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‘The Little Prince,’ opera for all ages, opens at the Green Center
The DePauw University School of Music will present the opera “The Little Prince” by British composer Rachel Portman at the Green Center for the Performing Arts Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 29–March 2 at 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday, March 3 at 2 p.m.
The opera, sung in English with English supertitles, is directed and produced by music faculty member Mary Martin. Music director Orcenith Smith conducts the DePauw Opera Orchestra in this fully staged production with scenery and lighting designs by Jaye Beetem and costumes by Caroline Good.
Based on the beloved novella by French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Portman’s opera “The Little Prince” is as much about the author’s determination to write a perfect narrative as it is about its unusual story. Calling on his own life experiences, the author imagines a stranded airplane pilot (whose single-engine plane has crashed into the desert) who meets a young prince that has fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid, B-162.
As the Little Prince begins to explore Earth, the pilot relives his own life story to guide him. The prince meets many unusual characters and animals in the opera, eventually leaving Earth with he and the pilot having learned many lessons about honesty, empathy, and respect from the other-worldly beings — a gentle reminder to nurture our own sense of curiosity and imagination. Or, as the prince concludes, “one sees clearly only with the heart.”
Odds are that at some point in your life someone has read this children’s classic to you, or you to your children. Since the story was first published in 1943 (in the United States, where the author was living in exile at the time), it has been translated more than 500 times (including a bilingual edition in German and Klingon). The title has sold more than 80 million copies and has never been out of print. Both the most-read and most-translated book ever written in the French language, it also was voted the best book of the 20th century in France.
Although you may not recall when or where, you probably have also heard Portman’s music. Being the first female composer ever to have won an Academy Award, which she received for the score of Emma, she has received two further Academy Award nominations for “The Cider House Rules” and “Chocolat,” which also earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
“Our audience is in for a real treat. Rachel Portman’s music is beautiful,” Smith, conductor of the DePauw Opera, said. “Her musical concepts, set to words by Nicholas Wright, support descriptive moments in thought, be they melodic or dramatic. These are inspired stylings coming from one of film’s best composers.”
The DePauw Opera’s production about the large-hearted Little Prince is as apt to inspire adult audiences as young ones. For after all, “all grown-ups were once children,” too.
General admission to the DePauw Opera is $10; tickets for seniors, youth and all students are free. Advance tickets may be obtained online by visiting www.dpugreencenter.eventbrite.com. Tickets also can be purchased in person at the Green Center box office, beginning 60 minutes prior to the performance. If you plan to attend the Sunday, March 3 performance, note that it has an earlier than usual 2 p.m. start time.
This multi-generational story for all ages is suitable for children six and above — the age at which a child begins to ponder and ask questions.