|
OPERA REVIEW
Bewitched by "Hansel and Gretel"
|
By David Saslav
A holiday treat awaits anyone bold enough to venture out into the woods of
the San Francisco Opera Guild's production of Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel," seen last Saturday.
Exuberant performances by the entire cast lit up the recently-renovated Ira and Lenore S. Gershwin Theater at the University of San Francisco. Lisa van der Ploeg's Witch, with joyful campiness, was the stand out, watched enthralled by the predominantly youthful audience. 1998 Adler Fellow Karen Fergurson's Gretel complemented Elena Bocharova's Hansel nicely at all times, and at no point did anyone's operatic "technique" interfere with good old-fashioned storytelling.
Brisk choreography, beautiful singing, stunning sets and costumes, magical
effects, and intelligent pacing further ensured that this abridged, one-hour version of Humperdinck's most popular work held its Saturday matinee audience. Willene Gunn's direction made kinetic and intelligent use of all corners of the stage, while Jay Kotcher's impressive backdrops imbued with three-dimensionality a set that changed magically from simple cottage to creepy forest to gingerbread house without benefit of an intermission.
Jonathan Khuner and Susan Webb's two-piano reduction of Humperdinck's sumptuous orchestral score was carried off with polished deftness on two pianos by Laurann Gilley and Bryndon Hassman. Beyond the bewitchingly atmospheric side of Humperdinck, Gilley and Hassman elicited the depictive Humperdinck as well, bringing out musically pictorial effects such as milk flowing from a broken jug.
Other fine performances from Christina Lamberti (the Mother, also a 1998
Adler Fellow) and Svetlana Nikitenko (Sandman/Dew Fairy) deserve
mention. A slight stiffness in Fergurson's body motions and
some extra effort required to make out some of the singers' words were the only blemishes on an otherwise enchanting hour. Both Bocharova and Alfredo Daza, portraying Hansel and his father, respectively, seemed at times to be emoting to the point where their diction was compromised.
By the end of the fourth and final scene, in which Hansel and Gretel
outsmart the Witch and have been found in the woods by their parents,
enough magical moments were successfully projected to send every child in the audience--regardless of age--home with a smile.
(David Saslav is a concert tenor and music educator in San
Francisco, and a Senior Product Manager at Oracle Corporation in Redwood
Shores. He co-founded Renditions Music Services (http://members.aol.com/mls3/)
©1998 David Saslav, all rights reserved
|