Gretel: Danielle Talamantes
Hansel: Katherine Pracht
Gertrude: Kyle Engler
Peter: William Andrew Stuckey
Sandman: Tara Bouknight
Dew Fairy: Nora Moore
The Witch: Madeleine Gray
Artistic Director: Craig Fields
Conductor: Francesco Milioto
Choreographer: Dominique Angel
About the Composer
Humperdinck's Opera and Grimm’s Fairy Tale
Seating Chart
My First Opera: Fun with Hansel and Gretel (.pdf)
HUMPERDINCK'S OPERA AND GRIMM'S FAIRY TALE
When Engelbert Humperdinck's sister decided to adapt the Grimm’s story of Hansel and Gretel as a play for her children, she made several changes in the story to make it less off-putting for her children. In the original version of the story, the stepmother (not mother) is responsible for convincing the father to abandon the children in the woods. Her rationale is that they will all starve if they don't get rid of the children. Although he is reluctant, the father agrees and they make three attempts to "lose" the children in the woods. The children cleverly manage to return home thanks to Hansel using a trail of pebbles as a means to find their way back home. Unfortunately, the stepmother finally locks the door and Hansel cannot access the pebbles. He then tries to use bread, which is eaten by the forest birds. When the children happen upon the witch, it is Gretel who manages to push the witch into her own oven, thereby saving Hansel. They gather the witch's treasure and return home to find that their stepmother has died and their father is overjoyed to see them.
In Adelheide Wette's operatic version, the stepmother is now the children's biological mother. Hansel and Gretel have been avoiding their chores. When their mother returns from working, she is angry that they've been up to no good. She accidentally spills their pitcher of milk (containing their only food for the day) and loses her temper. She sends the children out to pick strawberries for dinner. When their father returns from selling his brooms (a most successful day that gives him money to buy food), he asks where the children are. The wife tells him they're in the woods and he tells her of "the witch of the wood" who rides on a broomstick and eats children. They both rush into the woods to try to save their children. There is more magic in this version, with the children meeting the Sand Man and the Dew Fairy as well as the witch’s magical spell. As in the Grimm version, Gretel pushes the witch into the oven and rescues Hansel, however, the mother and father both appear at the finale to give thanks to God for their children’s safe-keeping. The opera also ends with the Witch’s ‘gingerbread children’ (her previous victims) being restored back to life upon her death.
