Magical ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ wraps GTMF season – JH News&Guide

Most people, even youngsters, know the broad strokes of “Hänsel und Gretel,” the fairy tale first published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm: Sent into the forest by their mother to forage, the siblings get lost. Coming upon a house made of gingerbread, cakes and candy, they start to nibble at it and are trapped by the owner, a witch with a penchant for kid-flesh. Working together, however, they outsmart her and are happily reunited with their relieved parents.

But in the 1890s, German composer Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) brought the tale to vibrant life with a tuneful opera that has become a staple of the repertoire.

The Grand Teton Music Festival concludes its 64th season this weekend with a staging of Humperdinck’s action- and melody-packed work, with Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles leading the Festival Orchestra, a cast of six acclaimed voices from the opera world, and the Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School from Salt Lake City.

For the fifth year, peripatetic stage director David Lefkowich — who has realized productions for the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, La Scala, and in cities throughout North America, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Louisville, Kentucky — was charged with all of the theatrical aspects of this increasingly popular annual spectacle.

“He’s so good at figuring out a way to do a lot in a very short amount of time,” Emma Kail, GTMF’s executive director, said. Art, crew, orchestra and staff stuffed a month’s worth of work into a mere week in Jackson to pull together a full operatic experience that lacks nothing.

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