Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, From (2022/2022), Directed by Peter Beauvais, Conductor Mark Wigglesworth, Staatsoper, Hamburg, Germany

“Don‘t you know the horrible dark place, don’t you know the evil one lives there?” Hastily, their parents set out for the woods to save Hansel and Gretel from the witch Rosina Leckermaul. As they feared, the children have got lost in the woods and found the gingerbread house. They cannot resist the sweet temptation – and fall straight into the trap of the witch, who likes children so much she could eat them up… literally. As in most tales of the Brothers Grimm, in Engelbert Humperdinck’s setting of the fairytale all ends well: until that point, however, Humperdinck’s romantic music accompanies the children deep into the dark forest of legend. Here it invokes magical beings, calls on 14 angels to protect the siblings and allows the witch to ride her broomstick through the air. Today, Humperdinck’s classic, premiered in Weimar in 1893, is as much a part of Christmastime as gingerbread and tree decorations – and has invited young audiences and those young at heart all over the world into its fairytale world ever since.