On May 16, we’re transforming the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts into a glass palace with delicious eats and interactive art installations — and since this year’s Operanation party is inspired by fairytales, we couldn’t pass up the chance to combine the two and build a candy house with a façade that you can actually eat.

Inspired by the witch’s tempting home in Hansel & Gretel, the house will be adorned with marshmallows that partygoers can snack on.

We’ve produced Hansel & Gretel before as a touring school production; we still have the drawings for that show in our archives, which we used as inspiration for this edible version.

Design inspirations from our past school tour production of Hansel & Gretel

The COC’s props department gets all kinds of strange and unusual requests, but this may be one of the oddest (and certainly the most delicious). And it’s taken some careful planning to make sure it will be edible, transportable, and Instagrammable.

The house is being built at our Front Street East location, which means it will have to make the trip over to the opera house for the party. Luckily, our props team is used to making eye-popping-yet-durable items since our production materials often travel the world to be used by other opera houses. To make sure the candy house can make the trip over to Queen and University, it’s been built in two halves with a connecting hinge (although you won’t be able to see it behind all the fluffy marshmallows).

   We knew the façade would need to be made of exceptional marshmallows that taste delicious while also looking the part. For this special project, Miranda Odorico, the owner of The Sweet Retreat, has created marshmallows with a textured design to make them look like little bricks.


We’ll need a lot of them for all our partygoers — Miranda will be using four pounds of gelatin to make 800 marshmallows, which will clock in at a total weight of almost 100 pounds! 

Our candy house is just one of the delightful fairytale-themed experiences we have planned for the night. Make sure to grab your ticket and get ready to help us eat all those marshmallows!


Operanation is much more than just a party — all proceeds from the evening will go towards the COC’s Ensemble Studio, Canada’s premier training program that ensures up-and-coming opera stars get the support they need to reach new heights in the global opera industry.

Design credit for Hansel & Gretel: Brent Krysa 

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