Opera SAN JOSÉ 2019 | 2020 SEASON Hansel and Gretel BY ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK November 16 - December 1, 2019 Engelbert Humperdinck’s Masterpiece Larry Hancock Please help us welcome our next generation of opera lovers who are here in numbers. Introducing young people to opera is likely the most long-reaching action we can take in extending the life of the art form. We are so happy that parents and grandparents have recognized this opportunity to introduce young ones to opera. Engelbert Humperdinck premiered quite a number of other works, but only Hansel and Gretel is still hailed as a masterpiece. It immediately after its premiere it became the most performed opera by a German-born composer and holds a firm place in the standard repertoire to this day, currently 15th in the list of most performed operas, worldwide. Often used to introduce children to opera in Germany, where it is a Christmas tradition, it is also performed at other times. Sophisticated adults find much more than a famous fairytale in Hansel and Gretel, with its subtle, evocative, and memorable score. Humperdinck was influenced by the most important German composers of the Romantic Era: Mendelssohn, Weber, Brahms, Schumann, and the most influential of them all, Wagner. And like other brilliant composers, Humperdinck created a personal synthesis of the trends that gave a special flavor to 19th-century music. Engelbert Humperdinck was born on September 1, 1854 in Siegburg, in the Rhine Province, to parents who were firmly in the prosperous middle class. He began piano lessons as a small child, producing his first composition at age seven. By age 14 he had composed two Singspiele (plays with musical numbers), and at age 18 he entered the Cologne Conservatory. In 1876 he won a scholarship to study in Munich, and in 1879 he won the Mendelssohn Award in Berlin, which allowed him to travel to Naples where he met Richard Wagner and entered the circle of Wagner’s useful associates. Wagner invited him to Bayreuth where he assisted in the world premiere production of Parsifal in 1881-82, and became the music teacher of Wagner’s son, Siegfried. In 1890, he was appointed professor at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, the same year he began work on Hansel and Gretel as a family entertainment, a puppet show, with four musical numbers performed by his nieces. His sister-in-law, Adelheid Wette, developed a libretto from the Grimm tale, and Humperdinck, utilizing German folk songs as a model, synthesized a sophisticated compositional technique drawing on the great German composers. He submitted his score to Richard Strauss who immediately proclaimed it a masterpiece, “all of it original, new, and so authentically German.” Strauss conducted the world premiere at Weimar in 1893. Hansel and Gretel was performed in 72 other opera houses within the year. Hansel and Gretel holds a special place in the operatic repertoire. It is not a fairytale opera for children; sophisticated adults also find much to admire in it. Humperdinck left ample evidence not only of excellent training but also of genius. He passed on that excellent training to a number of composers who made their mark, including the American composer Charles Griffes and the remarkable theatrical composer Kurt Weill. It is a legacy to be proud of. 2 Hansel and Gretel CONDUCTORS Joseph Marcheso Christopher James Ray (conducts 11/26 & 12/1) STAGE DIRECTOR Layna Chianakas ASSISTANT STAGE DIRECTOR Tara Branham SET DESIGNER Larry Hancock COSTUME DESIGNER Hansel and Gretel Elizabeth Poindexter A FAIRYTALE OPERA IN TWO ACTS LIGHTING DESIGNER Pamila Z. Gray MUSIC by Engelbert Humperdinck CHOREOGRAPHER LIBRETTO by Adelheid Wette Mark Foehringer WIG AND MAKEUP DESIGNER First performed December 23, 1893 in Weimar, Christina Martin Germany PROPERTIES MASTER Lori Scheper-Kesel SUNG IN ENGLISH WITH ENGLISH SUPERTITLES CHORUS MASTER Christopher James Ray Performances of Hansel and Gretel are made PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER possible in part by a Cultural Affairs grant Jenna Link from the City of San José and a grant from the ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS Applied Materials Foundation. Emi Komatsu Chloe Schweizer PERFORMANCE SPONSORS MUSIC STAFF November 16: Fred & Peggy Heiman Veronika Agranov-Dafoe November 24: Josef & Phyllis Bismanovsky Victoria Lington The performance will run approximately 2 hours, including one 20 minute intermission. 2019 | 2020 THIRTY-SIXTH SEASON J. Strauss's Die Fledermaus September 14 - 29, 2019 Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel November 16 - December 1, 2019 Verdi's Il trovatore February 15 - March 1, 2020 Mozart's The Magic Flute April 18 - May 3, 2020 OPERASJ.ORG 3 *Casting subject to change without notice CAST Hansel Stephanie Sanchez Gretel Elena Galván Mother Kerriann Otaño Father Eugene Brancoveanu Witch Kerriann Otaño Dew Fairy Amy Goymerac Sandman Talin Nalbandian COVERS Talin Nalbandian, Hansel Megan Cullen, Witch Amy Goymerac, Gretel Melissa Sondhi, Dew Fairy Megan Cullen, Mother Jamie Woodhull, Sandman J. T. Williams, Father CHILDREN'S CHORUS Shrivally Addepally David Koleth Luca Bonneman Pallas Lemarchand Ella Calvert Sofia Oberg Leila Calvert Medha Sarkar Maya Calvert Ellie Shauchenka Jasper Elsley Juliet Steuer Aaditya Karnataki Jamie Talmor Sheldon Katlik Adrienne Urban Zahra Kizaraly Evie Whelan Erin Koh 4 Hansel and Gretel ORCHESTRA 1ST VIOLIN CLARINET Rebecca Jackson, Concertmaster Mark Brandenburg, Principal Rochelle Nguyen, Assistant Concertmaster James Pytko Matthew Szemela Valerie Tisdel BASS CLARINET Chinh Le Jeannie Psomas Virginia Smedberg Debra Fong BASSOON Dan Flanagan Deborah Kramer, Principal Carolyn Lockhart 2ND VIOLIN Claudia Bloom, Principal FRENCH HORN Sue-Mi Shin, Assistant Principal Meredith Brown, Principal Elizabeth Corner Caitlyn Smith-Franklin Sergi Goldman-Hull Eric Achen Gulnar Spurlock Erika Miras Caitlin McSherry TRUMPET William B. Harvey, Principal VIOLA John Freeman Chad Kaltinger, Principal Janet Doughty, Assistant Principal TROMBONE Melinda Rayne Kathryn Curran, Principal Ivo Bokulic Bruce Chrisp Tom Hornig CELLO Evan Kahn, Principal BASS TROMBONE Isaac Pastor-Chermak, Assistant Principal Christian Behrens Paul Hale Adelle Akiko-Kearns TIMPANI / PERCUSSION Arthur Storch BASS Andrew Butler, Principal HARP William Everett, Assistant Principal Karen Thielen FLUTE ORCHESTRA MANAGER Mary Hargrove, Principal Evan Kahn Emma Moon ORCHESTRA LIBRARIAN PICCOLO Tim Spears Emma Moon OBOE Patricia Emerson Mitchell, Principal Pamela Hakl OPERASJ.ORG 5 JOSEPH MARCHESO Music Director and Principal Conductor I want to welcome you to the California Theatre to enjoy our beautiful production of Hansel and Gretel! Because of the story and the music as well as its associations with the holidays, this work probably has a larger share of first time opera goers in its audience than any other. I was eight years old and it was my first opera. I vividly remember going to see it with my aunts on a December afternoon at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. It's fair to say that it changed my life. Not all at once. I didn't leave that performance dedicating the rest of my life to the art form, but the whole experience of that afternoon - getting dressed in clothes that I usually didn't wear, smelling the wreaths and Christmas candles (and gingerbread) in the gift shop, seeing all these kids my own age murmuring and bouncing around the lobby, holding the ticket in my hand and presenting it. Finally getting inside the auditorium, sitting down on the plush seat and then just waiting to find out what this was all about. Hansel and Gretel is an opera that casts its spell from the first note and holds you with its heart, its sophistication and the sheer endless beauty of its music. It is a joyful evangelist for the power of music and community. For me also, it was an exploration of empathy, the beauty and variety of the human voice and live performance, the choreography of music with movement and its power to evoke mood and atmosphere, as well as the reinforcement of good over evil just to name a few. It was also a beautiful introduction to the orchestra. The writing is so exquisite, soloistic and expressive that the musicians act as ambassadors for their instrument. Today is likely the first time someone in the audience is going to hear a live cello or violin, much less a bass clarinet, tuba or English horn. For some today these instruments will be characters every bit as memorable as those on stage, and those sound memories will remain, as they did with me, for the rest of their lives. And those memories, those very intense sense memories are what ultimately made that day in December a life changing experience. The ritual of getting ready to see a live performance, spending an afternoon with my aunts and entering the theater filled with an intoxicating combination of smells and sounds created the space in my mind that pursuing music and becoming a musician would eventually fill. All it takes is one magical experience to open yourself up to modes of feeling that you didn't have access to before. It is our hope today that you (re)discover that connection through our performance of Hansel and Gretel. Thank You, Joseph 6 Hansel and Gretel SYNOPSIS ACT I, SCENE 1 In Hansel and Gretel’s house Hansel complains he is hungry. Gretel shows him some milk that a neighbor has given for the family’s supper. The children dance. Their mother returns and wants to know why they have gotten so little work done. She accidentally breaks the jug of milk and sends the children out into the woods to pick strawberries. Their father, a broom-maker, returns home very happy and quite tipsy. He brings out the food he has bought, then asks where the children have gone. The mother tells him that she has sent them into the woods. He tells her about the Witch who lives there and says that the children are in danger.