Review: THE LITTLE PRINCE Presented by Washington National Opera At Kennedy Center

Traditionally when you think of what an opera is, visions of four hour long extravaganzas with beautiful singing but with stilted or no acting at all come to mind. The question then becomes how does this entertainment genre attract the youngest of audience members to its productions? Let’s face it, The Ring Cycle is a bit much for an eight year old to sit through.

Washington National Opera (WNO) has been solving this problem for years by presenting a family opera and this year’s entry was another winner. With The Little Prince, first time opera attendees were once again introduced to gorgeous arias sung by a top notch cast and a fun and eye popping production.

The Little Prince features a soaring and gorgeous score by multi award winning composer Rachel Portman and a libretto by Nicholas Wright. It should also be noted that besides composing all the music, Portman did her own orchestration. This is no small fete.

Based on the novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry the opera follows the story of a pilot (Chandler Benn) who is forced to land his plane in the desert far away from civilization due to a bad sandstorm. He only has enough water for eight days and his plane was wrecked in the landing. He then meets The Little Prince (Robby Potter III at my performance) who has come from planet Asteroid B612. The Little Prince has a thing for sheep and asks the pilot to draw him one. After a few tries from the very exact requests of our prince, he is finally satisfied with the result. From there he tells the pilot of his adventures on various planets while encountering characters like the Businessman (Thandolwethu Mamba), The King (Atticus Rego), and a Lamplighter (Nicholas Huff). The latter suggests he visit earth for his next adventure. I’ll leave you at this plot point and you can either see the opera or read the book for the outcome.

Performance wise the cast was excellent.

Chandler Benn as The Pilot possessed a rich baritone sound that was perfect for this character.

Robby Potter III as The Little Prince, while very talented seemed a bit pitchy to me in the early sections of the performance. He improved as the opera progressed so it might have been just nerves. Regardless, I do think this young boy soprano has a good career ahead of him.

Nicholas Huff as The Lamplighter easily had one of my favorite arias in the opera. With Huff’s ringing tenor delivering “I Light My Lamp”, I pretty much thought to myself that it doesn’t get any better than this.

Mezzo- Soprano Michelle Mariposa as The Fox delivered another standout aria. “Taming means you make a link” was truly a highlight for sure.

Corrinne M. Hayes’ setting of WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello’s original staging never subscribed to the stand and sing or park and bark approach to opera staging. The Terrace Theater was used in whole to make the audience feel even more a part of the storytelling.

The sets and costumes were designed by the late great Maria Björnson (you probably know her work from Broadway’s The Phantom of the Opera) and all I can say is that between the eye popping costumes for the Rose and the Baobab Trees to having a scale model of a plane onstage, it’s clear that this design genius left us far too soon at the young age of 53.

Maestra Micah Gleason conducted a superb sounding 14 piece orchestra which played Portman’s score to audible perfection.

A.J. Guban’s lighting, based on original lighting designer Mark McCullough’s original design, created some striking images making full use of the color palette. Guban once again didn’t cease to amaze.

WNO’s Youth Chorus under the direction of Steven Gathman provided a soaring choir of voices as the cranes that helped The Little Prince travel from planet to planet.

The only issue with these family operas is that they only have five performances so you have to be quick in getting tickets or you will miss out. I guess this is a good problem to have.

WNO’s The Little Prince was another example of the company’s commitment to making opera accessible for all ages. Please consider making it ONLY about the art in 2026 and beyond and continue to support this vital organization. With seventy seasons under their belts, WNO needs to continue bringing family operas and operas in general to a new generation of audience members.

The Little Prince took off and never looked back. Let’s make sure WNO continues to soar for years to come.

Running Time: One Hour and 50 minutes including one intermission.

The Little Prince was a five performance engagement in the Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center from December 12th to 14th, 2025. The venue is located at 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC.