Search - Rachel Portman, David Charles Abell, BBC Concert Orchestra :: The Little Prince

Rachel Portman, David Charles Abell, BBC Concert Orchestra
The Little Prince
Genre: Soundtracks

Track Listings (15) - Disc #1
1. Act 1. The Pilot - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
2. The Act 1. The Stars
3. The Act 1. The Pilot Meets The Prince
4. The Act 1. Sunsets
5. The Act 1. The Prince's Planet
6. The Act 1. The Baobabs
7. The Act 1. On My Planet
8. The Act 1. The Rose
9. The Act 1. The Cranes Are Flying
10. The Act 1. The King
11. The Act 1. The Vain Man
12. The Act 1. The Drunkard
13. The Act 1. The Businessman
14. The Act 1. The Lamplighter
15. The Act 1. We Light Our Lamps
Track Listings (24) - Disc #2
1. The Act 2. The Snake
2. The Act 2. The Rose Garden
3. The Act 2. The Hunters
4. The Act 2. The Fox
5. The Act 2. The Taming
6. The Act 2. Here's My Secret
7. The Act 2. If We Don't Find A Well
8. The Act 2. The Walk To The Well
9. The Act 2. The Well
10. The Act 2. The Time Has Come
11. The Act 2. The Snake Returns
12. The Act 2. It Is The Place
13. The Act 2. Look At The Stars
14. The The Little Prince Song [*]
15. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. The Taming - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
16. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. Here's My Secret - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
17. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. If We Don't Find A Well - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
18. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. The Walk To The Well - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
19. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. The Well - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
20. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. The Time Has Come - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
21. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. The Snake Returns - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
22. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. It Is The Place - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
23. The Little Prince, opera: Act 2. Look At The Stars - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel
24. The Little Prince, opera: The Little Prince Song - Rachel Portman, Portman, Rachel

CD Details

All Artists: Rachel Portman, David Charles Abell, BBC Concert Orchestra, Adam Field-Wright, Aled Jones, Alice Gimblett, Alok Prasad, Alys Roberts, Andrew Bullmore, Boyd Rodgers, Charlene Badibanga, Christina Bennington, Daisy Fairclough, David Lewis, Edmund Haxby, Evvy Miller, Freddy de Rivaz, George Longworth, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, Hannah Calder
Title: The Little Prince
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Sony
Release Date: 3/29/2005
Genre: Soundtracks
Style:
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPCs: 827969392423, 2602000003449

Synopsis

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

CD Reviews

Charming, if unvaried retelling of children's classic...

Eric D. Anderson | South Bend, IN United States | 04/07/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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."

The Prince is Flying ...

Selene | 04/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

To watch the stars rise to

Douglas Henderson | SW Montana | 04/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."