The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
The little Prince
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Age ratings
universal
_recommendations
highly recommended
Production Company
Chausseestraße 128/129
10115 Berlin Phone +49 30 20 91 28 30 Phone +49 30 20 91 28 35 http://www.sing-akademie.de
10115 Berlin Phone +49 30 20 91 28 30 Phone +49 30 20 91 28 35 http://www.sing-akademie.de
The little Prince
Synopsis
About the book -The life and work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by Johanna Walch
The timeless story of the Little Prince is one of those rare tales that continues to deeply move people of all ages. Published in the spring of 1943, it is now one of the most successful French books of the 20th century. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944) wrote The Little Prince in the summer of 1942 while in exile in America, after the character of the Little Prince had already accompanied him for years as the subject of his illustrations. As in his earlier books and essays (Südkurier 1928, Nachtflug 1930, Wind, Sand and Stars 1939), Saint-Exupéry also deals with personal experiences in The Little Prince. The intense experiences of his work as a pilot play a particularly recurring role.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry discovered his passion for flying in 1921 during his military service. Between 1926 and 1939, he worked as a flying instructor, post and test pilot and survived several, sometimes serious, plane crashes during these years. The emergency landing on a long-distance flight over the Egyptian desert in 1935 and the dramatic rescue by a caravan after a five-day march with increasingly scarce resources are particularly noteworthy - an experience that strongly influenced the storyline of The Little Prince. Saint-Exupéry was conscripted into the French air defence at the beginning of the Second World War, but was discharged in 1940 due to health problems and subsequently emigrated to the USA, where he became actively involved in the resistance. In 1943, he joined the Free French Air Force and was stationed in Algeria. On 31 July 1944, he took off on an unarmed reconnaissance flight and was considered missing ever since. The wreckage of the plane was recovered off Marseille in 2003 - after much speculation, it is now assumed that Saint-Exupéry was shot down by a German fighter plane.
Like the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the story of The Little Prince follows the constant rhythm of departure and return. The Little Prince decides to leave his home planet and embarks on an eventful journey through the stars. He is both a seeker and an arriver, as he is guided by a constant desire to learn and understand, yet at the same time seems to be completely at peace with himself and guided by sure principles. The starting point of his journey is his unhappy love for his rose. The little prince is too young, naive and inexperienced, the rose too vain and neither of them manage to face the challenges of their relationship with openness and honest communication. Many readers see this relationship as a symbol of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's turbulent marriage to the Salvadoran painter and author Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry.
On his planetary journey, the little prince makes the acquaintance of all kinds of great people: Among them is a drunkard who drinks to forget that he is a drunkard, a businessman who wants to own the whole sky and therefore spends his days counting the stars, a sleepless lamplighter who has the hopeless task of switching his lantern off and then on again every minute and a geographer who spends his days stubbornly at his desk. The little prince encounters all these characters with curiosity and increasing bewilderment, as he simply cannot make out any real sense in their actions. When he finally arrives on earth, he realises the value of true friendship through his encounters with the fox and the pilot stranded in the desert. Inspired by the realisation of his deep love and responsibility for the abandoned rose, the little prince decides to leave his body behind on earth and return to his planet with the help of the snake. What remains for the pilot, and therefore for us readers, is the comforting memory and the certainty of being reminded of the little prince and all the wisdom he shared with us every time we look up at the starry sky.
Although Antoine de Saint-Exupéry himself describes his work as a pure ‘children's tale’, it also contains genre-specific features of the philosophical narrative and the fable. From a linguistic and stylistic perspective, the constant presence of the first-person narrator in the role of the pilot is particularly noteworthy: This presence begins at the very beginning of the book, when the narrator asks the (young) readers to forgive him for dedicating the book to an adult. The story concludes with another request to the children to write to the pilot immediately every time they meet the little prince - the sense of togetherness between author and reader is a recurring theme throughout the book. Also striking is the consistently dialogue-based linguistic design, the frequent summarising and instructive chapter endings and the repeated use of symbols and symbolic actions.
The Little Prince is a story whose content can be interpreted on numerous philosophical, psychological and religious levels. What is particularly remarkable is the way in which the different interpretations are always unobtrusive and never in competition with each other, and the power that the timeless and all-encompassing central messages of this little book still seem to have today. The different interpretations often share themes such as the value of friendship described in clear simplicity, the almost ironic view of an outsider on the strangely obsessive world of big people, as well as the recurring return to unconditional humanity. In this work, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by no means presents himself as an unworldly dreamer who wants to escape the horrors of the world through his story - rather, it can be understood as a clear cross-generational appeal for the perpetual endeavour to work responsibly with and for one another.
Cast & Crew
- Director
- Screenwriter
- Director of photography
- Actor
- Protagonist
- Original Score
- Gaffer
Press release
The Little Prince - Singspiel by Basti BundAntoine de Saint-Exupéry guides us sensitively and in an incredibly multi-faceted way through the experiences of the Little Prince, making us pause and reflect. Composer Basti Bund and lyricist Michael Sommer have succeeded in musically capturing the journey of the Little Prince with all his special and wonderful encounters in their 2016 singspiel of the same name, while remaining true to the character of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's work.
Although The Little Prince can be classified more as a singspiel due to the spoken texts and dialogues that interrupt the individual pieces of music, there are still several typically operatic features in the composition. For example, the work begins with a classical, purely instrumental overture, in which some of the musical motifs used in the Singspiel are already anticipated. The overture also serves as an introduction to the essential themes and moods of the work before the actual action. Right at the beginning of the overture, for example, the clearly and simply realised mediant chordal connection on dm - fm opens up an open, searching sound space which, for all its harmonic beauty, also evokes a certain strangeness and forlornness. The starting point of our plot - the pilot, who has basically felt lost in the world of adults since his childhood and now finds himself as an adult in the vast foreign desert wasteland - is masterfully realised musically with simple musical means.
Sebastian ‘Basti’ Bund (born 1987) has been working as a freelance composer and pianist since 2005. As part of various collaborations with opera houses and theatres, he has created numerous stage and film scores, scenic cantatas, two major symphonies and several chamber operas. Basti Bund originally arranged The Little Prince as a children's opera for children's choir and several soloists, string quartet, oboe, horn, piano and glockenspiel. Today you can hear the work in a reduced version for children's choir, accompanied by a small chamber music ensemble (piano, clarinet, cello).
Another motif that decisively shapes the overture is the dream motif: the swinging 6/8 time signature and the scale-like melodic line, which is only interrupted by delicate tone changes, contribute to the lulling, dreamy character of the phrase. Later in the Singspiel, the dream motif is taken up again in No. 2: A sheep for life; here, too, the little prince's dreamy, pensive circling around the planet he has left behind is foregrounded.
Basti Bund uses a variety of musical forms and styles in his composition. In addition to the overture and various incidental music, in which already familiar musical ideas are taken up and further developed or anticipated, classically structured verse songs and character pieces, in which an image or a certain mood is captured, also appear in The Little Prince. The moment in which the Little Prince's first encounter with the snake is described is particularly striking (No. 6: The Snake): In the style of a typical character piece, the composer ‘paints’ a scene full of excited fascination, incomprehension and head-shaking before our inner eye. At a restless pace, the two characters chase each other through constantly chromatically shifted call & response phrases, with each observation by one protagonist only seeming to trigger even more astonishment in his counterpart.
They are accompanied by steadily advancing semiquaver repetitions in the piano, which are also shifted upwards chromatically in four-bar phrases. While the actual action in such a character piece seems to be frozen, we listeners are given an insight into the emotional atmosphere of the scene, thus opening up an additional level of access to the action.
Like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Basti Bund also places the main thematic focus of the work on the essential and indispensable necessity of friendship and being there for one another. This becomes particularly clear in the use of the friendship or taming motif: the composer chooses a two-part theme here, which is used both in No. 7: Please tame me, as well as in the following incidental music The Taming and in the concluding piece No. 9: Memory. As the only theme composed in a major key in the entire Singspiel, it is characterised by an initially simple, triad-oriented melodic line, which is later underpinned by increasingly complex, sometimes mediant harmonic turns and romantically enriched chords.
The development from the simple harmonic and melodic basic idea of the theme to its harmonically complex and repeatedly modulating continuation in the course of the piece, together with the increasingly orchestral accompaniment, seems like a musical sketch of the gift of friendship so often praised by Saint-Exupéry - at first only a hesitant meeting, at last almost unbelievable joy at the magic of the relationship that has just grown.
The undisputed juxtaposition of complexity and simplicity in Saint-Exupéry's work, of seemingly unsolvable questions and clear, sometimes almost childlike answers, can be clearly heard and felt in Basti Bund's compositional style. From a simple tonal language to a monumental, multi-layered sound, from small song forms to a grand overture, from the simple underpainting of a singing voice in a transparent instrumental movement to an orchestral accompaniment set in large arpeggios: Basti Bund provides a musical platform for the entire range of themes dealt with in Saint-Exupéry's original book, while always leaving room for the audience to engage with the work on a personal level. The singspiel thus wonderfully captures the Little Prince's special gift of describing the seemingly greatest and most impenetrable themes of our human lives in such clear words and, like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's masterpiece, holds a great treasure trove of valuable discoveries for people of all ages.
note team
The Girls' Choir of the Sing-Akademie zu BerlinFounded in 2006, the Girls' Choir of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin is one of the most outstanding choirs of its kind in Europe. Around 180 girls and young women aged between 5 and 20 currently sing in its ensembles, divided into eight groups. Rehearsals take place in Berlin's inner city districts, including the Berlin Cathedral, St. Johanniskirche Moabit and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at the Zoological Garden.
The Girls‘ Choir II and Girls’ Choir Charlotte of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin currently provides intensive basic and advanced musical training for around 50 active singers aged 9 to 11. The joy of singing together and comprehensive musical and, in particular, vocal training are at the centre of the rehearsals. Carefully designed concert programmes open up a wide range of musical experiences for the singers. At the same time, the openness and curiosity for new musical and personal experiences is awakened and encouraged in the choir's rehearsals.
The singers of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin girls' choir co-operate with other choirs such as the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir, take part in competitions, go on choir trips and camps and perform in major symphony concerts. In recent years, the girls' choir has realised projects with the Jewish Museum Berlin, the refugee initiative Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit and the contemporary opera ensemble NO-VOFLOT at the Volksbühne, among others, and was featured in the successful Netflix series UNORTHODOX!
In 2017, the choir won a silver medal in the Grand Prix of Nations at the Berlin Philharmonie. In May 2018, it took part in the German Choir Competition with outstanding success and was awarded 2nd prize. Concert tours have taken him to Iceland, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and, most recently, China and Norway. In 2022, the radio play ‘Theorina’, co-developed by the girls and featuring music by Katja Tchemberdji, was released as a co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and won two first prizes at the Berlin Chortreff.
The girls' choir is directed by Prof. Friederike Stahmer, who is supported by a team of staff and vocal coaches.
Singers
Charlotte Girls' Choir of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin
Aurelia Baumhauer, Charlotte Aumüller, Eleni Feiten, Elif Maria Eichholtz, Erika Zhang, Hanna Margaret Sobótka, Hannah Rohde, Helen Kanmani Vincent, Juli Carlotta Heinrich, Livia So-phie Issing, Luise Feurich, Luna Winter, Luz Grandadam Deprez, Marie Rudolph, Marlene Aumüller, Olivia Ohletz, Romi-na Köhler, Ruby Morlock, Yisha Lu
Girls' Choir II of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin
Adah Russel, Anna Ramsthaler, Anna Lecis, Anna Elsner, Char-lotte Freytag, Deva Wischniewski, Djula May Mujanovic, Elaine Bostanjoglo, Eliana Öner, Eliana Plotkin, Elsa Bernal Hamdorf, Emma Elsner, Fanny Denicke, Franka Bechtle, Frieda Eulenburg, Hedi Linn Schwarz, Helene Kranz, Josefina Jamnikova, Josepha Motschmann, Josephine Weiß, Juno Felicia Richter, Kenza Teb-boune Pintier, Leonie Ting Zhang, Lidia Ebe Bongard, Luzie Fuchs, Marlene Einecke, Matilda Möbius, Mila Martin, Milo Hei-debrecht, Mina Mahler, Muun Straub, Nike Ottenjann, Noomi Mahler, Rahel Spaeth-Erdur, Theresa Herzig, Victoria Su, Vivian Liu, Zeynep Betül Coskun
Biography
Artistic DirectorJohanna Walch studied to become a secondary school music teacher at the University of Music Würzburg and educational science at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. During her school music studies, she already worked as a choir director and voice coach for various children's and amateur choirs, including the St. Johannis Würzburg Girls' Choir and the Klangfängern Würzburg (singing school of the Windsbacher Kna-benchor). She further deepened her enthusiasm for choral music by specialising in ensemble conducting with Prof. Jörg Straube and Prof. Benedikt Haag. After completing her first state examination with honours, Johanna Walch continued her training in the Master's degree in Children's and Youth Choir Conducting at the HMTM Hanover with Prof. Friederike Stahmer and Prof. Andreas Fel-ber, majoring in choral conducting.
As a singer, Johanna Walch can look back on many years of experience in various ensembles. Starting with her musical and vocal training in the girls' choir junge stimmen schweinfurt, concert projects in semi-professional ensembles such as the choir of the Bach Collegium Munich, the AUDI Youth Choir Academy and the Frankfurt Chamber Choir have taken her to various concert halls in Germany and abroad in recent years, including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Carnegie Hall New York, the Musiikkitalo Helsinki and the Herkulessaal and Gasteig in Munich.
Since February 2024, Johanna Walch has been working as a choral conducting assistant for the CANTAMUS Children's and Youth Choir at the Staatstheater Kassel. In September 2024, she took up the position of choir director of the Girls‘ Choir II and assistant choir director of the Concert Choir of the Girls’ Choir at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.
interview
LyricsNO. 1: THE HAT
This is a hat. The shape and colour leave no doubt. It's a hat.
So far, so good. As good as reason can explain it to us. So far, so good.
Adult, clever and sober, that's how we explain the world.
And don't even realise what we are missing, what we are missing.
Grown-up, clever and sober, that's how we explain the world.
And don't even realise what we're missing, what we're missing.
I'll be asleep soon. And return to the home above us. I'll sleep soon.
Because I am old. And that's why I look again with the eyes of a child. Because I am old.
When I painted this picture, I was six and loved to dream.
The jungle was close to me and hats were far away.
When I painted this picture, I was six and loved to dream.
The jungle was close to me and hats were far away.
This is not a hat. But you can only recognise it with a child's eye. It's not a hat.
Just calm down. The snake is full and doesn't bite, fortunately. Just calm blood.
Because boas eat their prey whole and then sleep,
six months, digest mouse, digest mouse and man.
Because boas eat their prey whole and then sleep,
six months, digest mouse, digest mouse and man.
That's how the clock ticks. For big people, the world is true from the outside. That's how the clock ticks.
And once only, I met someone who saw a snake here. And once only.
Even then, I was about to go to bed forever.
Then I saw him there in the desert, standing in the desert.
NO. 2: A SHEEP FOR LIFE
When I dream of home, I see my little sheep there.
It doesn't need big rooms, it sleeps in its crate.
It doesn't need big rooms, it sleeps in the crate.
During the day, I'll watch over it to make sure it doesn't eat the wrong thing.
And it will make me happy that it is so content.
And it will make me happy that it is so content.
There couldn't be a better pet, it's beautifully painted.
And I'll grow old together with my sheep for life.
And I'll grow old together with my sheep for life.
And I'll grow old together with my sheep for life.
NO. 3: LONGING
Who loves a flower that only exists once,
on all the hundreds of thousands of stars.
Then he looks up and looks forward to it,
that it is waiting there in the farthest distance.
When a sheep forgets itself and eats a flower,
hundreds of thousands of stars go out.
Then space is empty and it will never again
learn new laughter, new love.
Then space will be empty and it will never again
learn a new laughter, a new love.
NO. 4: THE GREAT PEOPLE
The big people are the kings of the world.
They have power and money and think they are infallible.
The big people are the kings of the world.
They have power and money and think they are infallible.
Yet everyone was once a child - but no one remembers that they were.
The big people are very strange!
Everyone was once a child - but no one remembers that they were.
Big people are very strange!
NO. 5: THE BIG PEOPLE II
She only has four thorns to protect her from the world,
is completely on her own in her loneliness.
She only has four thorns to protect her from the world,
she is all on her own in her loneliness.
And the clock ticks incessantly - and scratches at our lifespan.
She is threatened by transience.
And the clock ticks incessantly - and scratches at our lifetime.
It is threatened by transience.
Big people are often smaller than you think.
Those who appear powerful on the outside are weak and vulnerable on the inside.
Big people are often smaller than you think.
Those who seem powerful on the outside are weak and vulnerable on the inside.
Everyone was once a child - but no one remembers that they were.
Big people are very strange!
Everyone was once a child - but no one remembers that they were.
Big people are very strange.
NO. 6: THE SNAKE
You are slender like a finger, like a twig, like a leaf.
But mighty as no finger that a great king has.
No feet, no legs, how do you control the world?
My kisses carry further than the fastest ship!
My kisses - no feet - carry further - no legs,
how do you have the world under control? - than the fastest ship!
NO. 7: PLEASE TAME ME
If you tame me, I'll be full, full of sun.
If you tame me, I'll never, never be alone again.
I know exactly what your footsteps sound like.
Others chase me away, but you let me sing.
And like music I rise, I rise from the den.
The sun is shining, the sky, the sky is so blue, because
you are there for me. Because you are there for me, because you are there for me,
are there for me.
Then look, do you see that in front, the wheat field?
It was useless in the world until now.
Now its gold, your wheat-blonde hair.
And I sink into it completely.
The wind that rustles in it is your voice.
Into which I dive and melt:
Please tame me, yes, please tame me, yes please, tame me, tame me.
NO. 8: THE GIFT OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
All people have stars, but they are not the same for everyone;
They lead travellers into the distance, make the businessman rich.
Set scholars thought-provoking tasks, but they are consistently silent.
You alone will have stars as no one else knows them.
You alone will have stars that no one else knows.
And we will remain friends, you will laugh now and then.
It will drive you outside, where you can see stars.
When others are worried, but you shout with rapture:
‘Stars make me laugh!’, they think you're crazy!
‘Stars make me laugh!’, they think you're crazy!
All the stars will sing, and it will ring like bells,
and it will ring like bells, all the stars will sing.
And it will ring like bells, all the stars will sing!
NO. 9: MEMORY
That was the last time I saw him.
His body was gone in the morning.
I had to learn to live without him,
because he went home to his stars,
They are millions of little bells in the night,
each one of them smiling at me,
bright, like the little prince, bright like the little prince,
bright, like the little prince, the little prince.
Then I remembered, I have, I have painted myself:
The muzzle for his sheep has, has no hold.
How could I have forgotten the strap?
It could eat the flower after all!
But surely he won't leave her alone,
otherwise all the stars will be tears,
otherwise the little prince will cry. Otherwise the little prince will cry,
otherwise the little prince, the little prince will cry.
Please stand still when life leads you into the desert.
You will see that his laughter touches you deep in your heart.
Who knows, maybe you will meet a child with golden hair.
Then write to me quickly: The prince is back!
Age ratings
universal
_recommendations
highly recommended
Production Company
Chausseestraße 128/129
10115 Berlin Phone +49 30 20 91 28 30 Phone +49 30 20 91 28 35 http://www.sing-akademie.de
10115 Berlin Phone +49 30 20 91 28 30 Phone +49 30 20 91 28 35 http://www.sing-akademie.de
Cast & Crew
Uli AumüllerMichael Sommer
Sebastian Rausch, Fabian Bechtle, Andreas Fuchs
Eva Spaeth
Johanna Walch
Cole Knutson, Jan Hermerschmidt, Bo Wiget, Friederike Stahmer, Basti Bund
Fabian Bleisch
