November 20, 2007
Contact: Sara Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
413/542-2195
AMHERST, Mass.—The Amherst College Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Mark Lane Swanson, will present the fairy tale opera favorite Hansel und Gretel by Englebert Humperdinck on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College.
Hansel und Gretel tells the familiar story of two disobedient children sent into the woods by their mother. There they encounter frightening apparitions, are guarded in sleep by 14 angels and outwit a witch who plans to turn them into gingerbread as she as done to so many children before them.
The opera will be performed in concert with two acts and an intermission. It will be sung in German with supertitles and projections throughout. The cast will feature University of Massachusetts voice professor Janna Baty (as the Witch and Mother), Amherst College alumna Julia Fox ’07 (Gretel) and Amherst College students Alison Wahl ’08 (Hansel), Marshall Nannes ’09 (Father) and Todd Fruth ’08 (Sandman). Complimentary gingerbread cookies and candy canes will be served at a reception following the concert.
Tickets are available to the public for $5 and can be reserved in advance by contacting mlswanson@amherst.edu. Admission is free to Five College students with ID.
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