The Little Prince (opera)

This article is about the opera production. For the novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, see The Little Prince.

The Little Prince, subtitled A Magical Opera, is an opera in two acts by Rachel Portman to an English libretto by Nicholas Wright, based on the 1943 book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first performed in Houston, Texas in 2003.[1]

History

The Little Prince was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera and premiered in May 2003 with Nate Irvin as The Little Prince and Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the Pilot.[1] It was then performed by the Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Boston Lyric Opera with Jeffrey Walter as the Little Prince. Houston Grand Opera had a return engagement in December 2004 with Jeffrey Walter as the Little Prince and Jeffrey Allison. The University of Kentucky opera (April 2005), The New York City Opera (November 2005), as well as Tulsa Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. The San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances did a joint production in May 2008. Ithaca College Opera also put on a production in February–March 2010.

In the U.K., it was filmed by the BBC following a nationwide talent search for children to play the roles of the Prince, the Rose and a chorus of thirty-six vocalists. Over 25,000 children applied, with over 6,500 taking part in auditions. The television show Blue Peter documented the search for the singers, and filmed their training and rehearsals. The Little Prince was broadcast on BBC2 on Saturday, 27 November 2004 at 7:30 PM.

Reception

Charles Ward of the Houston Chronicle termed the production "...attractive--simple, communicative, touching" with the production "...tantalizingly close to a major operatic success." Bernard Holland of the New York Times wrote "Charming as Maria Bjornson's sets and costumes are and as nicely handled as Francesca Zambello's direction is, they depend on Nicholas Wright's inventive rhyming to give them life. Lighting (by Rick Fisher) becomes as important as Rachel Portman's music. It is hard to say whose opera this is; it is perhaps collective: modest parts exceeded by their sum." T.J. Medrek of the Boston Herald found the musical setting of the opera "... full of warmth, wisdom and generous lyric beauty. But the production by director Francesca Zambello and designer Maria Bjornson is so thoroughly enchanting that, given the choice, there's no question that you should opt for the DVD version."[2][3]

Cast and crew

Please note : these concern the BBC production

The BBC Cast :

The San Francisco Opera Cast:

The Crew :

Release details

Following the television broadcast, BBC in conjunction with Sony Classical released a double-CD and DVD production of The Little Prince on Monday 29 November 2004. Upon release the CD set entered the classical charts.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Winn, Steven. "Little Prince' Opera Comes To Berkeley" San Francisco Chronicle. 27 April 2008. p.N–20. Accessed 4 August 2009.
  2. ↑ Consolidated reviews, LittlePrinceOpera.com website, retrieved 5 April 2014, which in turn cites:
  3. ↑ Holland, Bernard. Taking Off on a Wing And a Balancing Act (opera review), The New York Times, 5 June 2003.

External links