Perhaps children understand because Portman has made sure to keep them constantly engaged. In addition to its firmament of professional singers (several of them in the upcoming Zellerbach performances graduates of the San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Adler Fellowship program), The Little Prince uses a chorus of 24 children “children love to see other children onstage,” Portman says. And the title role is sung by a boy soprano. “That was questioned—it’s a heavy role. But my solution was just to keep his responses very short.” It’s the Pilot, to be sung by Eugene Brancoveanu, who moves the story along and does the vocal heavy lifting. Still, the beautiful Prince with his angelic face and sweet wisdom lines such as “What makes a desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well” is a choice role for 12-year-olds Tovi Wayne and Tyler Polen, who will alternate in the part.

The episodic nature of Saint-Exupéry’s book did present challenges. Portman, working with librettist Nicholas Wright, a prolific British playwright, drew upon her movie score experience to keep the pacing brisk. Her slightly outsider status in the classical music world this was her first opera may have given her an advantage in keeping the music for The Little Prince accessible and family friendly. And that immediately appealed to David Gockley, then general director of the Houston Grand Opera, when Portman and Zambello first came to him with their project.

“I knew Rachel’s film music, and when I learned she wanted to take this on I knew she wasn’t going to try to prove she was really a 12-tone composer,” Gockley says. “I knew she’d just be herself.”

Zambello puts it differently. “Her musical language is very simple,” she says. “It has a lot of melody; it’s music you remember, that motivates the drama forward.”

Gockley is now director of the San Francisco Opera, where he’s made a splash with “opera for the masses” initiatives such as a free simulcast at AT&T Park. The Little Prince’s Zellerbach Hall dates launched a new 50-50 partnership between Cal Performances and the San Francisco Opera, with more such productions including the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s new opera Three Decembers (Last Acts) in December to come.

“This arrangement is a big deal,” says Robert Cole, director of Cal Performances since 1986. “Some people might see our work as competitive, but there’s not a finite audience for what we do.” Cole adds, “This idea of getting opera out in a broader way David’s on the leading edge of that and we want to be a part of it.”

The alliance was born in large part of practicality, with Gockley seeking a venue to keep the Opera active during its usual downtime when the ballet takes over San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. But Gockley’s selection of The Little Prince couldn’t be more ideal for furthering a key Cal Performances goal: reaching family audiences.

When he retires next year, Cole expects the new connection to be one of his proudest legacies. “I’m doing everything I can to make sure this carries on,” he says. “Having someone like David around will make it possible. We’ve made a good start.”

Meanwhile, families all over the Bay Area have the chance to see an opera as inspiring as it is intergenerational.

Rachel Howard is the San Francisco Chronicle’s dance correspondent and the author of a memoir, The Lost Night.

Cal Performances and San Francisco Opera will present The Little Prince at Zellerbach Hall May 2–11.

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