Hansel and Gretel

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854 – 1921)

23
Saturday
December
14:00 - 16:00
B-Prices: € 86,00 / € 66,00 / € 44,00 / € 26,00 / € 20,00
Buy tickets
Information about the work

Opera by Engelbert Humperdinck
Libretto by Adelheid Wette
First performed on 23rd December, 1893 in Weimar
Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 13th December, 1997

2 hrs / 1 interval

In German with German and English surtitles

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

recommended from 8 years
Share this post
Cast
Our thanks to our partners

Kindly supported by Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin e. V. The children's chorus is sponsored by Dobolino e.V.

23
Saturday
December
14:00 - 16:00
B-Prices: € 86,00 / € 66,00 / € 44,00 / € 26,00 / € 20,00
Buy tickets
Cast
the content

About the work
Hansel and Gretel, children of a poor broom maker and his wife, are sent into the woods one day by their mother to pick berries – as punishment for larking around instead of doing their chores. When their father arrives home bearing a bag full of treats after a successful working day, he berates his wife, because the woods are home to an evil witch. The parents set off to look for the kids, who have meanwhile filled their baskets but then eaten all the berries themselves out of sheer hunger. They also realise darkness has fallen and they’re lost, so they lie down for the night and say their prayers, falling asleep and having a strange and wonderful dream. In the morning they wake to see a cottage made of gingerbread and other sweetmeats. Nibbling at the house, they are surprised by the witch, who takes them captive, planning to bake the children in her oven. Instead, they play a trick on her and push her into her own oven. The spell is broken and all the children who had been transformed into gingerbread by the witch regain their human form. The pair’s parents appear and the reunited family returns home.

For over a century Engelbert Humperdinck’s HANSEL AND GRETEL has enjoyed a reputation as one of the most popular operas for all the family. Humperdinck could not resist rendering the story – a dramatic tale for children and adults alike – as a piece of musical theatre, a two-hour symphonic masterpiece peppered with hummable tunes. Translated into over twenty languages, the work remains the first contact for many children with the world of opera. The score does not conceal its debt to Wagner but does not rely on his aura in attracting the uninitiated either. Evergreen numbers of the likes of “Ein Männlein steht im Walde”, “Abends wenn ich schlafen geh’, vierzehn Englein um mich stehn” or “Der kleine Sandmann bin ich” guide audiences through the exposition and remain lodged in the memory long after the auditorium has emptied.


About the production
Andreas Homoki and set designer Wolfgang Gussmann take a linear, child-friendly approach to the story, bringing a levity and poetic imagery to the opulent music that are best exemplified in the nocturnal woodland scenes. There is no shortage of excitement and spine-chilling moments, and the dramatic appearance of the witch, eagerly awaited by younger audience members in particular, includes a humorous touch. Children aged 8 and upwards can enjoy Humperdinck’s tale of good triumphing over evil, in which Gretel und Hansel, by virtue of pluck and imagination, free not only themselves but all the other kids from the clutches of the witch.

“Director Andreas Homoki is not about to exploit the opera to make precious psychological points or send ideological messages. He just wants to mount a musical play for kids. And that’s what he sets about doing – intelligently and playfully …” [DeutschlandRadio Köln]

Newsletter

News about the schedule
and the start of advance booking
Personal recommendations
Special offers ...
Stay well informed!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our Newsletter and receive 25% off your next ticket purchase.

* Mandatory field





Newsletter

02
DEC

Advents-Verlosung: Das 2. Fensterchen

In today's Advent calendar window, we are giving away 3 DVDs of "Der Schatzgräber" - an opera in a prelude, four acts and a postlude by Franz Schreker. If you would like to win one of the three DVDs, please send an e-mail today with the subject "The 2nd window" to advent@deutscheoperberlin.de.

DER SCHATZGRÄBER (THE TREASURE HUNTER) by Franz Schreker was a triumph at its world premiere in Frankfurt in 1920 and went on to play 44 times at assorted venues over the next five years. It then fell victim to a shifting zeitgeist and slipped from opera-house programmes, with a National Socialist ban on performances sealing its demise. Even after 1945 the Schreker revival was a long time coming – and THE TREASURE HUNTER has not featured prominently in the renaissance.

As with the vast majority of Schreker’s libretti, the story of Els and Elis explores the relationship between fantasy and reality, between art and life. Soulmates in the sense that they are both at the mercy of the king’s disposition, Els and Elis set off in search of different treasures. Elis, the minstrel, uses his magic lute to locate a stash of jewels and do humanity a good turn. Els, an innkeeper’s daughter who has grown up motherless in a tough, male-chauvinist world, becomes a liar, cheat and murderess in pursuit of her goal, tasking her suitors to steal the queen’s jewels and then having them killed once they have returned with the haul of treasure. Yet even with the gold in their possession, the pair are not content, and so, true to form, Schreker turns his attention to the theme of yearning per se, which is the actual “treasure” that the composer is interested in, “a dream of happiness and redemption”. Elis and Els are caught up in a swirl of dreams, memories, premonitions, songs and music. Their stories take on a dreamlike quality in a world beset by greed, murder and emotional inconstancy. For Franz Schreker the path to redemption could only be via art. Composed during the turmoil of the First World War, the TREASURE HUNTER score amounts to Schreker’s personal confession of artistic faith, executed in florid strokes of late-Romantic musical colour.

Conductor Marc Albrecht; Staging Christof Loy; Set design Johannes Leiacker; Costume design Barbara Drosihn; With Tuomas Pursio, Doke Pauwels, Clemens Bieber, Michael Adams, Joel Allison, Michael Laurenz, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Seth Carico, Daniel Johansson, Gideon Poppe, Stephen Bronk, Elisabet Strid, Patrick Cook, Tyler Zimmerman a. o.; Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin



Closing date: 2 December 2023, the winners will be informed by email on 4 December 2023. The DVDs will then be sent by post. Legal recourse is excluded.