Birch North Park Theatre (San Diego, CA)
Lyric Opera San Diego presents an English-language opera based on the classic children's story. With its Wagner-influenced score, magical story and comic turns, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel offers a great introduction to the magic of opera as theater for audience members of all ages. The cast includes children from the Lyric Academy.
Event summary prepared by the Goldstar Editorial Team.
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i agree with the review in today's (November 16, 2009) SD Unnion Tribune. The vocalists were superb; singers don't get any better.
The Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre, originally built in 1928, is the only theatre of its size in San Diego County (730 seats) that includes a movable orchestra pit, a fly loft, state-of-the-art lighting and sound equipment and facilities for rehearsals and meetings.
by Engelbert Humperdinck
Hansel and Gretel is a long planned “opera in English” for Lyric Opera San Diego This year, they offer it as a perfect way to kick off the holiday season and encourage whole families to attend this beloved classic from the German folk tradition, in the beautiful Wagner influenced score of Humperdink.
The children of the Lyric Academy will be featured, giving them an opportunity to share the training and the gifts they are honing in their classes, the chance to show in a classic production of this magical story. Kelly Kuo will return to the podium to lead the orchestra and Leon Natker will return to the stage in the role of The Witch. There is a long tradition of this role as a “travesty” tour de force, and many tenors in the history of opera have taken great delight in the role, with all its evil comic turns and flight. New York mezzo Hai-Ting Chinn will make her Lyric debut as Hansel, fresh from her excellent reviews in the Wooster Group’s production of "Dido and Aeneas" in New York City. San Diego’s own Kate Oberjat will be our Gretel, returning to our company from successes at Nashville Opera and New York Opera Society.
This opera is a great way to introduce families to the magic of opera as theater, and it will be sung in a new English translation that captures this story and its sweetness. Lyric Opera San Diego has been wanting to present this work for many years and now has, in the Birch North Park Theatre, an ideal setting to bring it to you with stage illusions, and an orchestra pit to present this lovely score to San Diego audiences, as it should be.
Formerly known as San Diego Comic Opera, Lyric Opera San Diego has been bringing accessible, affordable opera and musical theatre productions to San Diego since 1979. The company performs operas and musicals from the European and American tradition, in English, presenting the finest young musical talent available with full orchestra and chorus accompaniment.
