“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye,” or “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” Many of the wise and poetic sayings in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry stay with those who have read it all their lives – an “education of the heart”, for young & all. The story of the little prince who travels from planet to planet having many curious encounters and the pilot in search of his inner child has become a classic of young people’s literature. And the theatre that commissioned the family opera based on the tale, titled Il piccolo principe, was none other than La Scala in Milan. In 2022, the Italian composer Pierangelo Valtinoni turned the story into a roughly hour-long opera that unites the magic and humour of the original with a romantic score that is almost Puccini-like and spotlights a childlike view of the world. In Vienna, the American-Austrian director Louisa Muller stages the opera as a production full of charm and imagination.

With thanks to Martin Schlaff for his support

In German with German surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up on 18, 19, 27 and 28 December