Hänsel and Gretel

Hänsel and Gretel
By Engelbert Humperdinck and Adelheid Wette. WAAPA Classical Voice Students. Directed by Rachel McDonald with Musical Direction by Jessica Gethin. Geoff Gibbs Theatre, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA. Sep 9-15, 2022

This dark Märchenoper or fairy-tale opera is presented by WAAPA Classical Voice Students and the WAAPA Symphony Orchestra and designed, constructed, and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design students.

One of the interesting aspects of this opera, written in the late 1800s and featuring a sibling pair, is that it was composed by Engelbert Humperdinck with the libretto written by his sister Adelheid Wette. This production has a strong sense of family in many senses of the word.

During the overture, we see a prologue. In a nursing home, an elderly lady, Margreta, whose room is attended by an aide, has a confusing consultation with her doctor, and is visited by her daughter. This device allows the opera to take place in a dreamworld, where the characters we have already met reappear in different forms, and nothing is quite what it seems. Margreta is nicely played by guest artist Megan Sutton.

Hänsel and Gretel features two casts, named after the composer and librettist and this review features the Adelheid cast.

The title roles are played with fine voice and a lovely sibling relationship by Caitlin Forrest and Beth Redwood. Their very stressed mother is played with nuance by Maddie Stephens, with their father (inexplicably dressed as a bear… because dream state) nicely played by James Pinneri.

Noah Humich playing the witch as quite beautiful, which hides her cannibalistic streak, brings his lovely tenor tones to the role - with beautifully sung performances from Avalon Gatenby as the Sandman (and doctor) and Sophie Hamer as the Dew Fairy and daughter) completing the principal cast.

A strong ensemble does not get to sing a great deal in this production but is kept busy playing mysterious characters that add to the dreamlike trance of this incarnation. These eventually become the gingerbread children, ghostly earlier victims of the witch, before emerging colourfully at the end.

Emily Chong’s set design has an element of fairy-tale books as it opens to reveal the children’s cottage home, and the forest is both dreamlike and beautifully created. Lachlan Kessey gives us a well-considered lighting design that evokes both dreams and nightmares in turn. Charlotte Meagher’s modern costume design is simple but clever.

Jessica Gethin conducts a very strong orchestra, and the show sounds vocally and orchestrally impressive throughout.

A new take on a classic opera, Hänsel and Gretel is a well performed production that is a pleasure to watch.

Kimberley Shaw

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