Grim tale of modern-day Hansel And Gretel
After the immense success of last year’s musical West Side Story, Young Artists Music Program (YAMP), the pre-college division of the College of Music, Mahidol University, is staging the modernised version of the classic fairy tale Hansel And Gretel, at YAMP Building, Salaya campus, from today to Sunday, daily at 7pm. This is the first time that the masterpiece by 19th-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck will be presented in a full-scale opera by a high school in Thailand.
We have all heard of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of two young siblings, Hansel and Gretel, who got lost in the forest and ran into an evil witch living in a gingerbread house. This time, these characters are recreated and presented in an exciting new direction.
The production will transform the whole of YAMP building into one dashing metropolis, a concrete jungle and perfect backdrop for the classic fairy tale’s reimagining as a contemporary opera, tackling social issues of the present era.
The young vocal students will be performing a full opera right in the middle of their building and so close to the audience, under the direction of Pattarasuda Anuman Rajadhon, an esteemed opera director and performer who is also a graduate in Performing Arts from London’s Goldsmiths University. Her previous directing works include Poulenc’s
Les Mamelles De Tiresias, Purcell’s
Dido And Aeneas, The Threepenny Opera, Mulan and A Thousand And One Nights.
The audience will see if Hansel and Gretel can defeat the modern-day witch and find their way out of the urban maze this time around.