Pop-Up Opera: Spring Season 2018
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel
Thursday 1st February – Sunday 11th March 2018
For Spring 2018, after its huge successes in 2017, Pop-Up Opera are reviving Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, giving one of the most popular operatic fairy tales a magical twist that will both enchant and thrill
Continuing to challenge the way opera is traditionally performed, Pop-Up Opera will bring Humperdinck’s dark and atmospheric opera to unusual and unique spaces across the UK. Sung in German (with Pop-Up Opera’s signature ‘silent movie’ captions in English), the wonderful combination of music and drama brings the exciting relationships between characters to life.
Brother and sister Hansel and Gretel are drawn into the idyllic yet dangerous world of the forest, where they encounter the Sandman, the Dew Fairy and, most frightening of all, the Witch. In the dizzying excitement of the Witch’s Ride and the serene beauty of the children’s evening prayer, Humperdinck’s music magically evokes the contrasting worlds of the story
Director James Hurley comments, Hansel and Gretel is the perfect fairy tale opera experience, packed full of humour, suspense, and danger. It offers some unique theatrical challenges – how to create an enchanted forest, build a gingerbread house, or burn a witch! This production will conjure up an ingenious, fully-integrated scenic world, which stays true to Pop-Up’s immersive charm
The cast conjure plenty of magic… mops become broomsticks or trees in the dark forest, strips of cardboard a songbird… a performance that leaves rival fringe companies in their icing-sugar dust. (Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk)
Tour Dates
Thurs 1st Feb Ugly Duck, London, 7.30pm
49 Tanner Street, London SE1 3PL
Fri 2nd Feb Wiltshire Music Centre, 7.30pm
Ashley Road, Bradford-on-Avon, BA15 1DZ
Sun 4th Feb V&A Museum, London, 2pm
Cromwell Road, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 2RL
Tues 6th Feb London Museum of Water and Steam, 7.30pm
Green Dragon Lane, Brentford, London, TW8 0EN
Sat 10th Feb Spirella Ballroom, Letchworth. 7.30pm
Spirella Building Bridge Road, Letchworth Garden City, SG6 4ET
Tues 13th Feb Harrow School, Harrow, 7.30pm
5 High Street, Harrow HA1 3HP
Thurs 15th Feb St Mary in the Castle, Sussex, 7.30pm
7 Pelham Cresent, Hastings TN34 3AE
Fri 16th Feb Chichester Minerva Theatre, 7.45pm
Oaklands Park, Chichester PO19 6AP
Fri 23rd Feb Cheltenham Ladies College, 7.30pm
Bayshill Road, Cheltenham GL50 3EP
Thurs 1st March Winchester Planetarium, 7.30pm
Telegraph Way, Winchester SO21 1HZ
Sat 3rd March Shaftesbury Arts Centre, 7.30pm
13 Bell Street, Shaftesbury SP7 8AR
Sun 4th March Teignmouth Festival, Teignmouth United Reform Church, 7pm
Dawlish Street, Teignmouth TQ14 8TB
Wed 7th March Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, 7.30pm
Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG
Sun 11th March Asylum, Peckham, 5pm
Caroline Gardens Chapel, Asylum Road, London SE15 2SQ