Music for the very young

Opera-quest for children

Libretto by Ekaterina Pospelova based on Edward Lear poems

The world premiere was performed in Perm in 2014.

The librettos of the operas written by brother and sister Pospelov and Pospelova are based on stories by a remarkable English poet of the 19^th century Edward Lear, famous for his nonsense poetry and limericks. For example, two gentlemen — Mr Floppy Fly and Mr Daddy Long-legs — meet and moan to each other about life. The daddy longlegs has had to stop singing because his legs have become too long and the fly can no longer go to the palace because his legs are too short. Using all their short and long legs, the gentlemen get into a canoe and float away to play ball in a cup.

The directors Vyacheslav Ignatov and Maria Litvinova, who have staged many memorable family performances, combine the possibilities of the puppet, shadow, dramatic and musical genres to create an atmosphere of a cosy home theatre where important things are discussed in a simple way. The format chosen for the performances, a firm favourite of the Perm audience, is opera in the theatre foyer. At the entrance, Grandpa Lear invites everyone on a journey through the fairytale «Land of Nonsense», where children have the opportunity not only to listen, but also to sing and to play the musical instruments together with the characters of the show.