The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, both the graduate opera students and the chamber orchestra, will present Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in German with English surtitles. This delightful cautionary tale by Humperdinck (no relation to the pop singer of the 1960s) tells the story of the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale characters who, sent into the woods to collect strawberries, are lured to the kitchen of a hungry witch. In a creative twist, the play has been set in the mid-20th century, with the witch being portrayed as a 1950s matron. The children are naturally drawn to the sweet-smelling kitchen, after such strict parenting, which leads stage director Pat Diamond to muse, “Things that you really want can turn out to be not so good!” Diamond, who worked with conductor Richard Bado at the Aspen Music Festival in the past, is a freelance director with almost 20 years of experience. He lives in New York and was brought to Rice exclusively to direct this production. “It is wonderful to work with a group that is so accomplished and collaborative,” he says of the opera students at the Shepherd School. “Rice produces amazing artists.” Diamond’s main artistic challenge was “finding the action in the music and narrative in the music.”
7:30 p.m., Friday, March 20; Tuesday, March 24; Thursday, March 26; 2 p.m. March 22. Rice University, 6100 Main. For information, call 713-348-8000 or visit music.rice.edu/opera/201415.shtml. $12.
Fri., March 20, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., March 22, 2 p.m.; Tue., March 24, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., March 26, 7:30 p.m., 2015
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2015.