Hansel and Gretel Dress Rehearsal

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Orlando Opera presents Hansel and Gretel at the Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater in the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (445 South Magnolia Avenue Orlando FL). Engelbert Humperdinck’s operatic retelling of the ever-popular Grimm
fairy tale features a lush score and charming characters that, on
Christmas Day in 1931, became the first complete Metropolitan Opera
radio-broadcast performance.

The cast includes mezzo-soprano Sarah Purser as Hansel, soprano Jillian Marini as Gretel, soprano Samantha Barnes Daniel as the mother, baritone Ben Ludwig as the father, and tenor Jess Muñoz as the witch. Opera Orlando’s music and education director Robin Jensen conducts, and creative director Grant Preisser directs. Come and get lost in the woods this holiday season.

Hansel and Gretel shirked their chores and played together with childish abandon. Then their mother arrived and discovered that Hansel had gotten no work done. Gretel had managed to keep sweeping even as she played but they were scolded anyways.

All the trees on stage were on wheels, so the stage shape shifted throughout the production. A banner above the stage was used to project the lyrics which weren’t much needed since the production was in English. However the witch at this rehearsal was difficult to hear, which was probably a technical issue that will be worked out. A large gingerbread man doubled as the oven towards the end of the evening.

Wood nymphs and plenty of stage mist created some mystery as the children got lost and fell asleep in the woods. An enthusiastic cast of children helped sell the horror of the fate of Hansel and Gretel. The children were dressed up like gingerbread Gumbys with large flat mittens and featureless faces.

The witch and a wood nymph wandered into the audience several times, breaking the fourth wall and adding some intimacy to the production. Perhaps because this is a familiar story line, the ending seemed anti-climactic. Clearly staged for children, this could be a fun family outing.

Tonight’s final performance on Sunday December 9, 2018 at 2pm is unavailable which I assume means sold out. Tickets

The Companion and Safe Word at Fringe

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These two short one act operas came from the Opera, Three Way. Music was by Robert Paterson and lyrics by David Cote in an arrangement with Bill Holab Music. The music Director was Deniz Uz and the stage director was Eric Pinder.

The Companion was set in the near future in a comfortably appointed apartment. A single smartly dresses business woman, Maya (Samantha Barnes Daniel) returned home to a perfectly prepared dinner and wine served by her perfect boyfriend, Joe (Johnathan Lee Iverson). it became clear that he was perfect because he was a carefully programed robot. His programing also included hundreds of sexual positions, but he did have a tendency to slip into mechanical speech patterns.

The woman decided she wanted a programing upgrade. The live tech support guy, Dax (Jacob Pence) flirted a bit and was a reminder that perhaps she should consider the real deal. When the sex robot was fully upgraded, he began to  ignore the heroine playing video games constantly. When she called the company to complain, she was told that every aspect of the programing was designed to make him seem like a true to life boyfriend. It was a fun premise and the music carried the show beautifully.

The second one act opera, Safe Word, was about a dominatrix, Mistress Salome (Sarah Purser). I have seen Sarah perform in many other operas and I didn’t realize she was performing in this opera until she took her wig off to take a bow after the show. You have to admire an opera singer who can transform so completely. I hope to get to see her in leading roles more often.

Salome was waiting on a client (Jacob Pence) and when he did knock at the door, she let him wait. She insisted that anticipation is needed before pain and pleasure.

The client was a businessman who wanted to dress in pantaloons and act like a child needing punishment. I resisted sketching but had to jump in when she tied him to a restraining cross. Of course, a safe word is agreed upon in case anything gets out of hand. Things do indeed get out of hand with more pain than pleasure involved. In the end however, we realize that the dominatrix is actually the client and she has had the most empowering experience of her life.

I love that Opera Orlando is bringing such edgy modern productions to the Fringe and Orlando in general. A  month after Fringe they presented Star Trek Abduction which is based on Mozart‘s The Abduction from the Seraglio. They are going where no opera has gone before. Who doesn’t want to hear an aria sung in Klingon?

Sarah Purser Performed at the Fringe Outdoor Stage.

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Sarah Purser is an incredible singer. She has performed with the Opera and she also performs more modern tunes. She sang sultry and sad Joni Mitchell covers in the Fringe Outdoor Stage.   Sarah’s husband Marco Bojorquez played the electric bass.

The out door tent was constantly active the year. Orlando’s best singers and bands set up on stage about every hour. Jessica Pawli orchestrated the incredible line up of talent. She turned the sleepy outdoor stage into a major attraction in it’s second year. I could have been happy sketching in the outdoor tent everyday but of course the lure of the odd and obscene drew me inside to the ticketed Fringe shows as well.

Under the Rainbow

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Under the Rainbow written and composed by Alen Gerber was the one operatic performance at this year’s Fringe. The show began with a young mother holding her infant son in a rainbow colored blanket. Crystal Lizardo, who played the mother was surprisingly petite yet her voice filled the huge Rep Theater. She sang a beautiful song in which she imagined her son’s bright future.

Years later, her son is a grown man and he leads a human rights march for marriage equality. A church group lead by the minister of the mother’s church is out to appose the march.  When tempers flair, a member of the human rights group is shoved to the ground. Sarah Purser played Grace, the injured activist and when the minister, Ricardo Dominguez, offers to help her, they sing together about what message, or lack thereof, the bible offers on gay life.

The mother conducts a chorus in church and then laments her son’s sexuality. Being religious, she wants to protect her son from sure hell-fire, but she also wants to see her son to find happiness here on earth. Whereas most parents never accept a child’s homosexuality, she finds solace in a hymns verse, “Where there is charity and love, God is there.” In the end, she accepts her son as he is, and they embrace.

I went into the show with no preconceptions and was pleasantly surprised. The woodwind player unfortunately didn’t check his reeds and thus he kept missing notes. The music as a whole was beautiful but not particularly memorable.  The main musical theme of the show was the exact chromatic inversion of the melody of Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow“. The shows message of open minded acceptance transcended any technical issues. There was a well deserved standing ovation.