Brooklyn Repertory Opera

Engelbert Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel

622A President Street, Brooklyn NY

Saturday, June 28, 2008 3:30 P.M.

Artistic Director: Kathleen Keske

Hansel Jocelyne O’Toole
Gretel Elizabeth Eiel
Mother (Gertrude) Susanna Raymond
Father (Peter) Eric Jorgenson
Sandman Deborah Stone
Dew Fairy Marnie Golden
Witch Tamara Cashour

Conductor Conrad Chiu

Director: Brett Wynkoop

Dance Mistress Mary Silverstein

Corps de Ballet Erin DeFazio
Angela Harrell
Jessica McCuiston
Joanna Seinkiewicz

The libretto for Humperdinck’s wondrous opera was written by the composer’s sister Adelheid Wette as a Christmas holiday gift for her children, with music for some of the songs written by the composer. Humperdinck was so taken by the adaptation of the story, that he was easily persuaded by his sister to further adapt the work as a full-scale opera. It premiered on December 23, 1893 to instantaneous success and has remained in the standard repertory since it’s inception. The assistant conductor for the world premiere was none other than Richard Strauss who declared it a “masterwork of the first rank.” Over time Humperdinck’s opera has continued to grow in popularity and stature, much to the detriment of his other artistic efforts.

The opera is replete with recurrent motifs, tuneful melodies and luminous orchestration, and proved to be a bridge between Wagnerism and the late romantic flowering of Mahler, Richard Strauss and the lush Impressionism of the French composers. The beauty of the work lies in it’s complexity, best exemplified by it’s rich chromaticisms balanced by it’s simplistic, yet extraordinarily melodic, folk like tunes.

Brooklyn Repertory chose to present the opera in two acts rather than the traditional three and this was a wise choice under the circumstances. The work was fully costumed and staged albeit minimally, with large scale projections to illustrate the scenes taking place in front.

In the double lead roles, both Jocelyne. O’Toole as Hansel and Elizabeth Eiel as Gretel proved to be more than up to the task of bringing their characters to life. The parts of Hansel and Gretel, although childlike in their depiction within the libretto, are fully adult in vocal requirement. Both of these singers performed with utter conviction and certainty. Their phrasing and line were impeccable with bloom, roundness and firm tone throughout their registers. They achieved a fully euphonious blending in their duet singing and conveyed the appropriate pathos in their Act II (Act I in this production) prayer, one of the most enchantingly succulent melodies in all of opera. Kudos and bravas to them both. They delivered performances that would easily be at home on any professional stage.

As with most regional and provincial opera companies, the remainder of the cast was all too uneven in vocal quality and acting ability. Susanna Raymond’s Mother was a bit over-ripe vocally and seemed as concerned with watching the conductor as her fellow performers on stage. She had a largish voice that would seem better suited in smaller verismo roles. In the role of the Father, Eric Jorgenson possessed a good-sized voice that had generally pleasing qualities of tone although his singing lacked a true sense of phrasing. He interpolated a high note immediately prior to dashing out of the cottage to find his children, which proved to be a rather injudicious choice on his part as it threw his voice completely out of whack with the rest of his singing. Deborah Stone’s Sandman was not quite up to the task vocally, while Marnie Golden’s Dew Fairy was hampered by what appeared to be inadequate breath support. Her acting though was fine. Tamara Cashour displayed very good acting ability as the Witch and her singing was more than up to the part. She had a voice that was able to generally cut through the orchestra in an overly reverberant room (more about that in a minute). She was constantly on the verge of overplaying her hand but her obvious stage experience kept her from fully crossing over the line into camp although she played a bit too much to the audience for my taste.

The Corps de ballet acquitted themselves with aplomb and Dance Mistress Mary Silverstein is to be commended. The dancers movements were fluid and organically executed with all of the corps achieving a splendid sense of ensemble that achieved an emphasis toward a whole artistic truth with no one pulling attention away from each other or the story their movements were enacting.

Not much care seemed to be taken with the stage direction. Too often it seemed that the performers were left to their own devices. This evidenced itself in lack of fluidity and a certain stasis in the action that was only apparent for a second or two, but was proof that the singer/actor was second-guessing rather than performing from the inside out. There were also times in the show when it was unclear what was happening or too little evidence of something that should have been readily apparent. I.E., the demise of the witch at the end of Act II. I’m certain there wasn’t a child (let alone many of the adults) who knew exactly what Hansel and Gretel had just done, very far, far up in the left hand corner of the semi lit stage.

Now to that room and orchestra. The space was as wide open as a high school gymnasium. The acoustic was not too bad in general, but the room possesses what seemed to be either a tin or metal roof. This has the capability of tossing all of the sound together like a salad. Without precise and strict dynamic control both the voices and instruments tend to get goopy and swampy. Everything blends together and the disadvantage is always to the singer(s). They would have needed to over-enunciate to the nth degree for every word to be heard clearly. Alas, this was not the case and much of the singing and words were lost throughout the afternoon. This acoustical fact and the lack of dynamics from the orchestra forced the singers to sing loud, louder, loudest. In general, nuance and shapely phrasing were out of the question. The burden of responsibility in this case must rest with the conductor. He must be aware of this inherent problem and do the best he can to “fix” it. Although Conrad Chiu displayed a fine sense of the style of the opera and structured the musical phrases with acumen, there was no dynamic nuance to the music making. The brass began the opera loud and never let up. Strings had the added disadvantage of having to play on a particularly humid afternoon. Although air conditioning was in effect, it was minimal and much of their tone went south in short order, where it stayed for most of the performance. Tuning up at intermission would have helped.

I don’t mean for this to come off as harsh as it may seem. The above criticisms are meant in the most of constructive manners, with the full understanding that Brooklyn Repertory Opera is surely operating on the strictest of budgets. But a strong sense of vision and uncompromising artistic standards can oft times make up for the greatest of financial deficiencies.

John Hammel
Mozart To Motorhead Show
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