Hans och Greta by Humperdinck, Från (2021/2022), Regisserad av Steffen Piontek, Dirigent Diego Martin-Etxebarria, Ewa Strusińska, Opernhaus Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Tyskland

Steffen Piontek's staging of the fairytale opera Hansel and Gretel has been part of the Christmas program of many Chemnitz families since 1991. One trembles again and again with Hansel and Gretel when, on their return from the hard day's work, instead of an empty pot instead of dinner, and instead of the work done, two children dancing. One hopes with them that they will find their way out of the creepy forest with will-o'-the-wisps and twinkle-eye owls and are happy about the angel pyramid that guards the sleep of the children, about the smelling gingerbread house and about the burned witch's bottom. The composer Engelbert Humperdinck lived from 1854 to 1921. He studied in Cologne and Munich and then worked, among other things, as Richard Wagner's assistant in Bayreuth. He has composed instrumental music, pieces for vocal and of course operas. The best known today is Hansel and Gretel . The text for this comes from Humperdinck's sister Adelheid Wette. She regularly wrote little fairy tale games based on the motifs of famous storytellers for family performances. Their version of Hansel and Gretel based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm inspired Engelbert Humperdinck to turn it into a real opera. He used some well-known folk songs like Suse, liebe Suse and A Little Man Standing in the Woods , but also wrote music himself that is now in every children's song book, like Little Brother, Come, Dance with Me . Hansel and Gretel was performed for the first time in Weimar in 1893. The musical direction was none other than Richard Strauss.