SARASOTA — Sarasota Opera will open its 68th season with Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” running Oct. 30 through Nov. 14. Sarasota Opera is at 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota.
Performance will be Friday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 1, 1:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m.; Tuesday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m.; Thursday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.; and Saturday, Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.sarasotaopera.org or by calling 941-328-1300.
Premiered in 1893 in Weimar under the baton of Richard Strauss, Humperdinck’s version of “Hansel and Gretel” offers a compelling musical and theatrical experience for audiences of all ages, melding lush orchestration with simple folk melodies to tell the timeless fairy tale of two siblings who stray into the forest and encounter a beguiling Gingerbread Witch, finding courage in the face of peril. This production of “Hansel and Gretel” marks the first-ever mainstage collaboration between Sarasota Opera, Sarasota Youth Opera, and Sarasota Ballet School’s Margaret Barbieri Conservatory and Sarasota Ballet Studio Company.
Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” is a prime example of Märchenoper, or “fairy-tale opera,” a genre that enjoyed enormous success in 19th century Germany. Setting to music supernatural stories — often allegorical fables built on the premise of good versus evil — was popular among composers like Richard Wagner, for whom Humperdinck was an assistant for many years. Humperdinck originally drafted music for “Hansel and Gretel” for a family puppet show at the behest of his sister, Adelheid Wette, who wrote the libretto based on the age old fairy tale as published by the Brothers Grimm. The composer later expanded the work into a full-length opera.
“It contains some of the most deeply complex music I’ve ever worked on,” says Maestro Anthony Barrese, who conducted the show in Sarasota in 2010 and returns to conduct this year.
Sarasota Opera’s upcoming “Hansel and Gretel” will be staged by director and choreographer Felicity Stiverson, who first collaborated on the production with E. Loren Meeker in New Orleans and later in San Antonio. Stiverson performed as a dancer on and off Broadway before turning her attention to directing, and dance is central to her approach.
“Anytime you can add dancing to an opera,” she says, “you gain so much in storytelling, stage pictures, and narrative.”
The title roles in Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” will be performed by mezzo-soprano Kara Morgan as Hansel and recent Juilliard master’s program graduate Kerrigan Bigelow as Gretel. Returning to Sarasota Opera to play the Witch is mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez. The cast will also include Lindsey Polcyn as the Mother and the debut of baritone Spencer Reichman in the role of Peter, with Sarah Stembel as The Dewman and Kira Neary in the role of The Sandman.
Hansel and Gretel will be conducted by longtime Sarasota Opera collaborator Anthony Barrese.