Music by: Rosabella Gregory
Libretto by: Dina Gregory
Duration: 55 mins
Originally Commissioned and premiered by Lyric Opera of Kansas City, 2024
In a far-off land, a very musical king has a not-very-musical son. Everyone pretends to enjoy the prince’s terrible concerts, but a bold village girl refuses to play along. The king demands she be punished, but the prince shows mercy. Happily, the prince and the peasant girl devise an arrangement showcasing their true talents.
FORCES
Singers:
1 Soprano
1 Mezzo Soprano
1 Tenor
1 Bass-Baritone
Orchestration:
Piano (doubling on Celesta)
Violin
Viola
Violoncello
Percussion (1 player)
Project Statement
Few of us make it through childhood without, at some point, feeling pressured to do
something we’re not very good at. Whether it’s learning a new subject, playing a sport,
or simply sitting still, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, our passions and
antipathies. In the case of Prince Panderbash, it is music for which he finds he has no
skill, this, despite his father’s virtuosic ability with a rare and difficult instrument: the
silver-stringed Gilrabi. No matter how many hours he practices, the prince cannot
master the elusive instrument. So when he is forced to go on a royal tour, performing
concerts around the kingdom, he is not happy. Nor are his audiences! But no one dares
to say that the music is bad, for fear of criticizing a royal and incurring the wrath of the
King. Making the best of his predicament, the young prince entertains himself with one
of the few things that he can control: his attire. Each concert sees him in a newly
handsewn creation. (Indeed, soon, his clothes become the main attraction.) Then one
day everything changes when a young girl cries out: “But the prince plays horribly!”
This original fairytale has echoes of Hans Christian Anderson’s famous story, “The
Emperor’s New Clothes.” But in that classic tale, we do not get to know the small child
who calls out the naked emperor. Here, we not only meet the village girl before the day
of the concert, but we also watch her transformation. For–in this operatic adaptation–it
is through her actions that the prince finally confronts his father with the truth, liberating
himself from the burden of his deception while allowing her to gain the recognition she
deserves as a true master of the Gilrabi. In the final aria of this opera, it becomes clear
that the finely dressed narrator is in fact the village girl; she is telling her own story.
Hopefully educators can use this opera as a springboard to discuss many important
themes, such as the importance of honesty, the difficulty of speaking up, knowing who
you are (and are not), having boundaries, adapting to difficult situations, and
self-acceptance.
MEDIA
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