This 19th Century Children’s Opera Is Still Tasty

In 1893, Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel premiered. It’s been one of the most popular children’s operas ever since, frequently performed in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The story is, of course, based on the fairy tale of the same name. Part of the opera’s popularity simply comes from the fact that it is a retelling of well-loved story, but there’s more to it than that.

The music

This is Humperdinck at his best (to be honest, it’s pretty much the only music by him that gets performed). The opera is musically enjoyable from start to finish. If you recognize only one song from Hansel and Gretel, it’s probably this:

The characters

Humperdinck’s characters are more well-rounded than those in the original fairy tale. Hansel and Gretel are siblings who love each other but spend a lot of time fighting.

The stepmother is, in this version, just a stressed-out mother who loves her children but, out of patience with them, sends them off to pick strawberries in the woods, where they get lost. I find this much more believable than the wicked stepmother stereotype!

The best character of all is the witch, who is sometimes played by a man and sometimes by a woman, but at her witchy best always has at least some playfulness mixed into her wickedness. (If you want to compare these two witches but don’t want to watch all of Janet Lee’s video, start watching hers around 14:00 and go to about 14:50.)

The interpretations

Classics are reinterpreted all the time — in books, in movies, on stage. While not every interpretation is successful, new approaches to these classics can keep them fresh and restore their magic to jaded audiences. For instance, in “classic” productions of the opera, Hansel and Gretel settle down to sleep in the woods and dream of fourteen angels guarding them during their sleep. In this version by the Metropolitan Opera, the hungry children have a food-related dream.

Yes, but really… opera?

Opera audiences are aging. Are children’s operas even relevant anymore?

Just listen to these young opera-goers review Hansel and Gretel. 

Now seek out a performance. American performances are often (though not always) in English and last roughly an hour and a half, depending on the production. If you can’t catch a live performance in 2020, you can find legally uploaded productions online, such as this Colorado State University performance.