Tales put some teeth into children’s opera

Kirsten Cairns has another, slightly counterintuitive, suggestion: opera. Twice a year for the last six years, the Boston Conservatory has been presenting a children’s opera by composer John Davies. (The conservatory unveils a new production in April and repeats it in the fall.) Davies takes music from well-known operas and adapts it to stories drawn from popular fairy tales. Cairns, who directs the conservatory’s opera program, says that performances make great family outings.

“You’re telling a fun story, a geared-to-kids story that they know,’’ says Cairns by phone. “It’s a short length [about 40 minutes], but it’s fabulous music. And we don’t tone down the style of the singing at all; it’s full-on operatic vocalizing.’’ And while Cairns admits that opera singing can be an acquired taste, especially for children, she adds, “They’re hearing that, but along with everything else that’s going on that’s enjoyable for them, it can help them get that acquired taste.’’

The conservatory’s next offering is on April 24: Davies’s “Little Red’s Most Unusual Day,’’ a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story that contains a few twists. To the well-known fable, Davies adds a new character named Dudley, a ranger who’s in love with Little Red’s mother. He drops a note declaring his feeling into a basket of flowers, but Little Red delivers the flowers instead to her granny, who has a crush on Dudley. The wolf, meanwhile, disguises itself as Dudley and follows Little Red to granny’s house. Hilarity ensues.

All that may sound more or less like a typical fairy tale story. What’s interesting, though, is that it isn’t far from the narratives of mistaken identity that drive operas like “The Marriage of Figaro’’ or “Die Fledermaus.’’ And when you think about it, Cairns says, those are just the kinds of stories kids gravitate toward.

“Not to get high-flown about it, but it’s a typical Romantic quest structure,’’ she explains. “A character setting out to achieve something, obstacles in the path, and confusion and mix-up. And either they all die in the end or they all live happily ever after.’’ She notes that, “for the kids, we usually go for the second one.’’

Amid all the hijinks in “Little Red,’’ audiences are hearing operatic favorites such as the Barcarolle from Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann’’ and Figaro’s aria from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.’’

“It brings a whole crowd of people to the conservatory who maybe don’t come to anything else,’’ says Cairns of the children’s operas. “So you get these people who are loving it. The adults are rapt and laughing, and the kids are experiencing something that’s just so different.’’ She now recognizes families who come every year.

Perhaps surprisingly, the singers have almost as much fun as the kids. Cairns describes the operas as work that helps the performers develop their craft while providing a welcome break from the rigors of conservatory training.

“When you spend the whole year working so hard, you’re trying to develop singing that can take you to a career, and all the time you’re being judged,’’ she says. “To do something that is just fun, where you get that immediate response — your audience are right there and loving it, and then the kids come up afterward and they ask for autographs. The students really get a kick out of it.’’

That enjoyment takes on a deeper and more meaningful dimension when the conservatory brings its productions to Children’s Hospital Boston, which Cairns says they do as often as they can. She can remember bringing Davies’s “Billy Goats Gruff’’ there one year and watching a child who was obviously suffering yet seemed happily lost in the opera — especially the trolls.

“[He was] the sweetest little boy and he was so thin, and he was so excited: ‘It’s the troll!’ ’’ she recalls him exclaiming. “And you can see the relief on his mother’s face that he’s having a good time for a change.’’