United States Humperdinck, Hänsel und Gretel: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Lyric Opera of Chicago / Sir Andrew Davis (conductor). Civic Opera House, Chicago, 3.2.2023. (JLZ)
Production:
Original Director – Richard Jones
Revival Director – Eric Einhorn
Sets and Costumes – John Macfarlane
Lighting – Jennifer Tipton
Children’s Chorus grasp – Josephine Lee
Choreographer – Linda Dobell
Cast:
Gretel – Heidi Stober
Hansel – Samantha Hankey
Mother – Alexandra LoBianco
Father – Nicholas Newton
Sandman, Dew Fairy – Denis Vélez
Witch – Jill Grove
The Lyric Opera of Chicago revival of Richard Jones’s staging of Hänsel und Gretel was interesting from begin to end. The uniformly robust forged, excellent musical course and deft staging introduced particulars of this acquainted rating to the stage.
The manufacturing stays enticing beneath Eric Einhorn’s course, and it gives an apt setting for the 1893 opera. The major colours and typically over-the-top units match the work properly, particularly the cluttered witch’s kitchen. Attention to element was not restricted to the visible dimension: it was instantly audible within the robust vocalism that distinguished the efficiency.
Heidi Stober introduced Gretel to life. She conveyed a younger lady’s enthusiasm in her gestures and motion whereas giving the vocal line a virtuosic polish, matched by her clear diction: one may hear each German phrase with crystal-clear precision. Stober labored properly with Samantha Hankey, who gave Hansel a equally stable method. In their duets, they seamlessly delivered the music with full voices and acceptable depth. The spot-on efficiency let one tune lead into one other in Act I, they usually gave a tremendous studying of the kids’s prayer on the finish of the second.
Alexandra LoBianco was equally robust because the mom. On this night, Alfred Walker was unwell, and Nicholas Newton changed him as the daddy. Engaging dramatically and vocally, Newton added a lot to the present: his even sound was spectacular, particularly within the increased passages that don’t at all times profit from the simple supply that he delivered to the character. He labored with LoBianco to convey Act I to its conclusion successfully and was equally robust within the remaining act, when he and his spouse discover that their wayward kids defeated the witch.
As the witch, Jill Grove reprised the function that had impressed Lyric audiences when this manufacturing appeared a number of years in the past. Grove clearly took nice pleasure within the witch and sang with the wealthy voice that audiences know from her distinctive participation in Wagner’s operas. In this deliciously depraved half, Grove made the witch a robust sufficient power to elicit cheers from some elements of the viewers when the kids defeat her.
The robust principals gave all of it a festival-like high quality, and Sir Andrew Davis deserves credit score for his persuasive interpretation of Humperdinck’s rating. The orchestral passages shimmered to create the fairytale world aurally, with the timbres by no means overbalancing the singers. Sonorities blended fittingly, with the brass having a very burnished high quality. Most of all, the main focus and drive that got here from the pit carried onto the stage all through the opera. The entrances by no means failed, and ensembles fitted along with welcome exactitude. The end result was mirrored within the prolonged applause that capped the night.
Congratulations to Lyric Opera of Chicago for this excellent effort.
James L. Zychowicz