On a recent Tuesday morning, a group of elementary school kids gathered in a gymnasium for a theatrical interpretation of one of Grimms' Fairy Tales.
“Now I know many of you have heard the story of Hansel and Gretel. However, I bet you don't know this, even though I'm old enough to be your teacher, I remember it like it was yesterday,” Mauricio Perusquia, an actor with the Arizona Opera's musical education troupe, OperaTunity, said during a performance of "Hansel and Gretel."
When Perusquia told the kids that this version of the story might be a little different than what they were used to, he wasn't kidding. At first, when Perusquia started singing, the kids in the audience jerked their heads back. Opera is a lot to handle, no matter where you are, but in an echoey gym, it hits extra hard.
From their reaction, I got the sense that a lot of these kids were hearing the human voice do things they had never heard it do before. But once they got used to it, I watched them all start to lean forward, and before long, I could see them hanging on every word.
The first half of OperaTunity's version of "Hansel and Gretel" goes more or less like the Brothers Grimm version. Two children, the eponymous Hansel and Gretel, run away from home and get lost in the forest. They end up being lured into a cabin by a witch, who promises them cookies. Eventually, they realize that the witch is only feeding them sweets to fatten them up, so she can eat them.
Now, in the Grimm ending, Hansel and Gretel hatch a clever plan to turn the tables on the witch, and they stuff her into her own oven. But in OperaTunity's take on the story, the action freezes right before that happens. Instead of murdering the witch and fleeing, Hansel and Gretel sing a song that their parents taught them, and it turns out the witch has heard it before.
The witch explains that she only started luring lost children to her cabin because she wanted everyone else to suffer the same way she did. Hansel and Gretel ask if the witch ever considered asking for help. Maybe, they suggest, they could help her find her parents, and they take it one step further. The witch agrees, and she joins hands with Hansel and Gretel. At the end, grown up Hansel returns to the stage.
After the show, I spoke to a third-grader named June, who knew the story of Hansel and Gretel before seeing the show.
“I like that it was just like a happy ending,” June said.
One of June’s classmates, Louise, was standing next to her and he agreed.
“It was nice,” Louise said. “Yeah, but I know the other way, not the actual way.”
Now you heard that, right? Luis just called the ending of the OperaTunity version of "Hansel and Gretel" the “actual” ending. And that’s not because he doesn’t know what happens in the Grimm version.
“Ah, usually, so, what happens when I first saw it is when she dumped the witch in the oven,” Luis said.
But if you recall, in the OperaTunity show, right before that happened, Perusquia came out and told the audience, that’s not the real ending. And that what they’re about to see is the true, more magical ending. Luis, it would seem, took him at his word.
I talked to Perusquia after the show, too.
“You know, back when I was a kid, there was like, G.I. Joe and Cobra, or whatever. There was clear bad guys, and clear good guys. But, we don’t want people to think that, you know, somebody’s just gonna be their enemy forever if they can do something about that,” Perusquia said.
I also spoke to Cassie Hollerbach, the director of education for Arizona Opera. I told her I was really hung up on this whole thing about the ending.
"It’s like a very trauma-informed version of the ending to me. Hansel and Gretel don’t just figure out how to get away. They figure out how to call the witch in," I said.
Hollerbach agrees.
“Absolutely. They take that bully figure, and they figure out how do you bring her in? How do you turn what may be that negative or bullying quality into a way that you can help,” Hollerbach said.
Hollerbach pointed out that in the resource materials that OperaTunity shares with teachers to accompany the performance, they make it clear that the original ending is much darker. But there’s plenty of darkness in the real world. As adults, we’re reminded of that every day. For kids, there’s still a chance to believe in a version of reality where unlikely companions work together to help each other find the light.
And if that’s not a convincing idea on its own — well, that’s where Perusquia and his fellow cast members come in.
“The singing is attractive to the human brain. There’s something about it that if somebody’s doing it right, it makes you look,” Perusquia said.
