The Story of "Little Red's Most Unusual Day"

Forest Ranger Dudley is too shy to ask Little Red’s mom, the widow Hood, to the Forest Ranger Ball. For that reason, he leaves a written invitation in a basket of flowers outside Little Red’s house. Unfortunately for Dudley, the basket is delivered to Granny. Granny simply loves men, especially men in uniform. In the resulting confusion Dudley gets the girl, Granny kisses the Wolf, Mom gets impatient and Little Red gets in trouble. In fact, everyone experiences, in one way or another, a very, very unusual day!

Click here to listen to musical excerpts from this show.

Click here to download our brochure about this opera for children.

More About "Little Red's Most Unusual Day"

Mercury Opera Rochester is fortunate that Mr. Davies, a resident of Syracuse, will join us to work as the stage director on the production. Mr. Davies is well known to Rochester audiences as the Major General in our Pirates of Penzance, Leporello in our Don Giovanni, Sacristan/Jailer in our Tosca, as stage director for our Barber of Seville, as Dr. Grenvil in last season’s Traviata, and as The Major General in this fall’s production of The Pirates of Penzance.

With a story line familiar to most children and music from several different operas by Gioacchino Rossini and Jacques Offenbach, this clever children's opera is sure to be a hit with your children. In addition to introducing the art form of opera, Mercury Opera Rochester's program will also familiarize our young audience members with classical tunes and teach some valuable lessons about trust, heeding good advice, and appropriate behavior with strangers.

The opera is performed entirely in English, and includes some spoken dialogue as well as extensive musical selections. Musical numbers included in Little Red's Most Unusual Day have been adapted from Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville and several of Offenbach's operas, including The Tales of Hoffmann, La Vie Parisienne (Parisian Life), and Blue Beard. The entire opera takes just 40 minutes, and is geared toward elementary school children in pre-kindergarten through grade 5.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students under age 13. This show is not included in Mercury Opera Rochester’s Season Ticket package.