Rorem's Fables: 5 Very Short Opera for soli (2 trebles and a tenor), a flexible mixed choir and piano.

These five short operas are based on selections from Jean de la Fontaine's well-loved Fables. The Lion in Love shows how that powerful emotion can disarm even the king of beasts. The Sun and the Frogs proves that sometimes less can indeed be more, while The Bird Wounded By An Arrow encapsulates man's cruelty to his fellow men in a mere ten lines of text. The Fox and the Grapes adds a small twist to Aesop's familiar tale, and The Animals Sick of the Plague casts a cynical eye on the workings of justice.