By William Flockton
It was taken straight from the dreams that are really just memories of childhood: broom sword fights, sunbeams cutting through trees, terrifying angels and the desperate wish for life-sized gingerbread houses. So much so, that even this reporter forgot that he was not dreaming, but watching an opera. The opera in question was the Eklund Opera Program’s performance of Humperdinck and Wette’s fairy-tale opera “Hänsel und Gretel” at Macky Auditorium, which took place on Oct. 25 and 27. The opera was performed in its original German with English supertitles and had enchanted set design, immersive characters and emotional, soaring music.
The Eklund Opera Program at CU Boulder’s College of Music produces five shows biannually, where students are able to flourish their talents and gain on-stage experience either as performers or as members of the orchestra. The program is directed by Leigh Holman, who also acted as the director for the program’s latest performance of “Hänsel und Gretel.”
Holman and the Eklund Opera Program highlighted the qualities of Humperdinck’s interpretation of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, which gives the opera its shine. In the more well-known version of the fairy tale published by the Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the woods by their parents. However, Humperdinck’s opera depicts the siblings in an impoverished, loving home. Holman and the performers highlight this idea in a scene where Hansel and Gretel are severely chastised by their mother for breaking a jug of milk. In this scene, while there is some sympathy for the protagonists, the audience cannot feel anger toward the mother for her actions, because there is desperation and fatigue in her singing, which brings a tear to the eye as it expresses how blind the children are to their family’s financial situation in their childhood innocence. Though, the detail which makes the heart ache and warm at the same time is when Hansel comes back in to fetch his coat and his angry, tired mother hugs and kisses him before he leaves; from that scene emerges the communal childhood memory that many people have of their mothers doing that one thing to show them that love was still there, even in their worst moments.
That was not the only time that the love and affection of Hansel and Gretel’s parents toward their children and family shined throughout the performance. After sending her children to pick strawberries as a punishment, the mother lays on her kitchen table and laments her family’s poverty and hunger. In her despair, a man off-stage begins to joyfully yodel, and a large man, the mother’s husband and the protagonists’ father, enters the scene with several bags. The actor behind the character was able to so accurately imitate the childish joy and humor that some can remember their own parents employing to lift each other’s spirits. Furthermore, the actor perfectly captured the swelling pride a parent often has in providing for their family, as the father unveils his haul of groceries, saving his family from hunger.
It cannot be denied that one aspect of the opera’s success was the wonderful casting and immersive acting brought on by the performers.
Humperdinck and Wette’s “Hänsel und Gretel” is not only an opera about siblings in its narrative, but also its creation. Humperdinck composed this opera when his sister and the piece’s librettist, Adelheid Wette, requested he write music for some songs she created for her children. That relationship between siblings really bleeds through into the actor’s performance in such a natural and authentic way. It can be seen in how Gretel annoys Hansel by poking him to either get his attention or wake him up, or how Hansel consistently ignores the requests made by his sister. It can also be seen in how Gretel tries to distract Hansel from his hunger by presenting the jug of milk, or how Hansel stands in front of his sister to protect her during their first encounter with the Gingerbread Witch.
The costume and character choices behind the Gingerbread Witch are nothing short of genius. Instead of a stereotypical elderly woman dressed in black, or a fawning, kind-looking lady, Holman’s Gingerbread Witch is dressed in a coat made of patchwork quilts, an orange wig and baggy pants, giving the impression of a goofy Halloween costume rather than a child-eating witch. Even the eccentric, playful tone doesn’t seem to convey the witch as a threatening character. However, these aspects of the Gingerbread Witch’s character make lines like “Sleep nicely, little lamb, soon you will sleep eternal” more terrifying and bone-chilling to hear. The decision to surround this character with unthreatening, comedic qualities make those villainous moments more frightening and impactful.
In the opera’s program, Holman announced that Eklund Opera would embrace a new vision for the program’s productions, one which would emphasize more imaginative visual designs. Holman’s vision for Eklund Opera has already started to come to fruition with “Hänsel und Gretel.” Throughout the performance, a beautiful painted background of a forest landscape was used, instantly transforming the stage into a world of dream-like fantasy and nature. It interacted with the blue, green, pink and orange lighting to create different moods for the various scenes, either appearing as fantastical or overwhelming, and at times, even terrifying.
Another brilliant piece of set design was the Gingerbread Witch’s house. Designed in the shape of a slice of cake with pink frosting accents and candy cane pillars, it was difficult not to salivate at the sight of it. It looked exactly how one might imagine a house made of sweets when they first read the tale of Hansel and Gretel. The bright and alluring house is contrasted with the green, metallic oven built into its side, hiding in the shadows to surprise the audience when the Gingerbread Witch opens it with the intention of cooking Hansel. In the same realm, Eklund Opera set two fences of gingerbread men along the side, with uncanny and unnerving faces which allude to the witch’s dark secret and the opera’s conclusion.
For their performance of “Hänsel und Gretel,” the Eklund Opera program made the decision to sing in the opera’s original language, German, while supertitles were displayed to help the audience follow along. This revealed itself to be a dazzling choice as the emotion of the characters carried passed the language barrier, even without the aid of supertitles. Not to mention, it was wonderful to hear the opera in the language it was written in, and it sounded beautiful.
The Eklund Opera Program’s production of this 19th century opera was rich in detail and thought, and expressed the warmth and wonder that is unique to the childhood experience of reading “Hansel and Gretel.” From the characters themselves to the fantastical details in the set, their production of “Hänsel und Gretel” was a return to childhood.