Prince Charles takes over Buckingham Palace for party fit for a king "We are lucky that His Royal Highness has chosen to celebrate his birthday with us," they said on the invitation. But even tonight, as with so much of his life, he is on duty on behalf of the country. Indeed, this whole wonderful celebration evening will help bring benefit to so many. As well as marking the heir to the throne's birthday, the party celebrated the 35th anniversary of his patronage of the Philharmonia, and the bicentenary of Wagner. The Prince chose the music for the concert, at which parts of the German composer's Ring Cycle were performed. The event took 12 months to plan. We have long enjoyed supporting His Royal Highness with all of his great works and we should all be grateful that there is someone like him leading the way in so many fields of philanthropy, partticularly in the arts, where so much support is needed. They add: "It is not elitist, and we are honoured to support such excellence, In our book, His Royal Highness represents excellence and achievement of the highest order." Among the guests at the party were Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's fourth richest man, and his wife, Usha, along with the Hinduja brothers, Sri and Gopi, who are the country's third wealthiest, with their spouses. The Prince's close friend Nicholas Soames, the Conservative MP, was there with his wife, Serena. Gert-Rudolph Flick, the heir to the Daimler-Benz fortune, and his wife, Corinne, attended, as well as the new American ambassador, Matthew Barzun. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were conspicuous by their absence. By convention, the heir to the throne can host parties at Buckingham Palace only when the monarch is not resident. The Queen is believed to have been at Windsor Castle. Charles's birthday was seven days earlier, on November 14, but he and the Duchess were in the Indian state of Kerala, on a visit before they attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.