fairy tale

Most homes and businesses are wedged onto tiny lots, the buildings often designed with fairy-tale flourishes, as if commissioned by hobbits with trust funds.

It’s a journey of self-discovery and sexual liberation for Bella, set against a delirious fairy-tale backdrop.

Since the premiere of Taymor’s staging in 2004, her diaphanous puppets and George Tsypin’s translucent set pieces have brought a welcome weightlessness to Mozart’s hard-to-stage singspiel, which wraps fairy-tale monsters, young love and a Masonic quest in melodies of direct and abundant charm.

He had the face of a fairy-tale lead, the kind that would have fit agreeably in an earlier Hollywood era but felt comfortingly alluring in the moment.

“Once Upon a One More Time,” a fairy-tale mash-up powered by the hits of Britney Spears and skin-deep feminism, delivered the form’s most profane needle drop.