Hänsel und Gretel

A fairy tale of a brother and sister falling into the hands of a witch in a magical production featuring clowns, acrobats and puppets. Matěj Forman’s poetic adaptation of the feted opera by the German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, based on the Grimm brothers’ popular fairy tale. 

Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel is one of the most frequently performed operas in Germany. Inspired by the Grimm brothers’ popular fairy tale, the libretto was written by the composer’s sister Adelheid Wette, who modified the rather macabre story, adding the characters of the Sandman and the Dew Fairy, as well as the instrumental dream pantomime scene in the forest, and concluding it with the resurrection of the witch’s victims and the happy reunion between the children and their parents. With the music written in the grand Wagnerian romantic style, Humperdinck’s opera also contains folk rhythms, songs for children and old melodies. The world premiere, in Weimar on 23 December 1893, was conducted by Richard Strauss, totally enraptured by the piece. Enraptured too was the audience, and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel has ever since remained extremely popular in Germany, where every December it has been performed at more than 35 opera houses. In 1905, the piece was first shown at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where it has often been staged during Christmas.

Approximate running time: 2 hours 15 minutes, 1 intermission (20 minutes) minutes

Language: In Czech, surtitles in Czech, English

Suitable for audience from 5 years.

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