Opera presents Humperdinck’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’

The University Opera of the School of Music presents “Hansel and Gretel,” by Engelbert Humperdinck, Friday-Saturday, March 8-9, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 10, at 3 p.m. in the Carol Rennebohm Auditorium, Music Hall.

The opera will be sung in English. William Farlow directs a cast of students and guest artists, and James Smith conducts the UW Symphony Orchestra for this production.

Inspired by Wagner’s Parsifal, “Hansel and Gretel” is Humperdinck’s most popular work with a lush and lyrical score. It is based on Grimms’ familiar fairy tale of two children sent away from home to find food, only to find instead that they are lost.

The opera opens to a scene of children dancing in and around their cabin in the woods. Their mother returns home to find no food and none of the children’s chores completed. In a fit of rage, she sends her children fleeing, where they fall into the clutches of a witch living in a cottage she made of gingerbread children. Through cunning and wit, the children work their way to their freedom.

Farlow has more than 100 stage works to his credit, including productions for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Los Angeles Opera. “Hansel and Gretel was one of the first operas I saw in live performance,” Farlow says. “It remains a favorite that I have directed throughout my career.”

A split cast will share the leading roles: Hansel will be performed by Rebecca Olthafer and Colleen Brooks; Gretel, by Rachel Cruz and Jennifer Robb; the mother by Kassy Coleman and Melaine Cain and the father by Michael Koon and Thomas Combs. Brian Bizzell plays the witch; Julia Foster, the Sandman; Sara Gartland, the Dew Fairy; and students and community members sing the role of the chorus.

Production staff includes costume designers Sydney Krieger and Hyewon Park of Costume Couture Cambridge, LLC; technical director John Rourke; set designer Jennifer B. Nehls; lighting designer Dan Gallagher; and graphic designer Jennifer Dominiak.

Tickets: $15 public, $10 UW–Madison students, Vilas Hall Box Office, 262-1500. Any remaining tickets are available at the door 45 minutes before each performance. More information: 265-9068.