Hansel & Gretel Rehearsal Video

Last night was Kentucky Opera's final dress rehearsal for Hansel & Gretel. We had a great crowd of appreciative students and the reactions of the audience really increased the energy of the show.

My guy Matt from Videobred was quite efficient with his videography. Here is the footage we captured and sent to the TV staions.



Anya Matanovic as Gretel
Leah Wool as Hansel
Victoria Livengood as the Witch
Andrea Graves as the Familiar
Kentucky Opera children's chorus

Tickets for Hansel & Gretel are still available by calling 502.584.7777 or by visiting KYopera.org. We are still doing the buy one adult ticket get one child ticket free!

A Delicious Opportunity!

From the Guild of Kentucky Opera:

The witch's house on stage.

Hansel and Gretel is fun. It's got cute kids, a sandman, a dew fairy and the mean ole witch who lives in a gingerbread house dripping with candy to entice her victims! The Guild of Kentucky Opera is always looking for new ideas to raise funds and found this opera wrought with possibilities!

Since Hansel and Gretel takes the stage at the Brown Theatre the weekend before Thanksgiving and the advent of the holiday season, Kitty Shaw, the Guild Treasurer, had the wonderful idea of finding a local baker to make us a gingerbread house. The original thought was a charming, standard gingerbread house. Then, when the challenge was brought to the talents of Helen Friedman, the owner of the exceptionally decadent Desserts by Helen offered to make a house based on actual witch's house that will be in the production. This was an opportunity NOT to pass up. So the Guild brought the master baker photographs of the set, and off she and her talented staff went. In a little over two weeks, Desserts by Helen crafted a tabletop version of the witch's house adding snow covered trees, gingerbread men, and a snow covered base. Although all of the elements are completely edible, we doubt you will want to consume this piece of gingerbread art!

The gingerbread house crafted by Deserts by Helen.

The Guild of Kentucky Opera is raffling tickets for the house at $10 apiece. The drawing will be on December 8 at the Guild's holiday party. Tickets are available at both performances (11/20 & 11/22) of Hansel and Gretel AND the final dress rehearsal for students tomorrow (Wednesday 11/18). You can also contact Tracy Terry at 561-7935 or tracy_terry@kyopera.org.

For more information on Hansel and Gretel go to the website! KYOpera.org.

Posted for The Guild of Kentucky Opera

See Heather Fly!

Heather Phillips is in her second year of the Kentucky Opera Studio Artists program. Last season she participated in the mainstage productions, education programs and the Composer Workshop with Jake Heggie. This season, not only did she get to workshop Ben Moore's Enemies a Love Story, have a master class with Carlisle Floyd, and sing along side the likes of Elizabeth Futral... she also gets to fly.

On one of the coldest days Louisville has seen this year, Heather Phillips got a flying lesson in the dojo of ZFX Flying to prepare for her role as the Dew Fairy in Kentucky Opera's upcoming production of Hansel and Gretel. The ZFX Dojo is a warehouse with tall ceilings, a padded floor and no heat. I was able to capture a bit of her flying lesson on video but because it was so cold, some of the footage is a bit shaky (lets use that as an excuse). The kilt wearing flying director, Jason Schumacher, guided Heather through a pretty tough workout and we all soon realized that it's not as easy as Peter Pan makes it look.

In the video, she is learning flips and a superman style of flying. She won't have to do this sort of acrobatics for Hansel and Gretel, but it really shows her how to move and work in the harness.

You can see Heather fly on Friday, November 20 at 8pm and Sunday, November 22 at 2pm at the Brown Theatre. You can buy your tickets here or by calling 502.584.4777.

Are you ready for Hansel & Gretel?

Hansel & Gretel is next week!!
If you haven't boned up on Humperdink, here are a few ways to get more out of your operatic experience.

Watch METRO TV:
Kentucky Opera's Lunch & Listen will be aired on Insight chanel 25
Wednesday, 11/11 at 2pm
Thursday, 11/12 at 9:30am
and Sunday 11/15 at 9pm

You can listen to the podcast at WUOL.org

Here is a portion of the Lunch & Listen where our conductor, Steven White talks about the music, the conductor and the Brown Theatre.