When Houston Grand Opera’s production of “Hansel and Gretel” opened at the Wortham Theater Center, audiences heard 24 young voices joining the professional cast on stage. Among them is Shreya Puvvada, a 12-year-old from Garden Oaks who attends T.H. Rogers Middle School.
This is Puvvada’s third production with the opera company, having previously performed in “La Bohème” and “Il Trittico.” She said her first experience with HGO was so fun that she knew she wanted to come back.
“Being in an opera is definitely challenging because you have to balance so many things at once and it takes a lot of dedication,” Puvvada said. “But the experience is incredibly rewarding, and it has really helped me become a more independent person.”
The children’s chorus is led by Karen Reeves, a Shepherd Park Plaza resident who has been preparing young singers for Houston Grand Opera since 1991. Her work with the HGO Children’s Chorus on the Houston Symphony’s performance of Berg’s “Wozzeck” won the 2017 Grammy for Best Opera Performance. She was also the founding director of HGO’s Bauer Family High School Voice Studio.
Reeves auditions and rehearses the children for every production that calls for young performers, guiding them through the same professional expectations as the adult cast.
“I’ve told them, you have to be every bit as professional as the leads or the principals who are on stage,” Reeves said. “You are a part of Houston Grand Opera. They audition, we contract them, and they sing for us.”
The children even get paid for each performance, something Reeves said helps build ownership and commitment.
In this production of “Hansel and Gretel,” the young singers play children who have wandered into the forest and been captured by the witch. She has frozen them in time and begun turning them into gingerbread cookies. When the opera’s protagonists outsmart the witch, they awaken the frozen children, who then join the cast for the rousing finale.
The 24 chorus members range in age from 8 to 17, with an average age of around 11. They come from all over the Houston area, and Reeves said each production brings a mix of returning singers and newcomers.
“A certain amount of continuity is great,” Reeves said. But the pandemic disrupted that pipeline, and they had to rebuild the children’s chorus from the ground up.
The young performers face a unique challenge with this production: they’re singing in German for most performances, though they’ll switch to English for the family matinee and student performance. Reeves said it’s important that the children understand what they’re singing, not just how to pronounce it, since every moment on stage is choreographed and directed.
Puvvada said learning German was one of the trickier parts of the rehearsal process.
“Singing in German is challenging because there are so many consonants and it can be hard to get the language down,” she said. “But once you figure that out, it’s really fun to speak and sing.”
Rehearsals began in late November and have demanded serious commitment from the young singers and their families. Since the children are in school, rehearsals typically start at 5 or 5:30 in the evening, but as opening night approaches, they can run until 10 or 10:30 at night.
Puvvada said she’s learned to manage her time, sometimes bringing homework to the opera house or finishing it early. “The opportunity motivates me to balance my workload and just power through,” she said.
Reeves, who sang with the HGO Chorus for 13 seasons before shifting her focus to working with children, said one of the most rewarding parts of her job is watching the young performers experience the production coming together, first hearing the full orchestra, then singing alongside professional opera singers.
“It’s always something new for them, and it’s so fun to watch them take all of that in and how they fit into that,” she said.
For Puvvada, that bond has been the highlight.
“The most fun part about HGO is getting to be included in a big family of people who share the same emotions on stage as I do,” she said. “Experiencing that connection with everyone is incredible.”
She plans to keep performing, though her long-term goal is to become a neuroscientist. Puvvada is particularly interested in understanding how music impacts the brain.
This production of “Hansel and Gretel” originated at Covent Garden in London before traveling to San Francisco Opera and now Houston.
While the sets, costumes, and design team travel with the show, the singers, chorus, orchestra, and conductor are all local to each city. Performances run through Feb. 16 at the Wortham Theater Center. For tickets and showtimes, visit houstongrandopera.org.