The Little Prince [CAST RECORDING]

Rachel Portman (Composer), David Charles Abell (Conductor), BBC Concert Orchestra (Orchestra), Adam Field-Wright (Performer), Aled Jones (Performer), Alice Gimblett (Performer), Alok Prasad (Performer), Alys Roberts (Performer), Andrew Bullmore (Performer), Boyd Rodgers (Performer), Charlene Badibanga (Performer), Christina Bennington (Performer), Daisy Fairclough (Performer), David Lewis (Performer), Edmund Haxby (Performer), Evvy Miller (Performer), Freddy de Rivaz (Performer), George Longworth (Performer), Gweneth-Ann Jeffers (Performer), Hannah Calder (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Adam Field-Wright, Aled Jones, Alice Gimblett, Alok Prasad, Alys Roberts, et al.
• Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra
• Conductor: David Charles Abell
• Composer: Rachel Portman
• Audio CD (March 29, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0007TFH34
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,696 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This may not be the most sophisticated opera undertaking of the decade, but it's one of the loveliest. There are precious few operas which really appeal to children--I've never seen a child sit through Hansel and Gretel without fidgeting--but this one is magical. Composer Rachel Portman is well-known and respected as a composer for film; she has among her credits The Cider House Rules, The Human Stain, Chocolat, not to mention Emma (1996), for which she won an Oscar. Antoine de Saint-Exupery's novella Le Petit Prince is a sentimental favorite of millions, and it's easy to explain why: the combination of poignancy and perception, and the wistfully sad relationship between the Prince from another planet and the downed pilot, which ends in a transcendent acceptance of death, is exquisite once the refusal to believe is eliminated. If you meet the work half way, you're absorbed entirely. Portman's music, and this performance, will bring you right into the vividly colored dream in an entirely accessible idiom. It would be easy but fruitless to condescend to this work. It's just so pretty, and the performances so fine, that all criticism falls by the wayside. Treble Joseph McManners is an ideal Prince; he never makes you sick with cuteness. Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes is always believable in the role of the Pilot--and this is not an easy, throwaway part. The familiar Leslie Garrett, Tom Randle, and Willard White are on hand as soloists too, and former boy soprano Aled Jones makes a cameo. This is beautiful, charming music that complements the words. The more one hears the music itself, the more unselfconsciously enchanting it becomes. Drop your pre-conceptions and enjoy. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Prince is Flying ..., April 25, 2005

By	Selene - See all my reviews

Portman herself describes this as a "children's opera". It is full of children's voices, and, as one result of this, is so charming that one can easily underestimate its other qualities: its wit, its inventiveness (the duet between the adult soprano and the boy treble is especially unusual), and the sense it evokes of soaring, yearning flight. The libretto is beautifully judged, and the whole captures wonderfully the mirage quality of the book. A lovely, haunting, moving work.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Charming, if unvaried retelling of children's classic..., April 7, 2005

By	Eric D. Anderson (South Bend, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An opera lover must be heartend when a major film composer decides to write an opera. It's doubtless less financially rewarding than writing film music, but still composers are drawn to this parallel form of musical story telling.

Unlike alpha-male symphonic film composers like John Williams or James Horner, Rachel Portman's scores have always maintained a certain delicacy--a certain distance from the writings of the old masters, and here she provides us with many charming and beautiful scenes. A smaller orchestra is employed, and much of the music has an impressionistic quality, with many plaintive solos for flute and oboe. Truly lovely melodies also emerge from the essentially through-composed work.

Yet Ms. Portman's unfamiliarity with operatic writing also shows through. First and foremost, I had a certain feeling of monotony. Each scene is beautifully scored, but how many times can one sing "Danny Boy" befoe one becomes sick of it? There was very little musical distinction between scnes. Secondly, the orchestral writing was much finer than the vocal writing, which often seemed repetitious and unimaginitive.

The fact that a boy soprano sings the lead shows a break with operatic tradion. In the end, this seems very much like a children's opera...though one that, like the beloved book upon which it is based, deals subtly with the meaning of love and death.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To watch the stars rise to, April 17, 2007

By	Douglas Henderson (SW Montana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When the BBC production of The Little Prince was playing on our local public TV station two years ago, I was sick on the couch--sick enough that I was there to see it 4 times as it was repeated over the week. I suspect I had West Nile, because in addition to various roving physical symptoms, I was in a slightly odd, emotionally reflective state of mind for days--during which this musical score of The Little Prince simply engraved itself into my head. Eventually recoverying from pining over the eventual demise of my '81 Subaru and again able to stand up and not pass out, I ordered this CD and the music to this day elicits a quiet wonder unique from any other favored music I enjoy. Something very special about this seemingly simple work.