(upbeat music) - Experience a magical new opera from the University of Utah School of Music, inspired by a classic Grimm tale and performed by students and collaborator.

James Bobick, director of the opera will tell us more.

Hi, James.

- [James] Hi.

- Thanks for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- Okay, This is such a great family production.

You've got coming up, "Hansel and Gretel."

- It's perfect.

It is the wonderful opera for the entire family.

So you get the tunes that you can hum when you leave, but you get all the rich lush orchestrations like Wagner had, and it's short.

- [Mary] And it's short, perfect for families.

- Exactly, bring the whole family, bring even the small children, they'll love it.

- Yeah, and I love that you're doing a a special thing.

So every child who comes with a ticketed adult gets in free.

- Absolutely, we want them to experience this kind of art because Humperdinck took the Grimm fairy tale and kind of removed the dark qualities of it, so it's only about the children and their courage and how they overcome adversity.

- So it's all about kids resilience.

- Yes.

- Which I mean, who can't love that - And family love.

It's between a brother and sister who love each other and their parents and there's a happy ending.

(laughs) - Oh, see we all, we need those.

(laughs) And I love how you're bringing in so much of the School of Music.

I mean, tell us, you've got dance students.

- Right.

- You've got, yeah.

- Students from the School of Dance, eight ballerinas in the School of Dance who will do the big ballet when the angels come down.

We have a children's choir from Lehi who will sing the gingerbread children who come and become alive again.

We have the Utah Philharmonia, which are all student players under the direction of Dr.

Robert Baldwin, and the entire cast are all students of the School of Music.

- Which is so great.

It's such a great way to showcase some great opportunity.

And they're in Kingsbury Hall.

- Yes, they are.

It's a beautiful place, and I think the sets and what we have set, I think everybody will be very excited to see this fairytale come to life.

- Wonderful, well, thank you so much for coming and congrats on doing this, thanks.

- Thank you very much for having me.

- And if you would like to know more about the University of Utah School of Music, "Hansel and Gretel," February 27th and 28th, 7:30 at Kingsbury Hall.

Remember, children are free with ticketed adults.

Go to music.utah.edu/events, music.utah.edu/events.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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