The Happy Prince
The Happy Prince is a short opera (about an hour long), a setting of the Oscar Wilde story of the
same name, for two singers and orchestra. It's not really an opera, because it's not meant to be
fully staged, but in most respects it's operatic. To listen to my demo recording with singers and
synthesized orchestra, use the playlist on the right. I expect that few will have time to listen
to the whole thing; I recommend starting close to the end, with "Then The Snow Came", so you
don't miss the big climax.
Story
Here's a PDF of the original story. If you follow along with
the music, you'll note some differences. In particular, the section in grey has been cut.
I realize that the omission of the scene where the Prince's gold leaf is removed makes the
later reference by the Mayor less comprehensible, and that this section could be the subject of some
good, sappy music, but I was afraid that the piece was getting too long, and that, already having sat
through three days of the Prince and Swallow helping the poor, the audience might lose interest
in another repetition. Maybe I'll have the opportunity to add this section later.
Files
At the bottom of this Web page you can find the sheet music and audio renditions for the various
sections of the piece. If you want to listen the whole piece in iTunes:
- download the zip file of MP3 files (77 Megabytes) to your computer,
- unzip the the zip file (usually, double-clicking on the downloaded file does this), then
- open iTunes, select Import... from the File menu, and import all 17 mp3 .files.
Sheet Music
The sheet music is in two formats:
- Finale 2005 format, which can be read using Finale NotePad 2005, a
free download from the MakeMusic Web site
(go to the Notation Software page). And of course the files can be read by Finale 2005
itself, if you happen to have that.
- PDF format. Apparently, some versions of Acrobat Reader may have some problems with
these files, because of the way they were generated, although I have been successful with
a version of Acrobat Reader running under Windows XP. The Preview viewer in Mac OS X
also appears to work correctly.
Each piece is available in the version for full orchestra,
the reduced chamber version, and piano/vocal reduction.
Audio Files
My sister Diane and my friend Ching Chang have graciously helped me create a recording
of the piece, singing along with my synthesizers. The tracks are in MP3 format.
Zip Archives
There are zip archives of each format, so you don't have to download 17 separate files if
you want to get the whole piece.
I hope you like the music. Feedback is welcome!
Brian Mountford
brian@mountford.net
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MP3
MP3
Finale
PDF