Empty calories
Hansel and Gretal opera has so much going on that the plot gets lost sometimes,
Hansel and Gretel
K (out of 4) By Engelbert Humperdinck. Directed by Joel Ivany. Johannes Debus, conductor. Until Feb. 21 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. coc.ca or 416-363-8231
Once upon a time, in an older low-rent building in Toronto, there were two young children who traded their drab surroundings for a fairy-tale world of gingerbread houses and dessert-wielding witches.
Bathed in lush video projections as well as gorgeous late-19th-century music, the Canadian Opera Company’s latest effort promises so much. But like the witch’s sweet confections, this brand new production of “Hansel and Gretel” has too many empty calories.
The show opened Thursday at the Four Seasons Centre.
Working in partnership with the Banff Centre, Toronto opera director Joel Ivany — best known for his imaginative work with Against the Grain Theatre — and a crew of inspired digital visionaries have updated Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1893 German opera to the present day.
The original libretto (largely the work of Humperdinck’s sister Adelheid Wette) is timeless. Based on one of the creepy early-19th-century children’s fables by the Brothers Grimm, “Hansel and Gretel” is a story of escape from an oppressive home, capture by an evil witch and ultimate redemption. Ivany and company have moved the action from a big, creepy forest into the brother’s and sister’s imaginations. The premise is laudable, but the execution is fussy and confused. The disjunction between the German libretto and the goings-on added to the disjointedness.
We are so far inside the children’s heads that we can’t tell what is forest and what is tree.
There is so much happening on the multi-level set that, distracted by something else that was going on, I lost the children about 10 minutes before the end of Act II and worried about what had happened to them.
There’s even a live dog onstage in the shadows for much of Act III, serving no specific purpose.
It was clear that Hansel and Gretel’s home life was, erm, no piece of cake. And it was clear that everyone was going to live happily ever after. But everything in between was a dramatic muddle.
Granted, it was a fun muddle populated by a nearly all-Canadian cast.
Soprano Simone Osborne was a grrly-girl powerhouse on opening night as Gretel. American mezzo Emily Fons was absolutely ideal as Hansel. Soprano Anna-Sophie Neher — a COC Ensemble Studio member — showed off a fabulous voice as the Sandman and the Dew Fairy.
Baritone Russell Braun and mezzo Krisztina Szabo were a treat as the parents. Tenor Michael Colvin was clearly having a ball playing the witch. And a substantial contingent from the Canadian Children’s Opera Company deserve a round of applause for excellent work in the final scene.
COC music director Johannes Debus and the orchestra did justice to the lush, richly textured score. Unfortunately, the set reflected back too much of the orchestra and muffled the voices.
The balance was rarely in the singers’ favour.
Maybe this is one of those productions where children and their vivid imaginations might get more from the storytelling than an adult trying desperately to make out a plot.
It is wonderful that the COC has brought back this classic after more than 20 years. If only it made more sense.
Classical music writer John Terauds is a freelance contributor for the Star, based in Toronto. He is supported by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @JohnTerauds