QUEEN SOPHINE lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano.
DONKEY MESSENGER basso cantante.
THE ELVES*
YAN high lyric soprano.
IB mezzo-contralto.
YAB lyric tenor.
OB bass-buffo.
*– While the Elves must perform as traditional opera singers, casting should favor singers with other vocal skills such as jazz improvisation, rap, and/or quasi-percussive choral utterance, as their principal sequence, the toy quartet, will extend as far outside traditional operatic technique as taste and ability will permit.
Flute (doubling Piccolo)
Clarinet 1 in B-flat
Clarinet 2 in B-flat (doubling Bass Clarinet)
Trumpet in D (doubling Trumpet in C)
Horn (Orchestral Horn 1 – high tessitura)
2 Tenor Trombone
Timpani
Percussion 1
Marimba
Vibraphone
Glockenspiel
Percussion 2
Non-pitched skins and metals
Piano 1 (doubling Celesta)
Piano 2 (tuned ¼ tone flat of Piano 1: doubling Harpsichord)
Harp
Strings
Children’s Handbell Ensemble (in audience: enough players for 48 pitches 4 chromatic octaves)
