Discord Hits Kids’ Video Music Series : Dispute: Classical Kids founder says a product from Devine Corp., created by a former partner, has tarnished its concept of introducing classical music to children. Devine Corp. defends its new work as ‘original.’

All is not legato in the world of kids and classical music. Classical Kids and Devine Entertainment Corp., the two companies that co-produced the Emmy Award-winning children’s video “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” have parted ways and become competitors, sparking complaints from one company that the other has appropriated and tarnished its concept.

The fracas surrounds a new HBO series, set to premiere Wednesday.

Seven years ago, Canadian pianist and educator Susan Hammond created the Classical Kids company and began producing a series of audiotapes with the idea, as she put it, to “take classical music out of its black clothes and have it speak naturally to children, the way it was first heard.” Each story would introduce a fictional child into a composer’s life and make a dramatic situation and the composer’s music central to the plot.

The Toronto company’s first productions were “Mr. Bach Comes to Visit” and “Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs.” The series’ success spawned books and touring concert versions in Canada and the United States.

In 1990, Classical Kids’ multiple-award-winning Beethoven audio project was optioned by Devine Entertainment Corp., also based in Toronto. The resulting film, which Classical Kids and Devine co-produced, was broadcast on HBO and won a 1993 Emmy Award for best children’s program. Despite the Emmy, the partnership ended after just one film. Hammond attributes it to “creative differences”--a notion disputed by Devine.

Now, Classical Kids is expressing outrage with Devine Corp. over what it sees as a close similarity between its product concept and Devine’s new video series, “The Composers’ Specials,” set to begin airing on HBO on Wednesday.

David Devine, the corporation’s president and chief executive officer, is dismayed at Classical Kids’ position, defending his new work as “original” and emphasizing what he sees as differences between the two concepts. He also cites multiple influences that contributed to “The Composers’ Specials.”

Devine’s six new hourlong videos also center on a fictional child’s relationship with a composer (Bizet, in the kickoff program, with entries on Bach, Liszt, Strauss, Rossini and Handel to follow), and on the resolution of a predicament facing the child.

The predicaments are “hard-nosed realities--child physical abuse, single-parent families and divorce, racism,” Devine said. “Our films offer a child ways in which to understand and find self-esteem,” an element he stressed as “absolutely” different from Classical Kids’ concept.

Also, “stories for children generally always have children as protagonists,” he noted.

But, according to Hammond and Michelle Henderson, managing director of the Toronto-based Children’s Group, which markets Classical Kids, the general similarities between their productions and Devine’s, along with the companies’ previous association, have already created identity problems.

Since Devine Entertainment “claimed the territory,” Hammond said, even “actors and musicians” working on “The Composers’ Specials” have been confused. “They would call me and say, ‘I’m working on your project,’ and I would say, ‘No, you’re not.’ ”

Henderson said that Classical Kids is considering legal action. “Never in a million years,” Henderson said, “did we think our concept would be appropriated by someone who was a former partner.”

For his part, David Devine pointed out that his 15-year-old company has been in the children’s video field for 11 years. He said he is disconcerted by Classical Kids’ recent complaints, since, due to widespread publicity about the series in Canada, “they have known about our films for two to three years.”

“It’s unfortunate they would discuss litigation on the eve of the premiere of our first film.”

Devine cited his own childhood interest in classical music as a major influence for the series and pointed to “buddy” pictures like Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” as inspiration. “The Composers’ Specials,” he said, is a project he and his partner, filmmaker Richard Mozer, “always wanted to do.” Devine acknowledged that “Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs” was based on his co-producer’s tape, but between the audio production and the video, he stressed, “there’s no similarity. . . . The script was totally rewritten.” (Barbara Nichol wrote the audio; Heather Conkie wrote the screenplay.)

Hammond and Henderson agree that there are differences between Classical Kids’ presentations and the new Devine series. But, they said, some of those differences only make matters worse. Classical Kids doesn’t want to be associated in the public’s mind with what it sees as questionable content in “The Composers’ Specials,” especially “Bizet’s Dream.”

“Bizet,” Henderson said, “wouldn’t have been one of our choices for a child-centered story.”

In “Bizet’s Dream,” adultery is a concern for the composer and for a little girl who fears her absent soldier father has deserted his family for another woman. Hearing Bizet tell the story of “Carmen,” she imagines her father as Don Jose, Carmen’s lover, and once she fantasizes that she herself is Don Jose’s spurned love, Micaela.

Diana Huss Green, editor in chief of the national Parents’ Choice Foundation, a group that provides parents and educators with a guide to excellence in children’s toys and media, also feels that Devine’s film raises content concerns.

Although her organization gave top honors to both the audio and video of “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” Green said she could not recommend “Bizet’s Dream.”

Green said while viewing “Bizet’s Dream” recently, “I sat there with my mouth hanging open. And the more I watched, I found myself appalled, the implications of adultery were so straight out. I think this will cause a lot of mixed feelings and confusion in kids.”

Devine doesn’t think parents or children will be uncomfortable with such adult themes.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Each film deals with an adult topic if you will, because that’s the way the world really is and we like to reflect reality in the shows.

“I hope these films will help teach children not just these realities, but ways to rise above them.”

Carole Rosen, HBO’s vice president of family programming, praised the series’ “high production values” and said she has no qualms about its content. “It has current themes that kids are interested in,” she said.

Rosen feels that the issue of adultery in Bizet is “handled in a tasteful way and it’s resolved well.” She added that “things that are a little edgier” fit “the HBO style,” so “scenes can be a little more controversial. We like that.”

Green of Parents’ Choice said she had assumed “Bizet’s Dream” was another production from Classical Kids, “a group we’ve learned to trust.”

Green’s reaction is just what Hammond and Henderson say they’re concerned about. “The most important thing to us is to ensure that [people] understand that this is not a Classical Kids production,” said Henderson, noting that the company is about to release its seventh audio (“Hallelujah, Handel!”) and has a second audio-to-video project, “Tchaikovsky Discovers America,” in pre-production.

“People have come to expect a certain level of quality, sincerity and integrity in Classical Kids productions,” Henderson said. “That is really important for us to maintain. And that someone can take something we have done together and put a completely different mark on it, it puts us in a difficult position. The marketplace,” she concluded, “will be the ultimate true test.”

Said Devine: “I haven’t talked to Sue [Hammond] since the film, so I wish her only the best. If they had creative differences, all I can say is that I was quite pleased with the film having won the Emmy. I never have intended to go into the audiotape business and I really wish them the best of luck. I think their product is fantastic. Always have, always will.

“I’m going to look on the bright side,” Devine said. “These films are great and they are original.”