Opera Company looking to lure children with 'Hänsel'

The Opera Company of Philadelphia is signing Maurice Sendak's Houston Grand Opera production of

Hänsel und Gretel

, and will mount the work in November at the Academy of Music, opera officials said yesterday.

Philadelphia's opera company, which has never performed the Wagnerian-tinged Engelbert Humperdinck classic, originally planned to create its own production this season but decided it had its hands full with a new Rigoletto.

"We looked at a lot of Hänsel und Gretels," said Robert B. Driver, general and artistic director. "I remembered this one and had discounted it because I didn't think we could fit it on the stage. I asked [director of design and technology] Boyd Ostroff to see if we could make it work without compromising it."

It will work, he said, but will "take every inch of our stage."

The Caldecott Award-winning Sendak - widely known for Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Chicken Soup With Rice, and numerous other popular children's books - worked with opera director Frank Corsaro on creating the colorful production, which premiered in Houston in 1997. It features an anthropomorphic witch's house equipped with eyes that follow the children and a nose with which to sniff them.

"He goes from a really storybook look at the beginning and then gets more bizarre and fanciful," said Driver.

(Houston Grand Opera, in the meantime, has gone on to a new Hansel and Gretel, this one designed and directed by puppeteer Basil Twist.)

Hänsel und Gretel was once a staple of the repertoire in Philadelphia, a work whose candy-land setting and shrieking witch could impress children while a score of folk tunes set to Wagnerian orchestrations engrossed both children and adults. It was performed in Philadelphia 95 times between 1895 and 1995, but almost not at all since, according to a respected opera Web site (www.frankhamilton.org).

The Opera Company is aiming to lure both children and adults - a rare demographic aspiration for the troupe.

"I am hoping that this will be a little like Pooh, in that adults love it and they take their children to it because they are supposed to enjoy it, too," said Driver.

Sets and costumes may be nailed down, and the cast (which includes Lauren Curnow as Hänsel and Maureen McKay as Gretel) is engaged, but many other production details remain unresolved. Driver will likely not direct it. Ballet could be part of the production, or not. Also not clear is how the Academy's small orchestra pit will accommodate the larger orchestra required.

What is settled at this point is that the production will be Hänsel und Gretel, not Hansel and Gretel - that is, it will be sung in German, even if a good number of children are expected to attend.

"I did it in Syracuse 30 years ago in English and it just didn't have that edge," said Driver. The five performances in the Academy will have English surtitles.

Doing Hänsel und Gretel, a quintessential German opera, represents a certain kind of needed growth for the company. More experience with German repertoire is a long-term goal for Driver.

"The Wagner is going to have to wait for technical things we have to solve in the house as well as the financial," he said. "We have to build a base where we can do it properly, but this fit right in there. This comes as close as we can to doing a powerful piece in the German repertoire that we can do well."