“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Utah Opera is currently staging Rachel Portman and Nicholas Wright’s The Little Prince, having debuted this opera in January of 2019. I was fortunate to see and fall in love with the debut production, so I eagerly anticipated seeing it again this season. As the opening night performance began on Saturday evening, I found myself struggling to settle in and enjoy this production to the same degree I had in 2019. I can’t quite pinpoint what seemed a little bit off to me. It may be the simple fact that the 2019 debut set the bar incredibly high by creating a production that was seamlessly captivating from beginning to end. Reaching or exceeding that level is a demanding task. Portions of this season’s production seemed less cohesive, but in the end, I did find notable, enjoyable elements that do make it worth seeing.
The opera begins with a group of children gathered in a library (Madeleine Choir School choristers), and a narrator (Shea Owens) explains to them that when he was a child, he saw a picture of a boa constrictor devouring a wild beast. He recreated his own version of the drawing, but adults always misinterpreted it — saying that it looked like a hat — and discouraged him from drawing anything further. They pushed him to pursue more serious subjects instead. As an adult, he became The Pilot who flies high above the earth among the stars.
A sandstorm in the Sahara forces The Pilot’s plane to the ground. While he considers the predicament he is in, an inquisitive boy, The Little Prince (Miles Keeton), appears and asks him to draw a sheep. The Pilot is curious and tries to learn more about the boy. The Little Prince slowly recounts his story. He comes from a tiny planet named Asteroid B-612 that is at risk of being overtaken by baobab trees. He asks for the sheep because he hopes that it will consume the baobab sprouts, but he also worries that the sheep will eat flowers. He has a special flower, a Rose (Jasmine Rodriguez), whom he has committed to protect. The Pilot helps him by agreeing to draw a muzzle on the sheep. The Little Prince cares for his Rose while he waits for her to bloom, attempting to protect her from the cold by encasing her in a dome. However, the Rose firmly resists being placed under glass. Instead, she encourages the Little Prince to explore the worlds around him and then return to her. Led by a flock of birds, the Little Prince visits the planets of a King (Kevin Thompson), a Vain Man (Christian Sanders), a Drunkard (Jeremiah Tyson), a Businessman (Tshilidzi Ndou), and a Lamplighter (Jeremiah Tyson). The self-centered behavior of most of these grownups perplexes the Little Prince. Only the Lamplighter earns the Little Prince’s respect because tending his lamp is a useful task, akin to the Prince’s care for his Rose.
The Little Prince’s travels take him to the planet Earth. He is greeted by a Snake (Christian Sanders) who obscures his real intentions under a promise to help the Little Prince find his way back home, something the Snake can accomplish with just one touch. The Little Prince journeys on and encounters a rose garden. Seeing so many beautiful flowers upsets him because he thought his Rose was one of a kind. A Fox (Sarah Scofield) comes out of hiding after hunters who pursued her disappear. The Little Prince encourages the Fox to play with him, but she declines, explaining that she hasn’t been tamed. She teaches The Little Prince, “Tamers care for what they’ve tamed,” and she reassures him, “You’ll always be responsible for your Rose.” The Little Prince learns that his love for his Rose makes her unique.
As The Little Prince finishes telling his story, The Pilot reminds him that eight days have passed since the plane crash, and they are running low on water. They look for a well, and the water they find revives them. The Little Prince reveals to the Pilot that his time on Earth is coming to an end. The Pilot dreads what will come next, but the Little Prince reassures him that he is not going to die and that his body is only a shell.
What stands out to me about this production of The Little Prince are individual vocal performances and effective characterizations. Salt Lake City is fortunate to have the Madeleine Choir School whose classically trained choristers are aptly prepared to work with local performing arts organizations when productions require young voices. Utah Opera features their talents regularly, and the choristers reliably give exceptional performances on par with their adult counterparts. This holds true for their participation in The Little Prince. They sing beautifully in each of their scenes, delivering the pristine sound for which they are well known. Miles Keeton, the chorister who takes the role of the Little Prince, exemplifies this pure sound throughout his performance. He maintains a consistent, clear tone that is breathtaking each time he sings. Baritone Shea Owens sings the role of The Pilot with resonant warmth and tenderness, qualities that only increase further into the opera. The Rose, portrayed by soprano Jasmine Rodriguez, appears in the vibrant costume with the petal skirt depicted on the cover of the playbill. This is my favorite costume in the opera because of its striking colors and its clever communication of who the character is. Rodriguez sings the role of the Rose with precise articulation, playful phrasing, and effective vibrato. My most-liked characterization in this production is tenor Christian Sanders as The Snake. His slow, calculated movements evoke a slithering serpent, and his deliberately prolonged “s” and “z” sounds hiss at The Little Prince whom he cunningly deceives.
On the surface, The Little Prince seems like a fanciful children’s story, yet looking deeper — seeing with the heart instead of the eyes — reveals significant insights about innocence, imagination, and love. The opera portrays children as possessing an incredible and expansive gift of “sight,” something that, sadly, grownups have lost. Motifs such as lighting a lamp daily, taming a fox, and caring for a rose show the genuine love for something outside oneself that comes quite naturally to children. In contrast, the adults have become hyper-focused on singular activities that serve no beneficial purpose. The opera admonishes us to see the world with the heart of a child as that is the key to lasting fulfillment.
Utah Opera’s The Little Prince runs through Sunday, January 28, 2024. Click here for details and available tickets.
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