Maurice Sendak's Hansel and Gretel production

In 1997, Maurice Sendak designed a new production of Hansel and Gretel for HGO. The author/illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are brought his signature blend of whimsy and weird to his designs, which leaned into the opera’s spookier side. Sendak’s concept art for the opera was recently compiled into a picture book of Hansel and Gretel, as retold by Stephen King. Read about the original HGO production, which Sendak called a “serious and honest” response to the “Disneyfication of America.”

“My main purpose in doing this opera … is that I’m overwhelmed by the abuse of children. Hansel and Gretel is a powerful analogy to modern-day child abandonment and cruelty, an opera about pertinent forms of neglect. To mount it in a cutesy German forest is to limit it. Why is the fairy tale so famous? Because it’s terrifying.”—Maurice Sendak

“The trick was to make the forest almost a living, breathing creature. At first, they’re in a tranquil forest. … When night falls, everything changes on stage. It’s transformed into a nightmarish, demented look. We want to see it the way Hansel and Gretel saw it.” —Maurice Sendak

“A bunch of angels floating down on stage is too saccharine. … Now the angels are wood nymphs, dryads, spiritual creatures from another world, which I think you could define angels as being. I like to think they’re children who suffered and died young and now live in the forest helping other abused, starving children.” —Maurice Sendak

The Houston Chronicle referred to the Witch’s house as “the star of Houston Grand Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel.” Assembled from fruit, pretzels, and gingerbread men, the little cottage had a pair of eyes that darted about during the show. Its bready roof could also move to make it appear that the house was breathing.