I never read The Little Prince until my French friend gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. I didn't particularly enjoy it. Maybe because I was too much the grown-up already, perhaps.
So I wasn't too keen to catch the operatic adaptation on PBS this weekend. But with nothing else being on, and it being broadcast somewhat incessantly, I've watched it. It's really good. I still may not completely tap into its themes, but it's an excellent production with excellent performances. It's been described by its creators as an opera accessible to children, and it certainly is that. I think that's admirable. The only opera I saw as a child was a performance of Hansel and Gretel, and that was a sort of tedious experience. It was a videotaped stage production that I saw in a grainy broadcast on a small black and white television. It didn't suck me in at all, and it wasn't until I was nearly 18 before I gave opera-watching a second shot.
But this production is bright and vivid, adapted specially for television. And the music becomes quite captivating, once you get used to listening to music not structured into a complete song.
Also, the casting is very good. 11 year old Joseph McManners played the little prince. I found opera sites on the web discussing how amazing he'll be as an opera performer if his voice develops well through puberty. But even without the singing, he'll make a great actor. Especially for someone so young, he really understood how to use his physicality to give a performance with subtlety and emotional nuance, which grown-ups with years of training sometimes never grasp.