[Met Performance] CID:259960
Hänsel und Gretel {178} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/24/1979.
(Debut: Catherine Malfitano
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
December 24, 1979
In English
HÄNSEL UND GRETEL {178}
Humperdinck-Wette
Hänsel..................Tatiana Troyanos
Gretel..................Catherine Malfitano [Debut]
Gertrud.................Jean Kraft
Peter...................Allan Monk
Witch...................Andrea Velis
Sandman.................Alma Jean Smith
Dew Fairy...............Loretta Di Franco
Conductor...............Calvin Simmons
Production..............Nathaniel Merrill
Designer................Robert O'Hearn
Lighting designer.......Gil Wechsler
Choreographer...........Zachary Solov
Translation by Kelley
Hänsel und Gretel received thirteen performances this season.
Review of Bill Zakariasen in the Daily News
A sprightly 'Hansel and Gretel'
"Hansel" fared well in a sprightly performance led by the talented young conductor Calvin Simmons - if the orchestra occasionally swamped the voices, it remained more Humperdinck's fault than his. The cast was familiar save for the title roles. Catherine Malfitano, long a mainstay soprano at City Opera, made a most successful debut as Gretel - her sweet-shaded soprano carried beautifully in the large house, and she was cute as a button in every movement. Tatiana Troyanos' vibrantly sensual mezzo convinced less as Hansel, but her purposefully awkward movements really got the boy-with-growing-pains character across winningly.
Andrea Velis was once again a very funny lip-smacking Witch, but I for one would like to see the gender switched here to give the role properly to a great dramatic soprano - how about Regine Crespin?
Once again, though, the big hit with the largely prepubescent audience was the matchlessly inventive, thoroughly magical production by Nat Merrill and Bob O'Hearn, but even though these two gentlemen were in attendance, they weren't allowed to share in the tumultuous applause, thanks to a reported recent dictum from the Met's upstairs prohibiting the staging staff from taking bows.