 In addition to dance, Bournonville was a voracious reader, learned French at home, played the violin, sang in a boy soprano voice, and studied declamation with the actors Michael Rosing, Lindgreen, and Frydensdahl.His many talents were brought together on the Queen's birthday, 29 October 1817, when as a twelve-year-old he played the role of Adonia to royal acclaim in a music-drama, "Solomon's Judgment" and sang a romance, "The Mother with Her Drooping Wings".Bournonville had five siblings.