But I didn’t truly fall in love with this 1893 “Märchenspeil” until after I had seen my first complete Ring Cycle in my late 20s.
Engelbert Humperdinck soaked up many great compositional lessons from Richard Wagner with Hänsel und Gretel, but in a much more digestible form. Humperdinck’s lush score is largely reassuring, but there’s still plenty of haunting darkness that taps into the upsetting elements (Hunger! Child Abandonment! Cannibalism!) of the original Brothers Grimm fairytale. I also noticed the ornithological symbolism as the parasitic cuckoo (notorious for abandoning their eggs into the nests of other birds) sounds as Hänsel and Gretel soon realize they are lost in the woods.
I’ve lately become enchanted with the 2009 pro-shot capture of Hänsel und Gretel by the Salzburger Marionettentheater. Note the many Wagnerian visual gags with the gingerbread house modeled after the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, while The Witch marionette is caricatured first after Cosima Wagner, then as Richard Wagner in valkyrie drag.
Remko Jas feels similarly:
Like every other child, I loved fairy tales very much—and still do today, by the way. That’s why I feel most at home listening to this opera—and especially to the recording by the underrated Heinz Wallberg with the fantastic Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne. I particularly love it because of Edda Moser. Unrivaled in this role.
And so does Baritenor:
Sometimes, I just want to go back to what made me fall in love with opera. The first opera I ever was taken to as a child (something probably true of many of us) remains an underrated gem that deserves more than its “trot it out for the holidays” reputation. Ingeniously constructed and at times stunningly beautiful, this is a piece I am always glad to listen to. Kurt Eichorn‘s 1971 recording with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester is currently available in its entirety on Youtube. Helen Donath‘s crystiline, childlike Gretel and Christa Ludwig‘s hilarious, maniacal Knusperhexe are performances no opera fan should pass by, controversial artists like Anna Moffo and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau turn in performances that should win over the most skeptical listeners to their considerable talents, and Eichorn wrings every bit of magic, mystery and majesty in a revelatory reading of Humperdink’s masterpiece. There are many good recordings of this opera – this is the one I would not want to be without.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
