The Little Prince Recreated As Opera **

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s (1900-1944) timeless story, The Little Prince will be born again as an opera.

Recently, the Houston Grand Opera (HGO) of US announced that it would mount a premiere of The Little Prince, which is composed by Rachel Portman, on May 31, 2002 at Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater. The HGO did not reveal anything else other than the fact that it has adapted Saint-Exupéry’s story. But one HGO official confirmed that many arias would be put on stage, including an aria titled “It is only with the heart that we can see rightly,” which consists of renowned dialogues in the original story.

Rachel Portman is a renowned female composer whose film scores for Chocolat and Cider House Rules garnered her Oscar nominations and who took home the Academy Award for Best Film Score for Emma. But this is her first shot at opera. It is believed that adaptation by a popular film music maker of a familiar work into an opera reflects the recent trend among the mainstream US musicians. The Americans stress on enjoyableness of a work by the public rather than on the artfulness of it. The libretto is written by a famous librettist, Nicholas Wright. And the opera is directed by Francesca Zambello, who has won the Lawrence Olivier Award three times.

Among the main characters, the role of The Pilot, whose plane crashes in the desert, will be assumed by a baritone, Teddy Tahu Rhodes. The role of The Little Prince is set aside for a boy soprano, but no actor is selected.

The Little Prince will be run 10 times until June 22, 2003.

Yoon-Jong Yoo gustav@donga.com