... Hello, I'm Bernard McDonald, and I'm the conductor for this production of Hänsel und Gretel.

And I am James Marvel, the stage director for the production of Hänsel and Gretel that you've just seen, Act one.

So it's great to have our, viewers as well as our live audience, experience this, musical fairy tale.

Looking back and why we chose this piece.

James.

I was thinking about this as we've gone through the rehearsal process with the students.

And now in the past week with the orchestra.

And I think it's worth sharing, with our audience and indeed with our students and anybody who's interested in FSU Opera, why we chose it.

And there are many reasons.

But one of them is, that this is a fairly it's difficult to find, a German language opera from the 19th century that's good for students of this age.

Yeah.

So one of the criterion was, or one of the criteria was, is this good for our students?

What skills will they learn by learning to perform it?

And in our case, of course, doing a lyric piece in the German language is, was an important consideration.

We are a teaching institution, and we train our students to be, ready to work anywhere.

That's our that's our goal.

So obviously, teaching them to sing in fluent German, was one major consideration.

And, that's the kind of international high expectation.

Oh sure., could we do it in English?

Yes.

Is it good in English?

Yes.

Is any opera good in English?

Yes.

Would it be arguably better for the audience if it were in their mother tongue?

Yes.

But that doesn't mean to say that it can't be engaging and, entertaining.

Because we have running translations the whole time, just like in the movies.

You have subtitles or surtitles here.

So that was one consideration.

Another consideration was the students we have, we had a we we chose it for the students.

It suited this particular, cohort.

And, we knew that we could serve it well orchestrally.

FSU has a fabulous orchestra program., and they're integral, very much integral to the success of, of our opera productions.

And one final thing I would say for me is that I think this is a genuine operatic masterpiece.

It was premiered in 1893, I think, in Weimar.

And, unlike the rest of Humperdinck's operas, I think he wrote 14 in total.

This is the one that has never gone out of the repertory.

It went from Weimar to all throughout the German speaking countries to the English speaking lands.

It went everywhere within a very short space of time.

And it has never gone out of the repertory.

And it's a staple favorite.

It's in German, the German speaking countries in particular.

It's performed at Christmas time.

Our production is happily coincident with Halloween.

So anyway, that's my, that's my take and some of the reasons why we chose to do it.

Yeah.

And I think additionally, one of the things that we talked about, this is my first year at Florida State University.

So, in order to plan a production of this size in this magnitude, it becomes important to have all of the scenic elements and the props and all these kinds of things in place as well.

So I felt strongly that, you know, if we could choose repertoire that I was familiar with, that I had done past productions of, that would be helpful, on a very basic level.

And, you know, because when, you know, if I, if I don't begin my actual employment until August, for example, we need to begin planning well before August, before I'm technically employed.

So, choosing repertoire that was known to me was was very helpful.

And so I'm glad that it worked out that way.

And so I think, you know, one of the things that you will have just seen, in act one is, a lot of different changing, projections and the backgrounds and, really the jumping off point for that was, when I was working with the design team, we have a wonderful, scenic and projection designer, DJ Pike, who I first met while he was a graduate student.

And we have collaborated on probably 4 or 5 projects now at this point.

And, so we did a lot of research into, the illustrations of children's books and, and we looked at how children's book illustrations have changed over, you know, maybe a hundred or so years and, and kind of took the things that were inspiring to us and left things that were less interesting.

And, so what's interesting about it?

We're in the technical rehearsal right now.

And so our wonderful lighting designer, Sarah Alford, is in the background here, and we've had the pleasure of working together many times as well.

So she what she's doing is working on, you know, making sure that the lights are going to help tell and support the story, that the projections are as well, to make sure that the moods match and all these kind of different things that sort of factor into an almost immersive experience that you get, from the show.

And it's just what the most important thing to me is that what what I wanted to capture was that sense of childhood wonder.

So everything that happens in this production is really, from the lens or the point of view of the two children.

So when the mother comes in and she's very angry with them for, you know, dancing and playing around instead of doing their chores, you know, it's not that the mother is actually that mean in the real life of the fairy tale, but, but that in the kid's mind and the kids eyes, they're scared of this larger than life creature who's, disciplining them, and rightfully so.

They're very lazy children.

Oh, yes.

They'll always find things to do other than their chores.

Indeed, indeed.

You mentioned child like.

And one of the things I think is truly magical about this piece is, is how Humperdinck crafted this score.

Using melodies that are recognizably child like.

Yeah.

And and folk like, and our.

Yeah, they're immediately appealing.

And the piece started off as we, we, you and I, have talked about as, started off as a few songs, just songs with piano and voice.

And then, Humperdinck, and his sister, who was the librettist, developed it into a singspiele, so a kind of number opera with a few songs and some bits of dialog, and then decided they decided to turn it into a full scale opera.

And my goodness, didn't they do that?

And it's a full scale opera in the sense that it calls for a large late 19th century German Romantic orchestra.

It's, some of the musical styles or the musical techniques to make it this through composed piece are very much, recall the techniques of Richard Wagner, who was writing these, you know, immense music dramas.

So he uses these kinds of techniques to give a coherence.

He takes these childlike melodies and weaves them into kind of very sophisticated, rich, sumptuous, textures that nevertheless never lose their freshness.

And so I think this is one of the reasons why it was such a success.

It's a very sophisticated, beautiful work of art, but it's it's perennially fresh, and it doesn't have the heavy weight.

Psychological.

Not psychological, philosophical, baggage that the Wagner kind of manifesto brought with it.

Right.

So it's taking, I don't want to say a lighter hearted look at German mythology, because after all, it is a gruesome fairy tale.

Yeah.

But it's, I do think he he created a, an operatic masterpiece, and is so rich and relatively concise.

I was working with the orchestra last night.

And, it's great fun to work with these young players because they're intellectually curious.

They're.

I think all of them doing it for the first time.

So one of the things I was talking with them about was the necessity to actually consider what you should sound like here.

You know, these are not just abstract notes on a page.

But what what is it, what should it sound like when the father is describing what the witch is like.

So I just asked them, I said what should these pizzicato sound like.

What should the wind part sound like here.

Trying to come up with adjectives rather than, you know, skeletal right.

Brittle, bony.

You know, that type of thing and try to get to create these, sounds and so that was then talking about, the kind of pastoral aspects, the fact we're in a forest.

And we have horns and we have woodwinds that sometimes imitate, kind of drones and bagpipes and stuff like that.

Yeah.

And so you can see that some of it is and I ask them, what does this remind you of?

If you were playing this opera and they come up with interesting things, some of them were off the wall, for me and at any rate.

But some of them were more obvious.

I certainly thought, Mahler's use of pastoral instruments in the symphonies, and and also in the, in its orchestral songs.

And Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, where you get the kind of oboes calling from different parts of the auditorium.

But we don't have that here.

But I said to them, it should sound like this, right?

You know, try and sound like you're on the opposite valley or the the forest over there.

And we, we played with that.

So and I was explaining to the orchestra how important it is that every utterance that they make is, as organically connected to the singing line as is possible throughout the whole piece.

And my goodness it's hard to do that.

Yeah.

Because it means we all have to breathe together.

And we have to create this oneness, if you like.

But what an exciting project and what a great challenge.

Absolutely.

For everyone.

I think you mentioned to me the other day that Humperdinck had written this, almost like as an engagement present, for his fiancee.

And, I was wondering if any of the people you dated in the past had ever written an opera for you, cause' for me, No.

I'm still waiting.

Yeah, I am too.

Yeah, yeah, but there's always.

I mean, maybe someone will write one as a tribute someday.

Someday?

Fingers crossed.

So.

Yeah.

So part of the delight of of working on this show for me has been, you know, and first of all, I want to say that all of the faculty who have pitched in to really bring this up to a world class standard, you know, the the work of Liz Avery and Eric Rieger and so many of the musical staff and the countless hours of coaching that you have done, it just, is really the number of hours you've put in.

And it's just been staggering to me.

And the kids have come in.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't say kids.

The young adults are so, so well prepared, and and, are just performing at a level that that I find to be really inspirational.

And, when you and I first met, you know, our first day here when we had a little retreat and we said our goal is to create the best opera program in the world.

You know, and I feel like this puts us well on the way to accomplishing that and achieving that.

Well, I think you're right.

And thank you.

This is a such a it's an incredible team effort.

And one of the things that we want to do at FSU is, is exemplify what it is to work in a, in a world class opera house.

One of the challenges as being a young artist is that when they leave here and they start going into the field, then everybody expects them to be virtually finished products, able to do whatever they're asked to do.

And that's a challenge.

So we need to give them that level of training when they're here so that they can do that.

Now, for those of them who go to on to , say big international young artist programs, they'll get the kind of help that we are offering daily then.

But really, we need to be able to do that for everyone here.

Yeah.

And everyone who's hungry.

And I really also I so appreciate as well the, the just team that we've created who are all pitching in, our costume staff, our technical staff, our technical director, the guest designers that we have.

And of course, the backbone of all of it is our resident faculty here.

And, the fact that the students are seeing, daily work in collaboration with you, me, working together with Dr. Rieger, Dr. Avery, with our We have excellent collaborative piano students who are, who are serving as our music staff, very much providing for them both a professional experience and a professional training.

So it it's it's a small village that takes to do it.

But practicing, the art of working together in the room is so much part for me of the teaching and the experience and you've brought so much to that.

So thank you.

Well thank you.

You know, and it's it's such a great thing to, to work at Florida State, where you have this amazing infrastructure where you can create amazing scenery in this beautiful Ruby Diamond, Auditorium Concert Hall.

I mean, it's, the acoustics, I understand.

It's quite amazing.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, for it looks fairly big.

It's not, it's not.

It is a fairly big hall.

I can't quite remember the capacity.

But one of the things that's great about doing an opera in here is that it's, it serves the young voices so well.

I mean, and you can, you could find ways to make a large orchestra balance.

well with the stage without you just have to do it.

It's not like a big challenge.

You just have to do the work.

Yeah.

And that's a, that's a gift for our students to, to really kind of sing in a, basically a professional opera house setting.

Right?

It's a it's a big enough space for them to feel what it's like to perform in a big house.

Yeah.

But it's not so cavernous or, kind of unfriendly to acoustics.

Yeah, it's a very friendly acoustic.

So.

Yeah, the the infrastructure is fabulous.

Right.

One thing that I wanted to mention for our audience, who's watching wherever in the world you may be, is that near the end of act three, there is an effect that will be visible to the audience that will not be visible, over the live stream.

And, what it is, is at the intermission, we're going to be giving out 3D glasses.

And whenever you look through the 3D glasses at a point of light, such as you might see in the background, it creates the image of a gingerbread man.

And so, one of the things that we've done is when the chorus come out as, gingerbread people, we have little light boxes, attached to their costume that that shoots, like an LED point of light so that when the audience looks through the glasses at that point of light, what they're seeing is actually like a gingerbread man.

So you won't be able to see that, but I can assure you, it's a really magical moment.

That, to my knowledge, has never been done in the history of theater before.

And, it was it was an idea that, was born out of necessity.

I had done this production, one other time, and we didn't have enough money for costumes for the gingerbread men.

And so I was like, what are we going to do?

How are we going to afford this?

And I called the lighting designer and I said, you're going to think I'm nuts.

I was like, I have an idea.

And we were going to buy these little 3D glasses and, and what the audience is going to see are little gingerbread men.

And, he was like, well, I've come to expect this from you.

So I have these bizarre phone calls.

That's a fabulous case of necessity of being the mother of invention.

Indeed, indeed, but I, I remember the sense of the collective gasp from the audience when they actually saw the full, effect.

So I apologize that you're not able to, to see that, over the camera, but, it's a very special moment, I think, for the audience here.