CAST

PRODUCTION TEAM

Opera Orlando goes back On the Town and concludes its 2023-24 All for Art season with a dark retelling of Grimm’s The Juniper Tree, a contemporary chamber opera by composers Philip Glass and Robert Moran to a libretto by Arthur Yorinks. This tale about a jealous and scheming stepmother who murders her stepson and serves him up in a stew to his unsuspecting father, only to then meet her own dramatic end, is a haunting and hypnotic opera with some of Glass’ most tuneful melodies.

In partnership with Victorian spook troupe Phantasmagoria and Orlando Family Stage, local stage director John DiDonna has conceived a feast for the senses with dance, puppetry, spectacle, and of course, gorgeous singing. International conductor Geoffrey Loff will make his Company debut leading a fantastic cast featuring Opera Orlando 2023-24 season Studio Artists and the Opera Orlando Youth Company. 

A husband and wife desperately desire a child. One winter, under the juniper tree outside their house, the wife wishes for a child. Her wish is granted, and she gives birth to a baby boy, but dies in childbirth. The husband buries her beneath the juniper tree, and raises the boy, but eventually marries again. He and his new wife have a daughter, and the new wife loves her daughter but despises and is jealous of her stepson. Consumed with greed, she hatches a plan to lure her stepson into an empty room containing a chest of apples. When the boy enters the room and reaches down the chest for an apple, the stepmother slams the lid onto his neck, decapitating him. She then binds his head to his neck and props his body onto a chair outside, with an apple on his lap. The daughter comes home, and she asks her stepbrother for an apple. Hearing no response, she boxes him in the ear, causing his head to roll onto the ground. Convincing her daughter that she killed her step brother, the stepmother then dismembers the boy’s body and cooks him in a stew which she feeds to her husband. Distraught, the daughter gathers the bones from the dinner and buries them beneath the juniper tree.

A beautiful bird emerges from the juniper tree. The bird visits the local townspeople and sings about its brutal murder at the hands of its stepmother. Captivated by its lullaby, a goldsmith, a cobbler, and a miller offer the bird a gold chain, a pair of shoes and a millstone. The bird returns home to give the gold chain to the husband, the shoes to the daughter, and drops the millstone on the stepmother. The bird is reborn as the son, who reunites with his family, and lives happily ever after.