BIOGRAPHIES

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Hansel - Sara Henry 

Versatile mezzo-soprano Sara Henry has charmed audiences around the world, singing leading and supporting roles in more than 50 different operas. She has previously appeared with Prelude Opera in The Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, The Magic Flute, and Operapalooza. Highlights of her career have included the roles of Semiramide (Semiramide), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Carmen (Carmen) Diana (La Calisto), Adalgisa (Norma), and Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), as well as a host of Handelian heroes, including the title roles in Xerxes, Ariodante, and Giulio Cesare. In addition to singing, she is known for writing and producing witty English language adaptations of classic operatic repertoire. 

 

Gretel - Joanie Brittingham

Joanie Brittingham is a soprano, actor and writer. Praised for “dramatic versatility” (Opera News), “meltingly beautiful” interpretations (Forbes), “lovely soprano” and “lucid diction” (New York Times), “captivating stage presence” (New York Classical Review), and “full-bodied voice” (Tulsa World), all while demonstrating “strength and resistance” (Opera Wire) throughout “outstanding solo work” (New York Concert Review), Brittingham has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Symphony Space and with Riverside Theatre, the New Ohio Theatre, Fresh Squeezed Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, Chelsea Opera, the New Works Festival with OPERA America, American Lyric Theatre, and VHRP Live, among others. Brittingham is the author of Practicing for Singers and has contributed to many classical music textbooks. Brittingham’s writing has been described as “breathless comedy” and having “real wit” (New York Classical Review). Their writing has been included in Black Cat Tales and Eternal Haunted Summer. Brittingham is the librettist for the opera Serial Killers and the City, which premiered with Experiments in Opera, and will be a part of New Wave Opera's Night of the Living Opera. 

 

Mother - Alana Trimmier

Alana Trimmier is a full lyric soprano and was classically trained at Florida State University’s School of Music and has lived in Manhattan for over 15 years. Most recently, Alana has performed the roles of Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera) and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) with New York Opera Forum and self-produced her solo recital of the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss at the National Opera Center. Ms. Trimmier studies voice with Carmen Elisa Cancél and is incredibly excited to perform in this production with Prelude Opera. 

 

Father - Brian Alvarado

Brian J. Alvarado’s ‘liquid baritone of great charm,’ ‘precise patter elocution,’ and ‘highly attractive legato’ (Parterre Box) has featured recently as Siméon in L’Enfant Prodigue (Sotto Voce), Peter in Hansel and Gretel and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Bronx Opera), Falke in La Chauve-Souris and The Four Note Opera's Baritone (Festival d’art vocal de Montréal), Silvio in Pagliacci (New Rochelle Opera), Angelotti in Tosca (Opera Vermont), and Eugene Johnson in Blind Injustice (Opera Theatre of the Rockies). Other roles include Leporello in Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute's Papageno and Sprecher, Schaunard in La bohéme, Dandini in La Cenerentola, and the title roles in The Sorcerer, Venus and Adonis, and Sweeney Todd. The Bronx native’s solo concert work includes Handel's Messiah, Bach’s BWV 147, Keiser's Markuspassion, Haydn’s Nicolaimesse and Nelsonmesse, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Pastoralmesse, Spatzenmesse, and Kleine Credomesse, Schubert's Mass in G, and Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass.

 

Sandman/Dew Fairy - Halley Gilbert

Of Ms. Gilbert’s Zerbinetta in Utopia Opera’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos, James Jorden of the New York Observer wrote: “Stealing the show was Halley Gilbert as Zerbinetta, flinging out crystalline trills, arpeggios, staccati and roulades…Ms. Gilbert’s frankness...made the text sound like it could have been written yesterday.” She has performed multiple leading roles including Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Cunegonde (Candide), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Violetta (La Traviata), Nanetta (Falstaff), Ännchen (Der Freischütz) and Birdie (Regina). Other roles include Ms. Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflӧte), Chlorinda (Cenerentola) and Frasquita (Carmen). Ms. Gilbert has been a featured soloist with the Great Music in a Great Space Concert Series, Musica Sacra, Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and Bronx Arts Ensemble among others. She recieved first prize in both Opera Idol NYC and the Jenny Lind Competition for Sopranos and was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

 

Witch - Erica Koehring

As noted by Broadwayworld.com of her Amneris in Regina Opera's Aida: Erica has a "velvety mezzo" and "the demanding role held no terrors for her." While ravishing the lush complexity of Verdi, Erica equally enjoys the lighter yet complex humor of Gilbert & Sullivan and is also an accomplished professional choral artist in the tri-state NY area. Erica has made notable appearances as the title role of Bizet's Carmen, Marcellina in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and both Alma & Cecilia March in Adamo's Little Women. Accompanying these experiences, she has also enjoyed portraying 3rd Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites. After making her way to New York City, Erica grounded herself in the rich choral scene while establishing her solo career with such roles as Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore with New Rochelle Opera, Amneris in Verdi's Aida with Regina Opera, and her Gilbert & Sullivan debut as Katisha in The Mikado with Bronx Opera. Equally at home in the concert setting, Erica is a professional concert soloist, reveling in the classic alto solos of Mozart's Requiem, Vivaldi's Gloria, Verdi's Requiem, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, and Handel's Messiah. 

 

Pianist/Music Director/Producer

 

Christine Pulliam Melamed founded Prelude Opera in 2017 with the production of Three Little Pigs. As an opera pianist she has worked for Bronx Opera, the Atlantic Music Festival, Masterworks Festival, Opera Company of Brooklyn and Dramma per Musica.  A piano instructor since 1994, she was previously on the piano faculty of the Levine School of Music in Washington D.C. and also taught piano and music history at The King’s College.  Past solo and chamber performances include the Opus Nine Ensemble, The Washington Sinfonietta, University of Wisconsin, and Malacañang Palace in the Philippines. A fan of new music, she has premiered piano works by Frank Felice and Benjamin C. S. Boyle and an operetta by Joshua Bornfield. A native of Indianapolis, Ms. Melamed graduated from Butler University summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and minor in journalism. She received a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music in collaborative piano from The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

 

Leadlights Ensemble

Violins - Julie Lawrence, Evelyn Brandes, Viola - Artie Dibble, Cello - Michael Cantù

 

Based in Washington Heights, Leadlights Ensemble connects people through music and brings joy and vitality to communities through high quality musical programming in all kinds of spaces, from the concert hall to the sidewalk. Founded in 2018, Leadlights designs interactive and accessible programs to appeal to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, in order to elevate the voices of local community members, students, and composers.Highlights of Leadlights’s current season include a New York Composers Family Concert featuring the pieces of eight NYC student composers, collaborative concerts featuring Leadlights and other local ensembles at both the Y of Washington Heights and Inwood and the United Palace of Cultural Arts, and a third year of “Rising in the Heights,” a festival of free monthly outdoor public arts performances in partnership with Word Up Community Bookshop that celebrates the rich artistic contributions of Latinx and Black cultures and promotes children’s literacy through music and storytelling. Over the past few years Leadlights has performed everywhere from Fort Tryon Park and the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital to Chelsea Music Festival and Lincoln Center.

 

Stage Director - Benjamin Spierman

 

Benjamin Spierman’s direction of Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera San José was hailed by Opera Today as “…riveting stuff, and almost faultless in its dramatic shape and emotional impact.” Ben is General Director at Bronx Opera, where he directed NYC première productions of Kirke Mechem’s The Rivals, Vaughan Williams’ The Poisoned Kiss, and the Weber/Mahler posthumous collaboration Die drei Pintos. Regional engagements include Madama Butterfly at Indianapolis Opera; Turandot at Dayton Opera; Norma for St. Petersburg Opera; The Magic Flute for Opera Idaho; and La bohème with Syracuse Opera. Other work in and around NYC includes Falstaff and Cendrillon for Rutgers (both winners of National Opera Association prizes) and a blackbox production of Ariadne auf Naxos for NYC’s dell’Arte Opera Ensemble (winner of the American Prize) and Eugene Onegin for Utopia Opera and Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love for Bronx Opera. Mr. Spierman is a native and resident of The Bronx with his wife and frequent artistic collaborator, soprano Hannah Spierman.

 

Set Designer - April Bartlett

 

April M. Bartlett is an Emmy award winning visual artist specializing in storytelling and is inspired by the limitless potential of an undefined space. She is the program head for the Design and Production Department at Sands College of Performing Arts at Pace University. April is a production designer, scenic designer, educator, coordinator, and maker. 

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Costume Designer - Alana Roecker Katt​
 

Alana Roecker Katt is a costume designer and artist based in West Bronx where she lives with her husband and daughter. Some of her favorite credits as an assistant costume designer include Boop! The Musical (Broadway, Broadhurst Theatre), New York, New York (St James Theatre, Broadway), Zero Day (miniseries, Netflix), and Maestro (feature film, Netflix). Most recently Alana designed a short film, Sapling, which premiered at the 2025 Inwood Film Festival. 

 

Production Team:

Props Manager - Olivia Ronald

Technical Director - Michael Shortino

Assistant Stage Manager - Winnie Scott

Tech Crew - Ella Dugdale, Charlie Lopez, Johanna Omesuh, Asaph Strickman, Keziah Noble

Cookie Designer - Mabelyn Henry

MC - Sarah Ziegler

Ushers - Harry Bleattler, Matthew Kaal, Julie Koontz, Rachel Koontz, Emily Koontz

Photography - Grace Copeland

Videography - Jonathan Rothermel/Cursive Films

Website and Marketing Design - Heather LeFebvre

Promo videos - Joanie Brittingham

Artwork - Francis Hsueh

Translation - Nic Muni

 

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)

 

Engelbert Humperdinck was born in Siegburg, in the German Rhineland in 1854. He traveled to study in Italy, where he met the renowned German composer Wagner. In 1882, Humperdinck assisted with Wagner’s musical drama production Parsifal. According to Newman, the machinery for the “transformation scene” was moving so slowly that the music finished before the transformation was complete. Wagner flew into a rage and declared he would have nothing more to do with it. Humperdinck stepped in to save the day by writing some extra bars of music so that the music played long enough for the machinery. 

 

Humperdinck began writing Hansel and Gretel first as music for a puppet show for his sister Adelheid Wette. It premiered as an opera in Weimar, Germany in 1893, conducted by Richard Strauss. The original German libretto was written by his sister. Prelude Opera is using a translation created by Nic Muni. 

 

Hansel and Gretel is a beautiful representation of German counterpoint, an art of combining melodies that goes back to the Baroque era. Humperdinck uses folk tunes, dances, and motifs that represent parts of the story, such as the broomstick or morning, and the prayer theme, which resembles a German chorale. 

 

The opera was immediately popular and was soon performed all over Germany, and then in London in 1895. Lang says, “With Engelbert Humperdinck the colossal Wagnerian myth was toned down to fairy tale.” 

 

Along with several other operas, Humperdink wrote another fairy tale opera, Die Kӧnigskinder, which was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910. This opera is notable for being the first known use of what became called “Sprechstimme,” or sung speech, most famously used in Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.  Eventually the opera was revised for traditional operatic singing. 

 

Humperdinck died in 1921 of a heart attack. According to Newman, he was an amiable man, of whom it is recorded that he “left no enemies.”