Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra Presents Storytellers

Hansel and Gretel is an opera based on the famous story by the Brothers Grimm, but to make it more suitable fare, Humperdinck and his sister Adelheid Wette adapted a crucial part of the story, and has Hansel and Gretel's mother send them out for strawberries - a bit of a departure, if one knows the original! This music has unforgettably beautiful melodies and harmonies, beginning with the sublime chorale in the horn section.

Symphonie fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste ... en cinq parties (Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist ... in Five Sections) is highly innovative, programmatic music. To realize it was created only three years after the death of Beethoven is revelatory. Berlioz was far ahead of his time and his influence can be heard today in film scores of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is also credited with the first musical use of a recurring theme called the idée fixe. This is closely related with the concept of leitmotif, which is a recurring musical phrase used to represent a specific character, idea, or event, particularly in the operas of Richard Wagner - and in film scores such as Star Wars. The symphony has long been a favorite with audiences, worldwide.