danish ballet dancers {{Denmark-actor-stub