Opera Performances Are a Hit in Downtown Public Schools

Tory Weil (Hansel) and Susan Hol­son­bake (Gretel) perform on the P.S. 234 stage with a string quartet from the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, led by Gary Fagin. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

This spring, Downtown public school students have been treated to something they’re not likely to see on their own: opera.

Four opera singers and a string quartet from the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, led by Gary Fagin, have been touring the schools with a 35-minute version of Englebert Hump­erdinck’s “Hans­el and Gretel,” shown here in a performance last month at P.S. 234. It’s part of the orchestra’s Youth Outreach Program funded by Goldman Sachs.

“The best way for kids to see opera is to bring it to them,” Fagin said, “rather than make them go to a big opera house.”