December 12, 2009: Family-style opera

Every year at this time the Opera Theatre Department of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents a "Family Opera" production.  Last year Heather Carolo staged a production of a "condensed version" of Die Zauberflöte in an English translation by Marcie Stapp, intended, as Director of the Opera Program Rick Harrell put it, for "children of all ages."  This year (now Heather Mathews) she directed a similarly condensed Hansel and Gretel in the Constance Bache translation (with revisions by Hamilton Benz) that honors all of the rhymed couplets of the original German text by Adelheid Wette.  Engelbert Humperdinck's score was performed (presumably from the Schirmer vocal score) by Music Director Darryl Cooper.  The English text being sung was projected on a screen to the right of the stage.

While the story is one of the traditional fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, its subject matter is far darker than the quest story of Zauberflöte.  In the first act we have extreme hunger and at least suggestions of parental abuse;  and in the third act we have a child-devouring witch who ultimately suffers the same fate as the children she has captured, being baked in her own oven.  The best way to make this more kid-friendly is to play down the sinister qualities of the witch;  and Mathews achieved this by turning her into a clown-like character, played full out by a tenor in outrageous costume.  (In the current Metropolitan Opera Production, shared with the San Francisco Opera, the witch is portrayed as Julia Child, which is not the sort of joke that kids are likely to get.)

However, the greatest asset to a kid-friendly production is a plot line that keeps things moving at a brisk pace.  By sacrificing many of the Mozart arias we love so much, Carolo achieved that pace in her Zauberflöte.  Mathews banked on the wealth of folk tunes adopted by Humperdinck, but one could sense kids losing patience with some of the songs going on too long.  Fortunately, she found a better sense of pace in the final act and kept the entire production to about an hour's duration.  If the kids were a bit restless at the beginning, Mathews had them hooked at the climax and final celebration.

This annual project is an excellent idea.  It provides the Conservatory students with an alternative take on opera production;  but it also fosters a spirit that the Conservatory has a way to give back to the general community, rather than appealing only to specialist interests.  The day's rather nasty persistent rain did not seem to interfere with the house being full;  so there is every reason to hope that the community appreciates the Conservatory's efforts.  We should hope that this tradition will continue in the coming years.