Hansel and Gretel Cast Biographies

Sasha Cooke (Hansel) made her San Francisco Opera debut creating the title role in the world premiere of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene in 2013. She has also appeared with the Company as Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Anna in Les Troyens, both in 2015. Other recent engagements include Laurene Powell Jobs for the world premiere of Mason Bates' The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at the Santa Fe Opera, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel at Seattle Opera, Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied and Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette with the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and the title role in the new Nico Muhly opera Marnie at English National Opera. A graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Program and the Juilliard School, Cooke is a frequent performer of new music, having given premieres of works by John Musto, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Lowell Liebermann, and Augusta Read Thomas, among others. She sang Kitty Oppenheimer in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic, the DVD release of which won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. In the 2017–18 season, Cooke sings Goffredo in a concert version of Handel’s Rinaldo alongside the English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket with performances at Carnegie Hall (New York), the Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), and Barbican Centre (London). Other concert engagements include Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the London Symphony Orchestra, both conducted by Tilson Thomas.

Heidi Stober (Zdenka) made her San Francisco Opera debut in 2010 as Sophie (Werther) and has since returned as Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Atalanta (Xerxes), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Nannetta (Falstaff), Magnolia Hawks (Show Boat), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Johanna (Sweeney Todd), and Norina (Don Pasquale). The American soprano’s recent engagements include Oscar, Pamina, and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) with the Metropolitan Opera; Marguerite (Faust), Pamina, Susanna, Gretel, Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), and Micaëla (Carmen) with Deutsche Oper Berlin; and Sandrina (La Finta Giardiniera) and Zdenka (Arabella) with the Santa Fe Opera. As a principal artist with Deutsche Oper Berlin, her other engagements with that company have included Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Oscar, Ninette (L'Amour des Trois Oranges), Ascagne (Les Troyens), and Roggiero (Tancredi). Stober is a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and her credits at Houston Grand Opera encompass Cleopatra (Julius Caesar), Musetta (La Bohème), Atalanta, Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Norina, Susanna, the Rose (Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince), La China in the world premiere of Daniel Catán’s Salsipuedes, and Miss Thompson / Helen Mills / Adelaide Mills in the world premiere of The House without a Christmas Tree by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek. Other career highlights include La Folie and Thalie (Platée), Tigrane (Radamisto), Musetta, and Ada Leverson in the world premiere of Morrison’s Oscar with the Santa Fe Opera; Ada Leverson with Opera Philadelphia; Anne Trulove (The Rake's Progress) with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Poppea (Agrippina) with New York City Opera; Morgana (Alcina) in Santiago, Chile; Aminta (Il Re Pastore) with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and Leïla (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) at Opera Colorado.

Tenor Robert Brubaker made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2017 as Emperor Altoum in Turandot returning later that fall as Aegisth in Elektra and as Manon’s Guillot de Morfontaine. His numerous roles at the Metropolitan Opera have included Mime in both Siegfried and Das Rheingold, Malatestino in Francesca da Rimini, the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, and Chairman Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China in performances conducted by the composer and released on DVD. Other recent appearances include the Jailer/Inquisitor from Il Prigionero at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu; Alviano in Die Gezeichneten, Dr. Caius in Falstaff, and Bégearss in The Ghosts of Versailles at Los Angeles Opera; Hauptmann in Wozzeck and Herod in Salome at the Santa Fe Opera; the title role of Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules at the Vienna Volksoper; Old Man Marshall in Anna Nicole at New York City Opera; and Luigi inIl Tabarro and Canio from Pagliacci at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

He can be heard on recordings including Die Gezeichneten (Los Angeles Opera, conducted by James Conlon), Der König Kandaules (Salzburg Festival/Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, conducted by Kent Nagano), and as Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Case (English National Opera, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras). Mezzo-soprano Michaela Martens (Gertrud), “a passionate and sympathetic vocal actress,” made her San Francisco Opera debut in 2015 as Cassandre in Les Troyens, and returned in 2017 as Klytemnestra in Elektra and 2018 as Countess Adelaide Waldner in Arabella. The San Francisco Opera Center, Merola Opera Program alumna’s career highlights include Gertrud in Hänsel und Gretel, Marilyn Klinghoffer in The Death of Klinghoffer, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Kundry in Parsifal, and the Second Norn in Götterdämmerung at the Metropolitan Opera; Herodias in Salome at the Santa Fe Opera; Gertrud with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera; Ortrud in Lohengrin in Vienna and Graz; Kostelnicka Buryja in Jenůfa in a debut at the Operhaus Zürich; Judith, Kostelnicka Buryja and Marilyn Klinghoffer at English National Opera; and as die Amme in Die Frau ohne Schatten in a last-minute premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago, a role she repeated at Oper Graz in a new production by Marci Marelli.

Her many credits include performances at Carnegie Hall, Tokyo’s New Japan Philharmonic, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Pittsburgh Opera and Houston Grand Opera. Her extensive concert work includes performances with the St. Louis Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Spoleto Festival USA. This season she sings Klytemnestra at Lyric Opera of Chicago and returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Dialogues des Carmelites.

Alfred Walker (Peter) made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2017 as Orest in Elektra. The bass-baritone has received acclaim for a variety of signature leads, including the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer, which he has performed at Theater Basel, Oper Köln, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and the Wagner Geneva Festival; and the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, which he has sung at the Komische Oper Berlin, Den Norske Opera and Seattle Opera. His celebrated characterization of Orest has also been seen at Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Spain’s San Sebastián Festival, and he has been hailed for his performances of Allazim in the Peter Sellars’ production of Zaide at the Festival d’Aix-en- Provence, Wiener Festwochen, London’s Barbican Centre and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival.

Recent and upcoming appearances include return engagements with the Metropolitan Opera for the Company’s production of Bluebeard’s Castle, as well as the Speaker in The Magic Flute; Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride with Oper Stuttgart; Amonasro in Aida and Porgy in Porgy and Bess at Seattle Opera; Amfortas in Parsifal and Amonasro with Theater Basel; and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde at Angers-Nantes Opéra and Opéra de Dijon. An equally versatile concert artist, he has sung with orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Walker’s recording credits include Orest with Semyon Bychkov and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, as well as performances on Plácido Domingo’s CD of Verdi tenor arias.