Soprano Simone Osborne Gives Us a Preview of the COC’s production of Hansel & Gretel

The Canadian Opera Company‘s production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel begins next week at the Four Seasons Centre for the performing arts – February 6th through the 21st.

This Hansel & Gretel is positioned as a modern fairytale: And it’s being directed by a friend of The New Classical FM, and one of this country’s most innovative opera thinkers, Joel Ivany, who usually is putting on an opera in a beer hall or an old schoolhouse with his site specific, Against the Grain Theatre. But he’s in the big show this time around, and will put a new spin on Humperdinck’s winter favourite with innovative digital storytelling and video projections that usher this classic straight into present-day Toronto.

(Photo: Canadian Opera Company)

Hansel & Gretel’s music combines nursery rhymes with rustic folk tunes, making it an accessible first opera for children and adults alike, yet it’s also layered with orchestral complexity inspired by Wagner.

Soprano Simone Osborne (Gretel) joined Mark Wigmore on The Oasis.

Listen to the interview: