Colleen Lauve as Gretel and Sarah Klopfenstein as Hansel during the dream sequence from UK Opera Theatre’s production of Hansel and Gretel. Photo by Tim Collins | University of Kentucky.

Every University of Kentucky Opera production has
two casts. The main reasons are the UK voice program wants to give stage experience to as many students as possible,
and the opera company schedules its performances on back-to-back nights.
Performing many operatic roles two consecutive nights would be a voice killer,
somewhat akin to asking the UK
football team to play two games on consecutive days. The voice of an opera
singer, like the body of a football player, needs time to recover. So you’ll
notice most professional opera companies such as Louisville’s
Kentucky Opera schedule their performances on a Friday and Sunday, or some
other lineup with at least a day between shows.

So, since UK Opera doubles up, a lot of opera goers end up
seeing a different cast from many of their friends, and only one of the casts
gets reviewed for the paper. We think UK Opera is worth reviewing because of
the generally high quality of its productions and its status, without a pro
opera troupe here, as Lexington’s de
facto opera company. With adult tickets going for more than $30, they’re also charging real money to get in, which obligates the company to perform at a certain standard. But, with limited resources of time and space, plus a
desire to get you a timely review, we usually only review the opening night cast. (And  when you’re talking about one of these gut-wrenching Puccini or Verdi operas, you can only take it once a season or so.)

Sometimes I do see both casts though, and it’s always interesting
to see how different performers interpret the same roles and music. Such was
the case this weekend when after having reviewed the “Hansel” cast of Hansel and Gretel the previous weekend I
ended up in the Lexington Opera House Saturday night seeing the “Gretel” cast.
This happened through a combination of my daughter receiving a free ticket to
the show through her school and my lovely bride being cool to the idea of
venturing out to drive on ice and in sub-freezing temperatures.

The affirming thing was the other cast did not alter my
overall upbeat assessment of the show. But stage director Sally Stunkel did
allow the actors latitude to do their own interpretations of the characters,
which gave us different views of the show. The biggest alteration came in the
role of the Witch. In the Hansel cast, Mark Kano played up the clownishness of
his dude-looks-like-a-lady assignment to steal the show. Gretel cast Witch
Natalie Krupansky had more of a psycho take. There was never a hint of safety in
her wild-eyed performance.

As the title siblings, Sarah Klopfenstein and Colleen Lauve
of the Gretel cast seemed like a slightly more sophisticated, older take on the
kids than the Hansel cast’s Brandy Lynn Hawkins and Amanda
Balltrip. But the primary difference there was in voice:
Hawkins and Balltrip are simply two of the strongest voices at UK,
and hearing them unite provided some thrills. Speaking of vocal thrills, Eric
Brown sang the role of the Father in the Gretel cast.

Was either cast appreciably better? That’s somewhat in the
eye of the beholder.

But the third reason UK double casts is it can. The voice department is fully capable of fielding two
casts for the same show, and the winners are local opera fans, particularly
ones looking to get two-for-one on each show.

See a photo album from Hansel and Gretel.