Ib and Little Christina

Ib and Little Christina refers to two theatrical adaptations by Basil Hood of the 1855 fairy tale by Hans Andersen of the same name: a play (1900) and an opera (1901).

The first version was a play subtitled "A Picture in 3 Parts", with incidental music by Arthur Bruhns, first produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre, opening on 15 May 1900 and running for 60 performances.

[4] Hood rewrote Ib and Little Christina as an opera styled "A Picture in 3 Panels", with music by Franco Leoni.

The Times described the piece as "an opera of ultra-modern type" and compared it unflatteringly to the work of Arthur Sullivan, who had died earlier in that year.

[6] The Manchester Guardian later said that "the music, though clever and attractive in many ways, was too realistic and too Southern to reflect the Northern symbolism of Andersen's story, and that its peculiar vein of passion was out of place.

Indoor scene with a woman, a man and a young girl, seated at a cottage table, heads bowed for grace
Isabel Jay , Robert Evett and Ela Q. May in the 1901 opera
Indoor scene with a young woman introducing a happy-looking young man to a sad one; an old man dozes in a chair by the fireside
Christina introduces her new lover to her childhood sweetheart