Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the opera Bastien und Bastien at the age of 12. The young genius's composition is a free retelling of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Le Devin du village, an opera he saw at the Burgtheater. We chose this naive zingspiel about the relationship between a shepherd and a shepherdess as the first premiere of the Hermitage Theater's Opera in pictures subscription for the entire family.

The cartoon opera combined acting by the artists with animated characters appearing on the screen. Cute sheep, a lamb bewitched by the mighty wizard Colas, and a fierce wolf delighted the preschool audience. The performance was preceded by an interactive educational interlude from which the audience learned about the instruments of the orchestra, their timbres and basic musical terms.