Organization

Conductor

Codruţ Bîrsan

Assistant Director

Helen Park

Assistant Conductor

Christian Olson

Resident Coach

​Gongmingn Jiang

Singer

Soprano

Elizaveta Kozlova

Gretel

Suehyun Ko

Mezzo-soprano

Cassie Warthen

Gertrude

Kathleen Crandall

Margarita Parsamyan

Sandman

Katniss Bi

Grace Manning

Dewman

Sabrina Cohn

Grace Verbic

Hansel

Vanessa Jara

Alyce Daubenspeck

The Gingerbread Witch

Veronica Williams

Baritone

Yongjae Lee

Peter

CodyRay Caho

Megan McCarthy

Haeun Baek

Leora Gilgur

Eduardo Belmonte

Stage director

Margaret Jumonville

Chicago Summer Opera

Hänsel und Gretel -  (Hansel and Gretel)

Des Plaines

United States

Prairie Lakes Theater

Hänsel und Gretel Humperdinck

Public

Hansel and Gretel

Approved

The young siblings Hänsel and Gretel live in poverty with their parents on the edge of a deep forest. During one chore-filled day, they grumble over their hunger and distract themselves with jokes and dancing. Their mother Gertrude, driven by anxiety over feeding her family, grows frustrated with their antics and orders them to leave the house to pick strawberries. When their father Peter arrives home with a surprise bounty of food, he and Gertrude rejoice before realizing the children have not returned. After recalling rumors of the Ilsenstein, the mountain home of a witch who uses sweets to lure children towards a horrible fate, the parents go off in search of Hänsel and Gretel.
The children, who eat more strawberries than they pick, realize they’re lost. Thanks to the Sandman and the protection of 14 angels, Hänsel and Gretel drift off to sleep. When the Dew Fairy awakes them, the children discover a beautiful gingerbread house adorned with delicious sweets. They begin to eat and are captured by the Witch, who intends to use their love of sweets to her advantage by fattening the siblings for her own feast. The true darkness of this tale of poverty and hunger is muted by Humperdinck’s memorable melodies and the imaginative, candy-bright viewpoint of the youthful protagonists; in the same way, Hänsel and Gretel’s ingenuity and teamwork as they work to escape provides comfort and hope to all who face nightmarish fears.
Based on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale of a brother and sister’s candy-filled misadventure, it is rather fitting that Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel was born from a request by his own sister for a set of children’s songs. Humperdinck gradually expanded the work into the popular opera, for which that same sister, Adelheid Wette, penned the libretto.

English

Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, From (2021/2021), Directed by Margaret Jumonville,, Conductor Codruţ Bîrsan, Prairie Lakes Theater, Des Plaines, United States

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues