Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice Artists and sopranos Brennan Martinez, left, and Nicole Koh — as Hansel and Gretel, respectively, raise their hands in triumph after defeating the Witch during Chautauqua Opera’s rehearsal of Hansel and Gretel Saturday in the Amphitheater.
At 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua’s biggest stage will be transformed into a mysterious forest, with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra providing a backdrop of mesmerizing music for the Chautauqua Opera Company to give voice to Engelbert Humperdinck’s classic Hansel and Gretel, transporting the Chautauqua audience into a fantastical — but familiar — realm.
Chautauqua Opera’s final performance of the 2024 season is the beloved Brothers Grimm fairytale, but this one-night-only event has been a long time in the making: More than 200 years since the story’s first publication; more than 130 years since Humperdinck’s opera premiered in Weimar Germany; and, more recently, many months of work from Chautauqua Opera and Chautauqua Arts Education in their collaboration for the Opera in the Schools program.
This past year, approximately 3,500 students from 11 elementary schools in Chautauqua County experienced opera first-hand through a 45-minute adaptation of Hansel and Gretel, reimagined and condensed by Joshua Borths, titled Hansel and Gretel vs. the Witch.
With a spin and a twist, the production offered a glimpse into the villainous Witch’s origin story; some of those 3,500 local students had their Chautauqua Opera experience extend even further, with one student from each classroom invited to participate in the “So You Think You’re Louder Than an Opera Singer?” portion of July 11’s Opera and Pops concert.
Tonight’s Chautauqua audience will be treated to the full Hansel and Gretel operatic experience — still suitable and welcoming for children of all ages — as performed by Chautauqua Opera’s Young Artists. For Apprentice Artist Brennan Martinez, mezzo-soprano, and Studio Artist Amia Langer, soprano, it will be like stepping back into the Witch’s gingerbread house once more. Martinez, portraying Hansel tonight, took on the same role for Opera in the Schools, while Langer — tonight’s Dew Fairy — brought Gretel to life for Chautauqua students this spring.
Rounding out the cast this evening are Apprentice Artist Hilary Grace Taylor, mezzo-soprano, as the Witch; Apprentice Artist Nicole Koh, soprano, as Gretel; Apprentice Artist Öznur Tülüoğlu, soprano, as Sandman; and Apprentice Artist Joseph Canuto Leon, baritone, as the father.
All of this — the Young Artists, the CSO, the timeless tale of a brother and sister outsmarting a devious witch in a delectable house — will take place this evening under the baton of Chautauqua Opera General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood, and stage director Keturah Stickann.
And all of that, Osgood said, wouldn’t have been possible without the Chautauqua Opera Guild’s fundraising efforts over the course of the 2023 season, allowing Hansel and Gretel to be staged tonight.
A year ago, after the Institution announced a nearly 70% cut to Chautauqua Opera’s budget, the Guild undertook a massive fundraising effort in collaboration with the Institution to ensure the full Amp production of Hansel and Gretel this summer, and more in the future, with La Bohème already planned for 2025.
“This was truly miraculous,” said Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Laura Savia. “This is how we moved from two opera productions in 2023, to a forecast of zero opera productions, to an increasingly hopeful outlook.”
The Chautauqua Opera Company cast, with the production’s children’s chorus, rehearse Saturday in the Amphitheater.
