The Little Prince - Keynotes & More
Portman
“The Little Prince sparkles with all the joy, wonder, and humanity that many of us will remember from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s original text. Rachel Portman’s 2004 opera will will welcome back Emma Parkinson, Ben Butterfield, and Melody Courage as it transports you from the desert sand of Africa to asteroid B-612. We will learn to draw sheep, experience the love of roses, and explore our world through the eyes of the prince, reminded and humbled by the fact that “no grown-up will ever understand.”
Brenna Corner, Artistic Director
This gem of a show features an exciting partnership, with Principal Conductor and Chorus Master, Giuseppe Pietraoria leading the Victoria Symphony and Artistic Director Brenna Corner making her Pacific Opera directorial debut!
Please watch this space for the Keynotes and the Inside Opera for The Little Prince! They will be released just before the performance dates.
The Little Prince: Great Books Explained
The Little Prince begins with an account of how the pilot drew a picture when he was a child. His picture — he called it Drawing N°1 — shows an elephant swallowed by a boa constrictor — perfectly logical to him- but to adults it was just a drawing of a hat and they roundly mocked him. When his plane crash-lands in the desert and the little prince appears at his side, asking him to draw a sheep and then declaring himself unsatisfied with the results, the pilot brings out his Drawing N°1. “No, no, no!” says the little prince, “ And this, the pilot tells us, is how he finally found someone who understood his drawing, and how he made the acquaintance of the little prince.
The Little Prince Synopsis
Prologue
A pilot recalls an image he saw as a child of a boa constrictor consuming an elephant. Marveling at the miracles of nature, he made his own drawing but it was ridiculed by the narrow-minded adults in his life, who told him to abandon such fantasies and focus on making a successful life. Instead, he became a pilot, and now makes his home in the sky amongst the stars.
Act One
A violent sandstorm sweeps across the landscape, causing the pilot to crash in the Sahara Desert. As he tries to repair his aircraft, the Pilot is interrupted by a small boy – the Little Prince. The child asks the Pilot to draw him a picture of a sheep. After his initial attempts are rejected by the Prince, the Pilot sketches a crate and tells the boy his sheep is inside. The Little Prince is overjoyed stating “this is exactly what I wanted!” as he imagines the sheep in the crate and their friendship begins.
We soon discover that the Little Prince lives on a tiny asteroid which is constantly under threat from mighty Baobab trees. We also learn that on his planet there lives a beautiful, and very special Rose. In order for the Prince to be better equipped to protect her, the Rose challenged him to travel far from home to gain wisdom. The Rose, he tells the Pilot, is alone and therefore vulnerable to predators.
During his travels to neighbouring planets the Prince has met several eccentric individuals: a king, a vain man, a drunken man, a businessman, and a lamplighter. Not completely satisfied with what he’s learned thus far, the Prince decides it is time to journey to Planet Earth.
Act Two
We continue to learn more about the Little Prince’s story. One year before the pilot crashed in the desert the Prince also arrived in the Sahara Desert. The first person the Prince met on earth was a snake. The snake offered to help him find his way home once when he was ready. Armed with the knowledge the Prince journies across the world. He discovers a garden full of beautiful roses, and slowly realizes that his own rose was never, after all, unique.
The Prince encounters a friendly Fox who has been hiding from hunters. The Fox gently explains to the Little Prince that genuine friendship is about true connection: anything really worthwhile cannot be seen or touched, only felt by the heart. The Little Prince’s Rose, the Fox explains, may not be special, but it is the love he has for his Rose that makes her special.
Back in the present day it has been eight days since the Pilot and Little Prince met. Their water supply has almost run out; to replenish it, they travel to a spot on Earth directly beneath the Prince’s tiny planet which shines in the night sky. Here they find a well full of clear water. Pilot and Prince are now united in their mutual belief in the message of the Fox – that one should “look only with the heart,” and not the eyes.
The Pilot realizes sadly that he is about to lose a true friend, as it is time for the Little Prince to return home to his planet and his beloved Rose. When he is alone, a chorus of children remind the Pilot that he will heal because he’s learned a priceless truth: Anything essential is invisible to the eye.”
More of The Little Prince
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has inspired numerous adaptations across various media, captivating audiences around the world with its timeless story. From animated films and television series to stage plays and ballets, the little prince’s journey has been reimagined in countless ways, such as films, musicals, and so much more. Here are a few of the well known, as well as the stranger and more obscure adaptations of The Little Prince in other media:
- The Little Prince, directed by Stanley Donen debuted to mixed reviews. The film was unsuccessful at the box office, but has become somewhat of a cult classic, featuring Bob Fosse, who choreographed his own dance sequences as The Snake, and Gene Wilder who played The Fox.
- The Adventures of the Little Prince, a Japanese animated series based on the book, aired in Europe and North America in the 1970s and 1980s. The show was made by the Knack animation studio and first aired in Japan in 1978 under the title Hoshi no Ōjisama Puchi Puransu (星の王子さま プチ・プランス, Prince of the Stars: Petit Prince).
- The Little Prince was released in 2015 as an animated film. The film is directed by Mark Osborne with its script written by Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti. The film stars James Franco, Rachel McAdams and Jeff Bridges.
- French artist Joann Sfar drew a graphic novel adaptation of The Little Prince that was released in 2008 by Éditions Gallimard in France.
- A musical theatre adaptation entitled The Little Prince and the Aviator, co-produced by lawyer A. Joseph Tandet who held the rights to The Little Prince, with music composed by John Barry and directed by Jerry Adler.
- Singer–pianist Regina Spektor has a song entitled “Baobabs”, which refers to The Little Prince and the effect it has on its readers. The song entitled “Baobabs” was included in their special edition vinyl album, Begin to Hope, released in June 2006.
- Actor James Dean‘s fondness for the work extended to his memorizing most of its passages. The nickname of his 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, “The Little Bastard”, is a play on words of his favorite book. A stylized sculpture in memorial to Dean was built in Cholame, California during the late 1970s. It carries a plaque quoting the Little Prince that reads: “What is essential is invisible to the eye”, a phrase which Dean reportedly quoted often.
- A tabletop game, The Little Prince: Make Me A Planet, designed by Antoine Bauza (author of famous board game 7 Wonders) and Bruno Cathala, is a competitive game whose players collect sets of themed pieces to build their own planet and then score it according to the numbers of sheep, roses, lamp posts, etc. their characters managed to collect.

The Adventures of the Little Prince, or (星の王子さま プチ・プランス, Hoshi no Ōjisama Puchi Puransu)

A panel from The Little Prince as adapted and illustrated by Joann Sfar

Steven Warner as The Little Prince and Gene Wilder as The Fox, The Little Prince (1974 film)