Performances + Events
Most people know the story, Joshua Major said during a break from rehearsals for NEC Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel. “It’s fun,” Major said — “musically very mature” and challenging, for sure, but also fun. The opera, composed by Engelbert Humperdinck and featuring a libretto by his sister, Adelheid Wette, is based on the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale that so many children around the world have heard.
Mezzo-soprano Brianna Davies ’26 MM, ’27 GD, who’s singing the role of Hansel in NEC Opera’s new production, trick-or-treated as Gretel when her twin brother dressed for Halloween as the fictional brother she’ll portray on stage later this month.
The pants role’s a challenging one, Davies said, thanks to vocal writing that sits in a high register and requires agility and to the theatrical requirement of “having young-kid energy the whole time.” The production is double-cast, which gives each singer the chance to see where their counterpart takes the role.
Humperdinck’s score, Davies said, “carries so much wonder.” One hears the characters in the music, including the wind in the trees.
“This is Wagnerian music,” Major, chair of Graduate Opera Studies at NEC, said, “This is big music.” Major is directing the production and Robert Tweten, the Graduate Opera Studies Department’s music director, is conducting a reduced NEC Philharmonia.
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel “was hugely inspired by Wagner,” Tweten said. “It’s definitely in that German Romantic tradition. It’s very expressive.” And technically demanding for all involved.
Humperdinck was an assistant to Richard Wagner at Bayeuth in 1880 and 1881, a decade before composing Hansel and Gretel, which premiered at Weimar in 1893 with Richard Strauss on the podium. The opera was last staged at NEC in 2024 by the Conservatory’s Undergraduate Opera Studio.
Baritone Nicholas Ottersberg Enriquez ’24, ’27 MM sang the role of the father in that presentation and will play the same character in NEC Opera’s production. It’s the first time he’s had the opportunity to bring previous experience to an opera cast.
“I want to show the growth that I’ve achieved,” he said, adding that “the standard’s incredibly high” in and around an NEC Opera production.
Like Davies, Enriquez appreciates what his peers and the artistic leadership bring to the stage.
“I love being around people who are really dedicated,” he said.
NEC Opera presents Hansel and Gretel Friday, November 19 through Sunday, November 22, in the Conservatory’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre.
