By ANNE MIDGETTE [NY Times, 6 November 2006]

There’s a basic problem with children’s opera: it’s still opera. That is, it may be framed for children, but you still need big voices to get across an orchestra, and you still have to be prepared for opera’s generous scale and time frame. And yet you don’t get the big emotional or intellectual payoffs of a “Traviata” or a “Walküre” because it’s, well, for children.