Fairy-tale opera gives students new challenges and valuable experience

More than 325 music lovers attended Engelbert Humperdinck's opera "Hansel and Gretel" at the Bedell Performance Hall at the River Campus Saturday night. The opera was presented by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Music.

While the score written by Humperdinck calls for a full orchestra, opera conductor Dr. Timothy Schmidt did some rearranging to create music for a smaller, chamber orchestra to accommodate both the student performers and the facility.

"The original orchestra, as it was written, has about close to 40 individual parts and is a very full-size symphony orchestra. We don't have room for that size orchestra in our pit. The amount of instruments that go into that makes it very hard for young singers to sing over it. I did a custom re-orchestration of it, reducing it to a total of 13 instruments," Schmidt said. He said many parts remained untouched, while some were given to other instruments.

Saturday night's "Gretel" was sung by Megan Statler. She said while she had performed opera before, this was her first feature operatic role. Statler said singing in an opera requires a lot of attention to technique.

"We don't get to use mics, so you have to project and work on diction a lot more. The music is more challenging and is a completely different style of singing. It takes a lot more resonance to get our sound out to the audience," Statler said.

The Sandman visits the sleeping Hansel and Gretel in the forest. The Sandman is played by Katie Young. Hansel is played by Kaylyn Kinder and Gretel is played by Megan Statler. (Fred Lynch)

While Saturday's performance was the first open to the public, a smaller-scale version was presented to area schools Friday afternoon. Friday's "Gretel" said being able to perform for the students helped ease some anxieties.

"It definitely got some butterflies out of the way because we had an audience that was fully engaged and really excited about it," Maggie Salem said. She said the students' enthusiasm created excitement in the cast. Salem will also be performing the role of Gretel at this afternoon's show.

Members of the cast were also responsible for creating the sets used to transport the audience into the dark, enchanted forest inhabited by a witch in a gingerbread house.

Opera director and department of music chairman Chris Goeke said building the sets provided the students with invaluable experience. He said many students will either become singers and need to be familiar with set production, or become teachers and need to offer instruction in the area.

Dr. Loretta Prater and her husband, Dwight, of Cape Girardeau are veteran opera-goers and were excited to see more arts in the area.

"I thought it was very good. I think it's great. We come to quite a few things here. We are fans of the arts. I think it is wonderful for the students, too. Not only for the students that participate, but the students on campus to be exposed to these types of events," she said.

Tickets for this afternoon's performance are still available and can be purchased at the River Campus box office.