Guanajuato Performances: Hansel and Gretel; Cri-Cri

If you're a child at heart and haven't yet been to Hansel and Gretel at the Juarez, tonight, Friday the 25, is the only chance left to see this exhilarating local performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera, first presented in Weimar, Germany in 1893 with Richard Strauss conducting. By the way, the composer's sister was wrote the libretto, not Herr H.

As if the much loved, well-paced opera isn't enough, many of Guanajuato's finest bring the opera to life, giving the event a special fillip for the audience (who fill the main floor and the first two balconies) and have come to watch people they know bring the spectacle to life..

What a lot of coordination putting on an opera takes! With Kate Burt as the general and stage director, the city's fine singer-actors bring out the universal appeal of  the opera, so much so that I was startled when finally the cookies on the witch's house materialize as children dressed in traditional Mexican clothes!   

Opera is theatre saturated with music. Putting on Hansel and Gretel to life has meant skillful casting, set design (and construction), costumes, lighting, super-titles, dance, instrumental music and whatever else I am leaving out, including finances and poster design. With hours of planning and effort, Kate and her cohort manage to get it all to work, although due to the design of the Juarez, I found the supertitles hard to see from my seat 3/4 of the way back in the luneta.

The brother and sister were such convincing twelve-year-olds that I forgot two skilled women were in the roles, always in character as they sang and acted. I was delighted when a "fire" blazed in the witch's oven, with the contrast between the witch's abode, an embodiment of any child's fantasy and the simple house where the children lived. I could even see a menacing wolf and hawk on the forest backdrop.

With Christian Gohmer, conductor of the Sonora Symphony, in Guanajuato to coordinate and conduct the music, and many well-known local musicians in the orchestra pit, who can ask for anything more?

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Well, there is always more. Last weekend at Casa Cuatro, parents and children (in fact, unaccompanied adults, too) were treated to the songs of Cri-Cri, a favorite for three generations of Mexican children.

Believe me, the singing and clapping that took place while the Cuarteto Academico played the songs made me wish my twin grandchildren were sitting on either side. The biggest sing-along hits: El Raton Vaquero (The Cowboy Mouse) and La Marcha de las Letras (Alphabet March). 

“Doing What Makes Me Smile”

Together with Titi Rábago and Ivan Montes, Kate Burt  has formed a new singing group, Aoide, named for the muse of song. It will present Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols and early music at the Museo Iconografico December 15, 8pm. Some pieces are a cappella but Dulce Escudero/harp and Kate and Miguel Espinozo/harpsichord will be there when a piece requires accompaniment.

Several years ago, Kate used the internet to decide where to study Spanish. During her first weeks in Guanajuato, this effervescent woman began meeting people who share her passion for  theater and music. Now she has lived here for two years, bringing her experience with her.

Near New York City, Kate did everything from dressmaking to costume design, took student theater groups she directed to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, went into New York to sing with opera groups, and presented recitals of Edith Piaf’s songs.

A year ago, she repeated her Piaf concert at the Olga Costa. She and Silvana Santibañez assisted Alonso Echánova in his work with a cast of student actors. Now the two women have founded a Little Theater called El Quinto Elemento that has started rehearsing what Kate refers to as a sweet comedy, “Milagritos a la orden,” by  Norma Roman Calvo.

Kate says her teaching style owes much to her experience working under the director of the Amato Opera Company. “Because my students at the Music School are understandably afraid of auditions, that’s what we work on. Even a little trick like putting your thumb on the line you are singing can  help.”

The opera scores Kate brought with her occupy a specially built bookcase. Her eyes sparkle as she mentions an opera performances she thinks was done just right--Franco Zeffirrelli’s version of Carmen, set during the Spanish Civil War, with Carmen shown as a double agent.

“It worked,” says Kate, savoring the memory.