Hänsel und Gretel

In the organizer's words:

Opera by Engelbert Humperdinck

The Hanoverian cult production of Hansel and Gretel is back - and here to stay! Steffen Tiggeler's directorial work has been on the Staatsoper's repertoire since 1964, making it the longest-serving production of Engelbert Humperdinck's lovingly Wagnerian fairytale play with the nostalgic libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette.
Hansel and Gretel, the children of a broom-binder couple, live in the poorest of circumstances. There is hardly any food on the table at home. So their mother - sensing trouble from their father - sends them into the forest to gather berries. Hansel and Gretel get lost and fall into the clutches of the wicked Crunchy Witch, who wants to turn them into gingerbread and eat them herself. Gretel manages to outwit the witch. They both push her into the oven. In the happy ending, all the gingerbread children who had previously fallen into the clutches of the Crispy Witch are also freed. Father and mother also find Hansel and Gretel safe and sound.
Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera owes its great popularity to the catchy vocal numbers and the musical mixture of lush orchestral sound and the appearance of a children's world that has been transformed into sound. Whether the warm and comforting evening blessing or the children's songs "Suse, liebe Suse", "Ein Männlein steht im Walde" and "Brüderchen, komm tanz mit mir", which have been transformed into operatic arias: Hansel and Gretel is the great musical theater success of the Advent season!