New Director Adds Storybook Touches To UW's `Hansel And Gretel' Opera

Hansel and Gretel are going out into the scary forest again, and it is Claudia Zahn who is sending them.

A gleeful Claudia Zahn.

The new opera stage director at the University of Washington School of Music, Zahn is putting on stage a new "Hansel and Gretel" this week that is a little more grim - and more Grimm - than usual.

The opera, composed by Engelbert Humperdinck - the real Humperdinck, not the contemporary crooner - has more of a 19th-century romantic, storybook quality, Zahn explains. She's going back to the story's roots, immortalized in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, for the feeling of this production.

"I'm encouraging our two Hansels and Gretels (the show is double cast to give more student singers a turn in the limelight) to introduce a dose of reality. One great advantage of working with the young singers is that it's not so long since they were kids themselves. I want them to be a bit ornery, to show a little sibling rivalry, and not to work to be likable all the time. The opera is terminally cute, anyway, so they don't have to worry about reaching the audience."

Zahn, who arrived here from New York in September, found herself almost immediately in the middle of long rehearsals for an opera that is opening only a month and a half after the start of school. She hit the Red Square bricks running, and though she has been scrambling to learn her way around an enormous new school (and a new city), Zahn says she's enjoying the process.

Funny, intense, theatrical and sometimes a little self-deprecating, Zahn is the kind of opera director whose answering-machine greeting tells the caller, "I don't know where I am." The words "New Yorker" are written all over her, from her casual-chic clothing style to her careful caffeine consumption (anything excessive might send her into overdrive). She is still bemused by the "double-tall skinny dry cappuccino" lingo at the school's espresso counters, and by the idea of getting into a car every day - definitely a novelty for someone accustomed to walking or taking a cab.

But she knows her stuff. Zahn, who trained in acting at Carnegie-Mellon University, followed her diploma there with more studies in theater, music and arts management at Brandeis and at New York University. She has studied Italian and French as well as piano, choreography, mime, period movement and style. Over the past several years she has worked at San Francisco Opera for a season ("the earthquake year, 1989"), at the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera and numerous companies around the country. Most recently, she staged Handel's "Deidemia" for the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York.

"Opera is the most wild and theatrical medium of all, but so often the staging can seem terribly old-fashioned. I approach opera the way I approach a musical theater piece," explains Zahn.

"I won't stand for `opera acting.' It's important to head off bad habits before they form, and to teach students how to make their own discoveries in rehearsals. There is more to staging than just blocking. Fortunately, these students are very quick to learn, and I think everyone's also having a good time."

Zahn has already been discussing with conductor Peter Eros and other faculty the possibilities for future productions, with ideas on the table for an already-scheduled "Street Scene" (Kurt Weill), as well as such possibilities as Russian and Slavic operas, Mozart and Massenet.

"We also have to consider the talent available - I have a lot of very fine mezzo-sopranos, for instance."

So what are we going to see at Meany Theater, when the "Hansel and Gretel" production unfolds?

"Our show starts out in an urban tenement, in a basement with a teeny window," says Zahn, illustrating with her hands.

"The look is that of sepia-toned photos, from the turn of the century, when this opera was written. Then, when Hansel and Gretel go off into the forest, they encounter huge trees and open spaces; this represents their journey from dependence to adulthood, so Hansel and Gretel feel small and scared at the same time that they see new possibilities in life."

The Witch's house is a candy factory, with smokestacks and conveyor belts moving the candy along.

"The Witch pops right out of the roof! She is a mad baker," says Zahn, "waving cooking tools instead of a wand. And the angels and gingerbread children are real kids, adorable kids about 6 to 13 from several different area schools."

Fun as it might be to wave the Witch's wands, however, Zahn is not tempted to head back to the stage.

"I'd really rather direct," she says; "isn't that the cliche? There even are T-shirts with that slogan! But in my case, it's true. That's what I love."

----------------- Opera information -----------------

UW Opera presents Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel," 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 2 p.m. Nov. 15, at Meany Theater. Directed by Claudia Zahn, with Peter Eros conducting. Double cast features Sarah Mattox and Jenny Knapp as Hansel, Kim Hillock and April Fissel as Gretel, with Jennifer Trimboli as the Witch. Tickets are $8 and $14, at 206-543-4880.