Gretel in Hansel and Gretel
It was fun to watch the fidgety Hansel (the mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught) and fretful Gretel (the soprano Lisette Oropesa) trading nonsensical taunts, dancing together and skipping their chores while their parents are off working, like mischievous siblings everywhere.
Oropesa runs marathons and no doubt needed that stamina for the non-stop rigorous work-out Gretel gets in the third act. Her high sweet voice always struck just the right note of girlish delight and awe.
Soprano Lisette Oropesa as Gretel sang with slimmed-down, girlish tone in the early scenes, limiting her projection of words and emotions, but found her dramatic mojo (and piercing high notes) in the climactic final act.
Perhaps no one did a more fantastic job at playing to this tonal flexibility than Lisette Oropesa, her entire interpretation walking this line beautifully. Physically she was fully committed to arguably the most demanding of roles in this particular opera. We always felt she was a young girl just from looking at her. From her extremely acting facial expressions to her prancing about, even in the darkest of times. Seeing her fool around while the witch was attempting to control her elicited a tremendous amount of laughs.
