Calgary Opera will present Engelbert Humperdinck’s family-friendly opera Hansel and Gretel, featuring handcrafted puppets, set design, and costumes by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Performances take place from January 31 to February 6 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.
“This production is particularly special as it is so visually exciting. The Trouts have designed a world where design and storytelling come to life. Hansel and Gretel is a story we all have a little bit of knowledge of — it is a world full of magical creatures, and the music is so lush and engaging,” said Stage Director Brenna Corner in a statement.
This production was originally designed for and created by Vancouver Opera, with set, costumes, and puppet design by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, provided by Kentucky Opera.
The production is recommended for adults, and children age six and up.
The Opera
Humperdinck actually wrote the opera as a favour for Adelheid Wette, his sister, who was already an accomplished librettist. She had asked him to compose music for four folksongs based on the fairy tale that she had written for her children to sing at Christmas.
Despite some qualms about how the source material would translate into opera, the composer plunged into the project, and eventually decided to enlarge the work to a full opera, with his sister writing the words.
The work premiered in 1893 in Weimar, Germany, conducted by Richard Strauss. After the performance, Strauss mentioned its “devilishly difficult” score, and dubbed it “original, new and so authentically German”.
The story sticks largely to the fairy tale as it is popularly known. Two children named Hansel and Gretel live just outside a forest in a cottage with their parents. The family is poor, and there isn’t much to eat.
There is a witch who lives in the forest, known to take small children captive and bake them into gingerbread.
One day, the mother comes home to find that the kids haven’t done their chores, and she ngrily sends them into the woods to gather food for the family.
The kids lose track of time, and it gets dark. The opera adds a Sandman to the story, a magical being who sends the children to sleep, and they dream of 14 guardian angels who protect them. Shortly afterwards, the Dew Fairy shows up to wake them. Hansel and Gretel are hungry, and begin to search for food.
They find a house made of gingerbread, cakes, and chocolate. Naturally, they’re entranced, and they begin to eat. However, the Witch appears, and she captures the pair, locking them into a cage.
But, Gretel uses the Witch’s own magic branch to reverse the spell and unlock the cage when the Witch goes out. When she returns, the two children rush out of the cage and push her in instead. The Witch’s house catches fire and explodes, and later, Hansel and Gretel’s parents find them and bring them back home.
That night, Hansel remembers his dream, and looks up to the sky to find the 14 guardian angels smiling down on him.
“The music of Hansel and Gretel is one of the most evocative scores ever written, and even though it was composed before the time of movies, it has such a cinematic power that if you close your eyes you’ll feel like you have been transported into a dream-like realm filled with magical creatures,” said Jonathan Brandani, Conductor and Artistic Director of Calgary Opera.
Performers
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Calgary Opera Artistic Director Jonathan Brandani, perform the music, and the Cantaré Children’s Choir add their voices to the performance.
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop have created the set, costumes, and puppet design. The company makes handcrafted creations infused with colour and imagination.
The Cast
- Hansel: Xenia Puskarz Thomas
- Gretel: Simone Osborne
- Witch / Gertrude: Claire Barnett-Jones
- Peter: Peter Barrett
- Sandman / Sleep Fairy: Maria Milenic
- Dewman, the Dew Fairy: Katelyn Bird
Australian mezzo-soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas is a recent graduate of Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opernstudio. Her 2025/26 season includes her debuts as The Women in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This at Teatro San Carlo, and as La messaggera in a new staging by William Kentridge of Monteverdi’s L’orfeo for Glyndebourne Festival, conducted by Jonathan Cohen.
Canadian lyric and operatic soprano Simone Osborne was one of the youngest-ever winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008 at age 21. Simone studied opera performance at the University of British Columbia, and is a former member of the Canadian Opera Company’s Studio Ensemble. Currently based in Europe, she recently debuted with Scottish Opera in Don Pasquale (Norina), and Calgary Opera in L’elisir d’amore (Adina), and made a return to the Canadian Opera Company in Don Pasquale (Norina). She’ll be performing in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Massenet’s Werther in May 2026.
British mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones was the winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. Her 2025/26 season includes performances at the Bregenz Festival as Annina in a new Lake Stage production of Verdi’s La Traviata conducted by Kirill Karabits, and with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome performing Waltraute in a staged production of Wagner’s Die Walküre conducted by Daniel Harding, among other engagements.
Baritone Peter Barrett is native of Cornerbrook, NFLD, and an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. He has performed in a number of COC productions, including including Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Marcello in La bohème, Denisov/Rayevsky in War and Peace, among others. He’s a graduate of the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, and studied at the Hartwick College in the US. Peter was also on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York for several seasons.
Croatian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Maria Milenic is a native of Newmarket, Ontario, and a graduate of the University of Toronto, as well as the Glenn Gould School, where she earned an Advanced Artist Diploma in Voice and Opera studies. She sang as an official McPhee artist with Calgary Opera’s Young Artist Studio. Maria has performed as a featured artist in the 21C Music Festival, and in has performed in several contemporary opera productions. In the 2025/26 season, she performs the role of Cio Cio San’s Mother in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and recently as Mother/Grandmother in Barab’s Little Red Riding Hood.
Canadian coloratura soprano Katelyn Bird is a graduate of the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, where she earned a Bachelor’s (honours) in Voice Performance, followed by an Artist Diploma in Voice Performance. She has performed with Toronto City Opera, Music Niagara, and Opera York, and was a finalist in Opera de Montreal’s Atelier Lyrique National Auditions in October 2022. Katelyn has also performed with Pacific Opera Victoria, and recent appearances include the Calgary Opera production of Little Red Riding Hood.
- Find more details and tickets for Hansel and Gretel [HERE].
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