“Hansel and Gretel” is a staple of companies across the nation and consistently is the most-produced opera in America every year, Bado said. It offers not only an enjoyable evening for audiences, but roles the performers can be hired with as soon as they leave school.

Hansel and Gretel played by Angela Mortellaro and Kira Austin-Young

First performed more than 100 years ago, the opera tells the story of two children who become lost in the forest while gathering berries for their family to eat. They spend the night deep in the woods, where they fall prey to a wicked witch who bakes children into gingerbread. However, the children manage to outwit the hag, win their freedom and reunite with their parents.

While it’s a story about youngsters for youngsters, the task of performing it is not child’s play. “People think it’s a children’s opera,” Bado said.

“However, the singing is not childlike at all. It’s full operatic singing. So the challenge is to physically act and look like a child, but sing like an adult.” Exempt from this constraint is the person playing the old witch, which in this production is a tenor. But the person portraying “Hansel” gets a double challenge: The young boy is played by a grown woman, a common operatic casting twist called a “pants role.”

“So we have adults playing children, a man playing a woman and a woman playing a boy,” Bado said.

Debra Dickinson, artist teacher of opera studies, will direct the performances, taking on the challenge of providing a fresh approach to the well-known story.

“The opera is a very sweet children’s tale, often performed at Christmas,” Dickinson said. “But since our performances are near Halloween, we are taking a darker approach to it, more in line with the horrors of the original Grimms’ fairy tale.”

The costumes, designed and built by Freddy Reymundo, are in the tradition of Grand Guignol, the Theater of Horrors. “This concept makes the production both funny and scary and should be very entertaining to an audience accustomed to the quirky works of Tim Burton and Charles Addams,” Dickinson said.

The performances will be Oct. 26, 28, 30 and Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wortham Opera Theatre, Alice Pratt Brown Hall. General admission costs $10; tickets for students and senior citizens cost $8. For tickets or more information, call 713-348-8000.