The production was a critical success with both audiences and critics, and the opera went on to become an American classic.

The result is that for most of the evening two operas are going on at the same time: one seen, the other heard.

And then there is that loving audience which will simply not let these operas go.

Still, as the opera goes on (this is a three-hour evening), the score seems increasingly padded.

The opera went on to tour, in Canada and the United States.

But as children's operas go, this was a good effort.

All this would not matter if the opera did not go out of its way to lay claim to historical insight and sensitivity.

The opera then went unheard until after the composer's death.

So the merry comic opera went along almost to its end.

The opera then went on the shelf, although other producers were interested in reviving it.