Norma week 4 - week 3 - week 2 - week 1
Cyrano: week 4 - week 3 - week 2 - week 1
Hansel and Gretel: week 4 - week 3 - week 2 - week 1
Rigoletto: week 4 - week 3 - week 2 - week 1
Summer 2007

Hansel and Gretel - Week Three

Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Roderer, in her Opera Company debut as the Witch, cackles her way through the sitzprobe.

Soprano Heidi Melton sings through the role of Gertrude during the first rehearsal with the orchestra.

Peter, baritone Michael Mayes, tells his wife of the evil Witch that lives in the woods and bakes children into gingerbread!

General and Artistic Director Robert Driver follows along in his score during the sitzprobe.

General and Artistic Director Robert Driver has a brief discussion with Managing Director David Devan about the progress onstage.

Soprano Maureen McKay, as Gretel, and soprano Lauren Curnow, as Hansel, sing through the first orchestra rehearsal with Maestro Corrado Rovaris conducting. This rehearsal is known as a sitzprobe, in which the singers sit onstage and sing through the entire opera with the orchestra for the very first time. After this, the cast will only have two more rehearsals, in which they'll add make-up, costumes, and staging, before opening night!

These set pieces are all part of the whimsical set created by award-winning author and illustrator Maurice Sendak.

The whole cast, including children from the Keystone State Boychoir and the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, gathers onstage to run through rehearsal.