Move over, Harry Potter. You may be king of Quidditch, but Leon Natker has the better broom when he soars in Lyric Opera San Diego\u2019s production of Engelbert Humperdinck\u2019s beloved opera, “Hansel and Gretel,” playing at Birch North Park Theatre through Nov. 22. That\u2019s right. As the nasty Witch who bakes children into outsize gingerbread cookies, Natker flies \u2014 with an assist from Flying by Foy \u2014 and he loves it. Everything about his portrayal is gleeful. He\u2019s funny without being too frightening for the little ones who see the show. His grotesque nose and chin, which almost meet, resemble the Arthur Rackham drawing of 1909, and his body \u2014 forever enshrined in life-size gingerbread at the tale\u2019s denouement when the witch, outwitted by the children, is baked in her own oven \u2014 is a miracle of engineering. The under-sung, under-praised Pam Stompoly-Ericson, who has been a member of Lyric Opera San Diego “since the beginning of time,” deserves the Grail of Grimm for her creation of Natker\u2019s costume, visage and makeup. In addition to staging the traditional holiday work, artistic director J. Sherwood Montgomery is credited with scenic design. The translucent drops and backdrops are worthy of Rackham as well. Beautifully lighted by Matthew Novotny, the forest scene changes from late afternoon to encroaching night; however, one questions the flying snowflakes during the overture and whatever extraterrestrial gobo special appeared during the Angels\u2019 ballet. The Witch\u2019s sweet house with its gingerbread fence may not be innovative, but her bake-house, topped with a giant, foil-wrapped Kiss, is an absolute glory to behold and especially fun when it belches smoke. Delightful as well are Hansel (darling, boyish, vocally admirable mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn) and Gretel (soprano Kate Oberjat), respectively clad in lederhosen and traditional peasant attire. Their blend on “Evening Prayer (Abendsegen)” and elsewhere in the score is lovely. Strapping, bright-voiced baritone Scott Gregory returns to Lyric Opera San Diego to sing the role of Peter, the children\u2019s father, a broom-maker. His diction and acting are impeccable. Peter\u2019s wrath, when the children turn up missing after Mother (soprano Pamela Porter Arnold) thoughtlessly sends them into the woods to pick strawberries, is mild compared to some interpretations. Remaining performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday (Nov. 19 and 21) and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22. For tickets ($32-$52, children under 17 half price), call (619) 239-8836.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Move over, Harry Potter. You may be king of Quidditch, but Leon Natker has the better broom when he soars in Lyric Opera San Diego\u2019s production of Engelbert Humperdinck\u2019s beloved opera, “Hansel and Gretel,” playing at Birch North Park Theatre through Nov. 22. That\u2019s right. As the nasty Witch who bakes children into outsize gingerbread […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Operatic production \u2018Hansel and Gretel\u2019 offers full flavor of gingerbread tale","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11593,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-no-images","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}