Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, From (2021/2021), Directed by Denis Mignien, Conductor Thibaut Maudry, Grand Théâtre Massenet, Saint-Etienne, France

The Opera stage turns into a gingerbread house. In co-production with the Roanne Table Ouverte Festival, Vichy Culture and the Opéra de Saint-Étienne, the Roanne company Les Variétés Lyriques offers Hänsel und Gretel, an opera by Humperdinck to a libretto by Wette, taken from the famous tale of the Brothers Grimm.It was Richard Strauss who conducted the orchestra for the premiere of this opera in 1893, in Weimar, before passing the baton to Gustav Mahler for the performed in Hamburg the following year, where the work is sung in German, in a shortened version for young audiences. But the narration is provided in French by the famous actor François Rollin. The director Denis Mignien and the artistic director Guillaume Paire explore in this work the many symbols, carried by an almost cinematographic music and by an imagination nourished by social misery and deep fears, which constitute the roots of fairy tales. The house serves as a base for the scenography. Structuring the space, it evolves over the paintings: family home, deserted house, palace of sugar and cruel sweetness. And finally, the place of rediscovered happiness.