2019–20 Season

Hansel and Gretel

MUSIC BY ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK

Hope can be found even in the darkest of forests.

Enter a magical forest where the trees are older than time, fairies lurk in the shadows, and a house of candy sits alone amidst the trees. Experience this cherished musical fairy tale in a charming new co-production with London’s Royal Opera.

Production New to San Francisco Opera

Meet the Cast

Sung in English with English supertitles

SEE PHOTOS

HEAR THE MUSIC

WATCH VIDEOS

Reviews

SF Opera sets holiday mood with gentler, charming ‘Hansel and Gretel’

–San Francisco Examiner

exuberantly sung in English, and staged by director and designer Antony McDonald with an elegantly colorful storybook touch.

–San Francisco Chronicle

[Sasha Cooke as Hansel] turned in a performance of remarkable lushness and vigor

–San Francisco Chronicle

Stober’s Gretel was a lovely amalgam of energy and fluid vocal grace

–San Francisco Chronicle

In the media

CELEBRATE THE SEASON WITH FAMILY ACTIVITIES

Gingerbread Hunts

Explore the festive holiday display throughout the Opera House lobby before every performance, and hunt hidden gingerbread!

Character Meet-and-Greets

Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, Dec 1
Make memories with your loved ones! Meet magical fairy tale characters in the Opera House lobby following the Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1 performances. BUY TICKETS.

EXPLORATION WORKSHOPS FOR FAMILIES: ALL ABOUT HANSEL AND GRETEL

Saturday, November 30 at 11am and 12:30pm
Perfect for children ages 6 and up, this workshop explores the story, music, production design, and characters Hansel and Gretel. BUY TICKETS.

Synopsis

Two impoverished children enter a dark forest looking for food only to find themselves facing a sinister threat.

READ COMPLETE SYNOPSIS >

Curious about the Opera?

Pre-Opera Talks

Perfect for newcomers, opera aficionados or anyone in between, our pre-opera talks provide an engaging 25-minute overview of the opera. Free to ticketholders, 55 minutes prior to curtain in the Orchestra section. Speaker: Peter Susskind.

Opera Previews

Explore Hansel and Gretel in a 90-minute presentation by Simon Williams. Events held thorughout the Bay Area November 4-6 and cost varies by location. Learn more.

Open Curtain

Have you always wanted to see the inner workings of our stage? At select performances, our curtain is open during intermission and we narrate the live changeover. Dates: Sunday, November 17; Sunday, December 1; and Tuesday, December 3.

Program articles

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK’S HANSEL & GRETEL

A curious phenomenon occurred in the world of opera at the turn of the last century. Read more.

THE POLITICS OF CHILDHOOD IN ENGLEBERT HUMPERDINCK’S HÄNSEL UND GRETEL

By the end of the nineteenth century, readers of fairy tales had come to expect certain themes, including Christian moral ideals, happy endings, and scenes depicting the socialization of children within domestic and school settings. Read more.

REWRITING THE TALE: ADDING HUMAN DIMENSION TO A CLASSIC STORY

Created 80 years after the Brothers Grimm released their Children’s and Household Tales in 1812, librettist Adelheid Wette’s softer setting of the “Hansel and Gretel” story brings subtlety and dimension to the themes of poverty and survival present in this classic fairy tale. Read more.

CAST AND CREATIVE

CAST

Hansel	Sasha Cooke
Gretel	Heidi Stober
The Witch	Robert Brubaker
Gertrude	Michaela Martens
Peter	Alfred Walker
Sandman	Ashley Dixon
Dew Fairy	Natalie Image
Will-o'-the-wisp	Chiharu Shibata

PERFORMANCES

Nov 15, 17, 21, 23, 30; Dec 1, 3, 7

CREATIVE

Conductor	Christopher Franklin
Director & Production Designer	Antony McDonald ^*
Associate Stage Director	Danielle Urbas ^*
Associate Designer	Ricardo Pardo ^*
Lighting Designer	Lucy Carter ^*
Revival Lighting Designer	Neill Brinkworth ^*
Choreographer	Lucy Burge ^*
Chorus Director	Ian Robertson

* San Francisco Opera debut

Co-production with Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Previous performances of Hansel and Gretel can be found in our Archive.

Earn Your Wings is a San Francisco Opera initiative that invites patrons to engage with and support our community partnerships in meaningful and demonstrative ways. We are asking our audiences to deeply consider what it means to be a "global citizen" who participates in and advocates to support the arts, even as we fight to address critical societal issues, like homelessness. Learn more about how you can 'earn your wings'.

MADE POSSIBLE BY

The Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for New Productions; Bertie Bialek Elliott; and the San Francisco Opera Guild.

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See our full season line-up >