HANSEL AND GRETEL to Open Sarasota Opera's Fall Season
Maestro Anthony Barrese conducts, with staging by director and choreographer Felicity Stiverson.
Sarasota Opera opens its 68th season this fall with Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, running October 30 through November 14. Premiered in 1893 in Weimar under the baton of Richard Strauss, Humperdinck's version of Hansel and Gretel offers a compelling musical and theatrical experience for audiences of all ages, melding lush orchestration with simple folk melodies to tell the timeless fairy-tale of two siblings who stray into the forest and encounter a beguiling Gingerbread Witch, finding courage in the face of peril.
This production of Hansel and Gretel marks the first-ever mainstage collaboration between Sarasota Opera, Sarasota Youth Opera, and Sarasota Ballet School's Margaret Barbieri Conservatory and Sarasota Ballet Studio Company.
Sarasota Opera will present six performances of Hansel and Gretel: two matinees at 1:30 p.m. (November 1 & 14) and four evening performances at 7 p.m. (October 30, November 4, 10 & 12). The earlier evening curtain time is designed to better accommodate children and families while the opera's runtime of just over two hours makes the performance especially well-suited to audiences of all ages. The company is offering a special family ticket package for Hansel and Gretel that includes two adult tickets, two free children's tickets, and $10 tickets for additional children, which can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 941-328-1300.
Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel is a prime example of Märchenoper, or “fairy-tale opera,” a genre that enjoyed enormous success in 19th century Germany. Setting to music supernatural stories – often allegorical fables built on the premise of good versus evil – was popular among composers like Richard Wagner, for whom Humperdinck was an assistant for many years. Humperdinck originally drafted music for Hansel and Gretel for a family puppet show at the behest of his sister, Adelheid Wette, who wrote the libretto based on the age old fairy-tale as published by The Brothers Grimm. The composer later expanded the work into a full-length opera. “It contains some of the most deeply complex music I've ever worked on,” says Maestro Anthony Barrese, who conducted the show in Sarasota in 2010 and returns to conduct this year.
Sarasota Opera's upcoming Hansel and Gretel will be staged by director and choreographer Felicity Stiverson, who first collaborated on the production with E. Loren Meeker in New Orleans and later in San Antonio. Stiverson performed as a dancer on and off Broadway before turning her attention to directing, and dance is central to her approach. “Anytime you can add dancing to an opera,” she says, “you gain so much in storytelling, stage pictures, and narrative.”
Hansel and Gretel lends itself to dance, with scenes including Humperdinck's “dream pantomime,” when fourteen angels descend upon the children as they are lost in the forest, and the orchestral passage known as the “Witch's Ride.” To bring these scenes to life, Sarasota Opera has invited a selection of young dancers from Sarasota Ballet School's Margaret Barbieri Conservatory and Sarasota Ballet Studio Company. Though the two companies are already linked in many ways – Sarasota Ballet performs its annual Nutcracker at the Opera House and collaborates with the Sarasota Youth Opera on its annual “Images of Dance” program – this collaboration marks the first time that Sarasota Ballet dancers will appear in a mainstage production with Sarasota Opera.
Sarasota Opera's General and Artistic Director Richard Russell says that Hansel and Gretel offers the perfect opportunity to bring the two organizations closer together and to collaborate more deeply with local organizations: “It's the nature of this piece, which is really centered around kids.”
Artists and Creative Team
The title roles in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel will be performed by the “remarkably compelling” (Minnesota Star Tribune) mezzo-soprano Kara Morgan as Hansel and recent Juilliard master's program graduate Kerrigan Bigelow as Gretel. Returning to Sarasota Opera to play the Witch is mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez, who most recently thrilled audiences as Azucena in the 2026 production of Il trovatore. The cast will also include Lindsey Polcyn as the Mother (seen last season as Mrs. McLean in Susannah) and the debut of baritone Spencer Reichman in the role of Peter; with Studio Artists Sarah Stembel as The Dewman and Kira Neary in the role of The Sandman.
Hansel and Gretel will be conducted by longtime Sarasota Opera collaborator Anthony Barrese. Originally conceived by E. Loren Meeker and Felicity Stiverson for New Orleans Opera, the production will be directed and choreographed for Sarasota Opera by Stiverson, with Nora Winsler serving as associate director. Jessé Martins conducts the Sarasota Youth Opera. Steven C. Kemp is the scenic designer, and costumes are designed by Howard Tsvi Kaplan. Ken Yunker is the lighting designer.
Performance Dates
- Friday, October 30, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. (Opening night)
- Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. (Matinee)
- Wednesday, November 4, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
- Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
- Saturday, November 14, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. (Matinee)
Explore and Engage
For a deeper understanding of Hansel and Gretel, guests are invited to visit Sarasota Opera's Digital Content Guide, which includes a specially curated Spotify Playlist and the Digital Program. The next episode of Sarasota Opera's Behind the Blue Curtain podcast: Hansel and Gretel: Into the Woods will be available on September 11, and will feature Sarasota Opera fan favorite Lisa Chavez, who will be playing the role of the Witch, and director and choreographer Felicity Stiverson, who has previously staged the production for New Orleans Opera Association and Opera San Antonio.
A special family pack discount is available for Hansel and Gretel that includes two adult tickets* with two free children's tickets and $10 tickets available for additional children.*Excludes sections A and P Tickets are available at the Sarasota Opera Box Office, by phone at (941) 328‑1300, in person at 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota, or online at tickets.sarasotaopera.org.
