Hansel and Gretel (Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series)

Hansel and Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel “Hänsel und Gretel” A Märchenspiel, a “fairy tale play” with music In German in three acts Music by Engelbert Humperdinck Libretto by Adelheid Wette, based on Jakob and Wilhem Grimm’s fairy tale, Hänsel und Gretel. Premiere: Hoftheater at Weimar, December 1893.

Adapted from the Opera Journeys Lecture Series by Burton D. Fisher

Story Synopsis Principal Characters in the Opera Story Narrative with Music Highlights Humperdinck and Hansel and Gretel

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Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Published © Copywritten by Opera Journeys www.operajourneys.com

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Story Synopsis Hansel and Gretel, children of Gertrud and Peter, have neglected their house chores, prompting a scolding from their stepmother; while reprimanding them, Gertrud topples a jug of milk, their only food for dinner. Consequently, she sends the children into the forest to pick strawberries for their evening meal. Peter, their father, a broom-maker, arrives home after a profitable day bearing a large basket of food. He becomes anxious upon learning that Hansel and Gretel have been sent into the forest: he fears that they will be seized by the wicked Witch, an ogress who eats children. Gertrud and Peter rush off in search of their children. Hansel and Gretel have picked strawberries, but in their hunger, yielded to temptation and ate them. As night falls, they are unable to pick more strawberries and are unable to find their way home. The Sandman arrives: the children say their evening prayers and fall asleep, protected by angels. The next morning, the Dewman sprinkles dewdrops into their eyes to awaken them, and the children find themselves before the wicked Witch’s gingerbread house. Excited and hungry, they begin to eat morsels from the house. But suddenly, the Witch emerges and magically roots the children to the ground: she locks Hansel in a cage to fatten him for her dinner, and forces Gretel to do housework. Gretel seizes the Witch’s magic wand and frees Hansel. When the Witch orders Gretel to look into the flaming oven to examine her gingerbread cakes, Gretel feigns stupidity. As the Witch peers inside the oven, Hansel and Gretel push her in and slam the door closed. The Witch’s oven explodes, signaling all her young victims to transform from gingerbread back into children. When Gertrud and Peter arrive, they find the children preparing to eat the Witch, now baked into a gigantic cake. All offer thanksgiving and celebrate their reunion and their victory over the wicked Witch.

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Principal Characters in the Opera Hansel, Gretel’s sister Gretel, her brother Gertrud, their mother Peter, a broom-maker, their father The Witch The Sandman The Dew Fairy

Mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano Baritone Mezzo-soprano Soprano Soprano

Angels and gingerbread children

Story Narrative with Music Highlights Prelude: The Prelude, referred to by Humperdinck as “Children’s Life,” recalls principal music from the opera. It begins with the Evening Prayer, its arching phrases suggesting the Divine providence that will protect the children in their adventures; it is followed by exuberant dances that suggest innocent children at play. After eerie music conveys the Witch’s evil world of sorcery and mystery, the music returns to the calm of the Evening Prayer motive.

Act 1: A cottage near a forest in the Harz mountains: the home of Peter the broom-maker, his wife Gertrud, and their children, Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel are busily at work, Hansel binding brooms, and Gretel mending stockings. Gretel accompanies her work by singing a folksong about barefoot geese who are unable to buy shoes.

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Suse, liebe Suse,

The children are unable to work because of a gnawing hunger; in vain, they hunt through the house for food, becoming excited when they discover a jug of milk. Gretel diverts her starving brother from drinking the milk by singing and dancing. Hansel joins her, his clumsy movements succeeding in arousing her laughter. Brüderchen, komm, tanz’ mit mir,

Their dancing is halted by the dramatic arrival of their stepmother, Gertrud, who becomes furious that the children are playing while she and their father have been toiling all day: in her anger, she proceeds to box Hansel on the ear, and then accidentally knocks over the precious jug of milk. Hansel laughs at her, and she chases him from the house with a stick. Then, she gives Gretel a basket, sending her into the forest to pick strawberries for their dinner. Tired and discouraged, Gertrude laments the family’s indigence, their lack of adequate food, and the spilling of the milk. After she complains that she is weary of living, she falls asleep.

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Herrgott, wirf Geld herab!

Peter arrives home in a jolly mood after a successful day of selling brooms and brushes. He has used his profits to reward his family with a large basket of food. Broom-maker’s Song

Gertrud reveals that their supper is gone: the children, in their mischief, caused her to spill the jug of milk. Peter assuages her despair by proudly opening the basket of food; his reward for a profitable day. Höchst einfach ist das Speisregister,

Gertrud reveals that she sent the children into the forest to gather food for their supper. Peter becomes enraged that his wife allowed the children to go into the Ilsenstein, the reputed gathering place for witches and fairies. He fears that they will be seized by the ogress, the evil Witch who rides on broomsticks, is in league with the powers of hell, and lures children to transform them into gingerbread before eating them Convinced of the children’s danger in the forest, Gertrud and Peter rush from the house to rescue them.

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Act II: In the forest. Witch’s Ride

The opening music for Act II is an orchestral tone painting: it is the Witch’s Ride music, suggestive of Bacchanalian images. As the furious music gradually calms, a peaceful forest scene is revealed. Hansel and Gretel are in the middle of the forest, seemingly gay, carefree, and full of childish innocence. Hansel picks strawberries, and Gretel sits under a tree and weaves a garland of roses while singing a cheerful folksong about a little man alone in the woods. Ein Männlein steht im Walde,

The children avidly ogle the basket of strawberries they have just gathered. Both are hungry and yield to temptation: Hansel tries one strawberry, and Gretel follows suit; before long, to their horror, they have eaten all the strawberries. Fearful of their mother, they decide to pick more strawberries, but they cannot because night has begun to fall. Both suddenly become seized with fear, Hansel admitting that he is lost, and Gretel crying out for her father and mother. The forest that had been so cheerful during daytime, has transformed into unknown fear and fright: mists rise, and they imagine mysterious ghostly sounds that seem to come from the shadows surrounding them. When the mists clear, the Sandman appears, a little grey man carrying a small sack on his back.

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The Sandman approaches them with friendly gestures, sprinkles sleep into their eyes, sings a tender lullaby, and then disappears. Der kleine Sandmann bin ich

The children recite their usual bedtime prayers: they purge their minds of all fears, assured that their prayers will be answered and their sleep will be protected by angels. Evening Prayer: Abends will ich schlafen gehen, vierzehn Engel um mich stehn,

In the Dream Pantomime, a ladder reaches down from heaven and 14 angels descend, surrounding the sleeping children, and protecting them against the evils of the forest. As they sleep, the orchestra symphonically captures images of a fairyland juxtaposed against the fury of the Witch’s Ride: the forthcoming battle between evil and innocence.

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Act III: The Witch’s gingerbread house The opening music again captures the child’s world: the folksong, Ringel, ringel, reihe, “Ring around the rosy.” Opening Music to Act III:

The Dew Fairy (or Dawn Fairy) arrives and shakes dewdrops from a bluebell over the sleeping children. Dew Fairy’s song:

The children awaken, and Gretel excitedly relates her dream about the 14 angels who protected her during her sleep. As the morning mist clears, the rays of the sun reveal the Witch’s house at the Ilsenstein: the children rush toward the house that is made of cake and surrounded by a wall made of gingerbread children. Hansel and Gretel begin to dance and sing, forgetting their fear while they satisfy their hunger and nibble on the walls of sweets. A voice is heard from the gingerbread house. Knusper, knusper

While the children feast merrily, the Witch emerges from the house and hobbles toward them.

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The Witch feigns friendliness toward the children and promises them delicious sweets. The children become frightened and try to escape, but the Witch waves her wand and roots them in their place. She captures Hansel with a noose and then locks him in a cage. She finds Gretel plump enough to eat, and orders her to do housework and fatten up her brother so that he will be more appetizing for her. The Witch revels in anticipation of her next meal, grasping a broom and dancing in celebration. The Witch’s Dance

Gretel manages to steal the Witch’s magic wand and immediately frees Hansel. As the oven burns hotter and the Witch’s excitement continues to rise, she orders Gretel to look into the flaming oven to see if her gingerbreads are cooked. Gretel feigns stupidity and asks the Witch to show her how to look into the oven. When the Witch stands before the open oven door, Hansel and Gretel push her inside and slam the door shut. Hansel and Gretel fall into each other’s arms and express their joy at having freed themselves from the wicked Witch. Gingerbread Waltz: Junchhei! Nun ist die Hexe still,

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A sudden crash is heard signaling that the Witch’s oven has exploded. Hansel and Gretel touch the gingerbread children, breaking the Witch’s spell and bringing the children back to life. As the children thank Hansel and Gretel for rescuing them, Peter and Gertrud arrive. All dance and celebrate over a huge gingerbread figure: the Witch, now thoroughly baked and harmless. Finally, they all sing a joyous hymn of thanksgiving.

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Humperdinck…..…………..and Hansel and Gretel

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he Grimm brothers, Jacob Ludwig (1785-1863), and Wilhelm Carl (1786-1859), contributed to the German Romantic movement by exploiting the fairy tale genre. Jacob’s Deutsche Grammatik, “German Grammar,” was a pioneering study of the German language, and Deutsche Sagen, “German Sagas,” explored medieval literature: both brothers collaborated on the monumental German dictionary, Deutsches Wörterbuch. In 1812, they published Kinder und Hausmärchen, “Children and Household Tales,” a huge collection of fairy tales idealizing their national folk idiom; it would ultimately become one of the most beloved books in the world. The Grimm brother’s “Tales” reflected the ideology of 19th century German Romanticists: the stories were intended to infuse national pride and awaken the consciousness of the German peoples who were politically alienated but united by culture and language. Germans were seeking the essence of their national soul: they viewed their culture in terms of the folk (Kultur), whereas most Europeans envisioned themselves in terms of refinement and progress (Zivilization). These Romantics were seeking a spiritual renaissance: they found their cultural soul in their ancient myths, legends, and epics, a vast legacy that they believed possessed powerful universal truths that were waiting to be reborn and revealed again. Schiller nostalgically invoked their cultural past: Schöne Welt, wo bist du?, “Beautiful world, where are you?” Ancient German legends and folklore were believed to contain the essence of German cultural identity; their collective unconscious. The Grimms traversed the German speaking lands collecting supposedly authentic stories. Ultimately, they published their Kinder und Hausmärchen, “Children and Household Tales”; these were folk-like tales that generally focused on intra-family strife that was at times violent, sibling rivalries, or parents’ jealously of their growing children. They particularly

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emphasized the battle between good and evil, ensuring that evil was always dutifully punished and that good was rewarded. Among their most well-known fairy tales are Little Red Riding-Hood, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Snow-White, and of course, Hänsel und Gretel, the latter transformed into the genre called Märchenspiel, “Fairy tale play,” or Märchenoper, “Fairy tale opera,” by the German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck. Fairy tales, like Grimms’s Hänsel und Gretel, are not necessarily about fairies, but indeed provide wonder through their marvelous elements and occurrences. Grimms’s popular folktales later evolved into Kunstmärchen, or art fairy tales, such as Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince (1888), and those of the master of the art fairy tale genre, the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, the latter’s traditional stories rooted heavily in folk legend, but personal in style; they contain much autobiographical material as well as contemporary social satire.

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umperdinck’s operatic adaptation of Grimms’s Hänsel und Gretel omits many of the gruesome details from the original tale. In the original, during a famine, the destitute father, Peter, worried because he could not provide food for his family. Gertrud, his second wife and the children’s stepmother, suggested that in the morning they abandon the children in the thickest part of the forest; if the children are unable to find their way back, they would perish and they would be rid of them and have less mouths to feed. Although Peter initially refused, he eventually consented, unable to endure his wife’s incessant harping. The children overheard their stepmother’s advice to their father and wept bitterly. After their parents went to sleep, Hansel went outside, gathered white pebbles, and filled his pockets. The next morning, the stepmother gave them each a piece of bread for their dinner and sent them into the forest. As they left for the forest, Hansel dropped pebbles to the ground to mark his way home.

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In the forest, they ate their bread, got tired, and fell asleep with the assurance that the pebbles would guide them home. Indeed, at daybreak, they followed the pebble-path and returned home to their parent’s cottage. Not long afterwards, the family was again destitute, and this time the stepmother suggested that they abandon the children much further in the forest so that they would surely be unable to find their way home. The children again overheard them. Hansel tried to get up in the night to collect pebbles, but the stepmother had locked the door so he could not get out. In the morning, the stepmother gave them bread and sent them into the forest. On the way, Hansel dropped breadcrumbs to mark a path that would guide them home. As evening arrived, no one came to fetch them, and as the moon rose, they noticed that there were no breadcrumbs to mark their path: the birds had eaten them. The children walked the forest from morning until night but were unable to find a path out of the woods: hungry and tired, they lay down under a tree and went to sleep. When they awoke, it was the third day since they had left their parent’s cottage. A snow-white bird fluttered around them, and they followed it to a small house that was made of bread, roofed with cake, and its windows made of transparent sugar. Both children, in their hunger, nibbled on the house. An old woman who supported herself on a crutch came hobbling out of the house. At first they feared her, but she cajoled them with assurances that she would do no harm. No longer frightened, they were led into the house where they were fed a sumptuous dinner of pancakes, sugar, milk, apples, and nuts. The old woman was the wicked Witch of the Ilsenstein forest, an ogress who lured children to her bread house, fattened them, and then cooked and ate them. In the morning the Witch seized Hansel from his bed and locked him in the stable; she made Gretel cook food for her brother so that he would be adequately plump before she ate him. After four weeks, the Witch became impatient and ordered Gretel to fetch water and kindle the oven fire. The Witch – having poor eyes – asked Gretel to

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creep into the oven to see if it was properly heated, of course, intending to shut the oven door on Gretel and roast her for dinner. Gretel realized her intentions and cried that she did not know how to get into the oven. The Witch reluctantly showed her: she hobbled up to the oven, stuck her head in, and immediately, Gretel pushed the Witch further inside and closed and bolted the door, leaving the Witch to perish. Gretel went to the stable and freed Hansel, and when they returned to the Witch’s house, they filled their pockets with pearls and precious stones that they had found. As they escaped, they came upon a pond, and each rode on a duck to cross. Then, seeing their father’s cottage in the distance, they rushed in and embraced him. He had been despairing ever since he had deserted them in the forest. Also, while they were away, his wife, their stepmother, had died. The children scattered the precious stones all over, signaling that their destitute life and troubles had ended, and that they would live happily in the future.

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wentieth-century psychologists, notably, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Bruno Bettelheim, have interpreted many elements of fairy tales as manifestations of universal fears and desires: children’s success in overcoming adversity becomes part of their development and initiation toward maturity. In many respects, the Hansel and Gretel story is archetypal, no different than the growth to maturity of Tamino and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, or that of Siegfried in Wagner’s Ring. In Hansel and Gretel, like all fairy tales, there is a classic power struggle between good and evil: in this story, the good children become the innocent victims of two women: the evil stepmother, Gertrud, and the wicked Witch. In the original Grimm version of Hansel and Gretel, the “evil stepmother” Gertrud engineers the story’s conflict more viciously than in the opera version: when the family has become hopelessly destitute, she demands that the children be brought to the depths of the forest and abandoned. When the

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father resists, she mocks him, ultimately convincing him to desert the children in order to ensure their own survival. The story portrays a classic power struggle between the weak father and the dominating stepmother, the weak but good father caving in to the demands of the shrewish, strong, and evil stepmother: in this scenario, the male is not portrayed as the traditionally dominating gender. Gertrud, stereotypical of fairy-tale stepmothers, rejects her stepchildren because she has no biological bond with them, no sense of intimacy, no natural instinct to protect them, no desire to create a new bond, harboring jealousy of the children’s relationship to the father as well as their possibly subconscious attachment to their absent mother. Gertrud is viewed by the children as evil and wicked, callous, dominating, demanding, and openly selfish: she regulates their daily lives with punishment and discipline, causing the children’s resentment and anger toward her. The stepmother’s replacement of their real mother, causes the children to fear that if their mother can be replaced, they are equally dispensable, the children subconsciously creating an emotional barricade that preserves their relationship with their biological mother. Nevertheless, all of their animosity stimulates their maturity; their need to ultimately become masters of their own fate. Hansel and Gretel lose any faith they may have had in their stepmother after they overhear her urging their father to abandon them in the forest. In the forest alone, they become hapless victims who must surmount all dangers to survive, but they fall victim again to an evil adult when they encounter the witch: she gains their trust, deceives them, imprisons Hansel, and enslaves Gretel; a lesson that perhaps promotes children to distrust adults. Evil in fairy tales is not alone associated with stepmothers. Usually, old women are portrayed as wicked witches, and conversely, witches as old women. When Hansel and Gretel encounter the old woman, they immediately assume that she is an evil witch because she is old, bent, and has harsh features and poor eyesight. They are initially leery of her, but her feigned friendship appeases them. Most children

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are suspicious and fearful of the elderly because they often live in isolated conditions and have little contact with children; children fear what they do not understand, and old women become fear objects. Nevertheless, in Hansel and Gretel, the children indeed encounter a real ogress on the lookout for children to eat, but ultimately their fear leads to ingenuity, heroism, and maturity. The females in this story, the stepmother Gertrud and the Witch, victimize the children through strength as well as magic, but the story relates a reversal of fortunes, and the evil that dominated good becomes transformed when good overcomes evil. In the “happily ever after” conclusion of Hansel and Gretel, the evil stepmother is dead, in a sense, fulfilling the children’s desire for stability and the return of their “real” family; the wicked Witch has been vanquished, turned into gingerbread. Gretel is a rather passive personality at the beginning of the story: she cries, whispers, and laments her fate to Hansel, relying on him to provide reassurance and take control over the situation. Indeed, in Grimms’s original tale, Hansel provides the heroic ingenuity by marking their trail home, first with white pebbles, and them with breadcrumbs. Gretel does not resist the Witch’s command to cook food to fatten up her brother, obviously fearing that her refusal would lead to doom. Nevertheless, her meekness transforms into heroism when she realizes that both her survival and that of her brother lies solely in her hands. Gretel is struck by an inspiration after the Witch orders her to poke her head into the oven: she feigns stupidity, and tricks the Witch into providing her with a demonstration; it is an explosion of impulsive ingenuity that enables her to conquer the evil Witch forever. As such, Gretel is the heroine of the story, the catalyst in destroying the Witch, the rescuer of her brother, and as they escape, the initiator of the idea of having the duck carry them across the pond. Gretel’s heroics – in the Grimm original - leads to the discovery of the chests of pearls and jewels, thus providing the ultimate “happily ever after” ending of the story. Now, the children can return to the normalcy of home life with their father who will no longer have

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to worry about providing food for them. Gretel ultimately becomes the dominant character – the heroine – of their adventure; not the traditionally passive and rescued female. Most fairy tales relate power struggles, and ultimately reversals of fortunes: there are males (the father) vs. females (the stepmother); old women (Witch) vs. young girls (Gretel); and good women (Gretel) vs. bad women (stepmother and Witch). In the Hansel and Gretel power struggle, the primary conflict is between old and young women, the elderly women making the decisions that determine the children’s fate: at first Gretel is in conflict with her stepmother, and then the wicked Witch dominates the young Gretel, enslaving her, and having virtual control over her life or death. Nevertheless, the power is transferred from evil to good as Gretel heroically tricks the Witch: in the end, because of Gretel, the classic fairy tale conclusion is assured; and they live happily ever after!

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he German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, 1854-1921, left a singular operatic legacy: his opera, Hänsel und Gretel; he spent the remainder of his life trying to equal its success, but failed. Humperdinck began his musical education with piano lessons, but at the age of fourteen, after he heard his first opera, Lortzing’s Undine, he immediately became inspired to become an opera composer. In 1872, at the age of eighteen, his family tried to dissuade him from a music career, but the composer Ferdinand Hiller became so impressed with his talents, that he convinced his reluctant family to enroll him in the Cologne Conservatory. Humperdinck excelled, his early talents rewarded with the Mozart Prize of Frankfurt (1876), the Mendelssohn Prize of Berlin (1879), and the Meyerbeer Prize of Berlin (1881). Before the huge success of Hänsel und Gretel in 1893, Humperdinck’s musical compositions included the Singspiels, Perla and Claudine von Villa Bella, the music drama, Harziperes, the choral ballads Die Wallfahrt nach Kevelaar (1878) and Das Glück von

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Edenhall (1884), and the Humoreske (1880) for orchestra; all demonstrated promise but not greatness or critical acclaim. In 1877, while teaching at the Königliche Musikschule in Munich, Humperdinck heard Wagner’s Ring: it became an overwhelming and seminal experience in his music career, convincing him to sacrifice his earlier Mendelssohnian and Schumannesque traditions and surrender to the new influences of Richard Wagner. In 1880, he impressed Wagner and was invited to Bayreuth to assist with the premiere of Parsifal: he was assigned to copy the orchestral score, and at its premiere in 1882, he was in charge of the choruses. Humperdinck was so admired by Wagner that he was entrusted to compose a bridge passage for the transformation of the first two scenes of Parsifal: his music was heard at the premiere, but was later excised by Wagner. Nevertheless, Humperdinck fell totally under Wagner’s spell and became one of his most ardent disciples, subsequently composing all of his works in the Wagnerian style: specifically, the symphonic weaving of leitmotifs, or leading themes. There is one episode in Hansel and Gretel in which Humperdinck’s orchestra seems to transcend Wagner: in the second act, as darkness falls and the children prepare to return home, Hansel tries to reassure Gretel that they will be safe, but she becomes hysterical. Humperdinck translates Gretel’s fear in orchestral terms: the theme associated with “fright” is first introduced in a slow tempo by the English horn, but then it is accelerated as it travels from one instrument to another. The theme is then combined with “barking” noises, the new theme of the Witch, and then with themes suggesting the blinking and flashing of the “fireflies.” In another “Wagnerian” example, the Waltz celebrating the demise of the Witch ultimately combines and interweaves three different themes.

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n 1893, Humperdinck composed Hänsel und Gretel, the libretto adapted by his younger sister, Adelheid Wette. The opera became an immediate and enormous

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triumph, but it proved difficult for him to equal, and nothing he composed afterwards remains entrenched in the concert or opera repertory. Immediately after Hänsel und Gretel, Humperdinck composed Die sieben Geislein, “The Seven Geese,” based on another Grimm fairy tale that was also adapted by his sister: Humperdinck called it a Satyrspiel, a satire on Hänsel und Gretel, but it ultimately resulted in a simple series of songs for soprano, bass, and children’s chorus. In 1894, he composed Königskinder, “The King’s Children,” a fairy tale quite different in scope from Hänsel und Gretel that combined allegory and symbolism in an ostentatious intellectual text filled with didactic arguments that intended to convey the alienation of the artist from society, as well as the essence of true nobility, rather difficult concepts for adults to perceive no less children. Humperdinck and his sister-librettist disagreed in their approach to expressing the opera’s dialogue realistically: she insisted on incidental music to support the text; he claimed that the text required a more sophisticated use of musical motives to realize its symbolism. In the end they compromised, and the work became part melodrama, and part the Wagnerian ideal of Sprechgesang, or “speech-song”; in the end, it was viewed as an unaesthetic jumble of disorganized balderdash. After Dornröschen (1902), an unsuccessful version of the Sleeping Beauty story, Humperdinck abandoned fairy tale opera to return to his old ambition of writing comic opera: he was unsuccessful, lacking the technique to create pace and action, but nevertheless, confirming that he was a master in conveying mood and atmosphere. In effect, Humperdinck proved to be exceptional in creating incidental music. In 1905, he collaborated with the renowned Berlin theatrical virtuoso, Max Reinhardt, and composed incidental music for productions of Aristophanes, Shakespeare, and Maeterlinck. Had Humperdinck lived a generation later, his musical legacy would have certainly been in Hollywood. Humperdinck’s eminently developed compositional skills for incidental music prompted him to transform his failed Königskinder from

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melodrama into grander operatic proportions: he extended existing scenes and bound them together with newly composed dialogue into a seamless musical structure. Ultimately, the revised opera became his most rigorously through-composed work. In order to convey the story’s symbolism in which innocence is overshadowed by evil, he created a variety of musical motives and chromatic harmonies, interweaving them in a symphonic structure in the manner of Wagner. Although critics considered it a stylistic advance on Hänsel und Gretel, its subsequent neglect reflects what has been considered Humperdinck’s eternal legacy with the exception of Hänsel und Gretel: the use of inappropriate, obscure, and inferior dramatic texts.

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n April 1890, Humperdinck was asked by his sister, Adelheid Wette, to set to music a short play she had written that was based on the Grimm fairy tale, Hänsel und Gretel: it was intended for a private family Christmas celebration, and would be acted out by her two teen-age daughters. The original music he wrote for the play was Brüderchen, komm, tanz’ mit mir, beide Händchen reich’ ich dir, “Brother come and dance with me, both my hands I offer thee.” The family became so delighted and impressed that they encouraged him to elaborate and develop it into a fulllength opera, even though he had doubts about the fairy tale’s suitability for operatic treatment. Adelheid Wette was an author with a strong interest in folksong and fairy tales, and was extremely skilful in expanding the underlying Grimm fairy tale into a grander operatic scale: an important ingredient of the work’s eventual success was her ability to retain the work’s unpretentious character. The première of Hansel and Gretel was conducted by Richard Strauss in Weimar in December 1893, the renowned conductor and later-to-be titan of 20th century opera, unhesitating in declaring Humperdinck’s opera a masterpiece. Nevertheless, the premiere succeeded in spite of shortcomings: scheduled singers became ill and were replaced on

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short notice; and the Prelude could not be performed because parts had not arrived. The ingratiating quality of Hansel and Gretel soon won huge acclaim the world over, the young as well as old being drawn by its musical enchantment. Rather speedily, there were at least 72 productions during its first year, a touring company founded, a London première as early as 1894, and an American première at the Metropolitan Opera in 1905. In 1923, Hansel und Gretel was the first opera to be broadcast complete from Covent Garden, and in 1954, von Karajan conducted the first recording of the opera with Elisabeth Grümmer as Hansel and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Gretel. In Germany, performances of Hänsel und Gretel have remained popularly associated with Christmas. Märchenspiel and Märchenoper, “fairy tale play,” or “fairy tale opera,” developed as a full-fledged genre during the post-Wagnerian period of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries: the genre not only received Wagner’s blessings, but it was perceived as an antidote to the many imitations of Wagnerian music drama, as well as a welcome contrast to the heightened passions of the Italian verismo craze: Hansel and Gretel’s success was frequently compared to von Weber’s Der Freischütz,”The Freeshooter,” an earlier German monument in the battle against the Italian opera genre. Through Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck became the most celebrated creator of the Märchenspiel, or Märchenoper, and the opera has been acclaimed the finest product of the genre. This style had powerful appeal to the German Romantic imagination, and suddenly, after its success, an entire school of German composers arose during the late 19th and early 20th centuries who drew their texts from German folklore and fairy tales, and based much of their music on folk-tunes: Cornelius, Drechsler, von Wartensee, Riotte, Conradi, Sommer, and Siegfried Wagner. The origins of Märchenoper, go back to the mid18th century when it was variously referred to as Feenmärchen, Märchenspiel, Volksmärchen, and Feerie; fairies, per se, were not necessarily an obligatory feature of the Märchenoper, but rather,

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represented elements of the supernatural, magic, the fantastic, the oriental, or the irrational. Characteristically, their stories involved a simple treatment of a typical children’s story, though the works were not necessarily intended for young audiences; indeed, the content of the tales is often symbolic and bears a moral message. The borderline between fairy tale and myth or legend remains indistinct: there are works that contain fairy-tale elements, such as Wagner’s Siegfried, but bear different designations by their composers.

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ansel and Gretel’s immense success is attributable to its infectious music, all of which possesses a loveable simplicity and youthful spirit. Humperdinck combines his melodic inventiveness with dramatic episodes that are brilliantly interwoven contrapuntally into a vast and colorful orchestration. Humperdinck was a superb craftsman, but as an unabashedly devoted disciple of Wagner, his orchestra possesses extraordinary power: the opera’s score consists almost entirely of orchestral textures interwoven with significant thematic motives. Indeed, Humperdinck adopted many aspects of Wagner’s colorful, textural style, but he ignored others: in particular, he considered song not symphony the basis of his dramatic structure. In the end, his greatest asset may have been his uninhibited exploitation of Wagnerian musical techniques, but without the complexities or philosophical undertones of music drama. Hansel and Gretel’s underlying fairy tale story corresponded perfectly with Humperdinck’s musical strengths: in particular, the striking directness and simplicity of his melodies. The opera’s music is profoundly diatonic, and there is no harmonic dissonance: the musical themes possess a strongly marked rhythmic character, but the melodic lines remain lyrically contained as they are expanded into the rich orchestration. The score’s beautiful and tender folk music possesses a homespun charm and melodic appeal, perhaps the opera’s most enduring quality. It is indeed

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the opera’s preponderance of quoted as well as invented folk-like music integrated into the score that supports Humperdinck’s claim of having recreated Märchenoper. The folk music is intended to capture the carefree spirit of children, and his music always seems ready to resolve into seemingly endless variations of folk melodies. To stress the fairy-tale aspect of his opera, Humperdinck begins each of the opera’s three acts with authentic German folk-tunes: Suse, liebe Suse, was raschelt im Stroh?, the children singing about barefoot geese that have no shoes; Ein Männlein steht im Walde ganz still und stumm, Gretel humming a genuine riddle-song describing a little man who stands alone in the woods; and Knusper, knusper Knaüschen, the Witch asking who is nibbling at her house. The opera contains many charming melodies that could easily belong to that anonymous treasure trove known as folk music: there is the refrain from the father’s monologue when he brings home the basket of food; and the “Go to Sleep” song in the Forest Scene when the magic sand is thrown into the children’s eyes, the tune reappearing when the Dawn Fairy shakes drops of dew into the eyes of the sleeping children. The final act with the Witch features several more folk-like tunes, such as the “gingerbread house” phrases, and the Witch’s invitation, “Come little mousey, come into my housey.” Others are heard when the magic spell immobilizes the children, the phrase reversed when the children break the spell. In particular, the Prelude magnificently captures the overall musical content of the opera: Humperdinck referred to the Prelude as “Children’s Life”: it opens seriously with the hymn-like Evening Prayer, its phrases extending and arching to suggest the Divine providence that will protect the children in their adventures; it is balanced by exuberant dances suggesting the way children play in their games, and then trumpet calls over a web of woodwinds and pizzicato strings usher in the eerie world of the Witch’s sorcery and mystery. After the dance-like jubilation ends, calm returns, and the motive of the Evening Prayer frames the forthcoming drama. Humperdinck is the musical dramatist of Hansel and Gretel, and his orchestra is the narrator: the

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orchestra’s symphonic web of motives captures the fairyland world of children’s innocence, fears and frights, and the excesses of the Witch’s Ride; Humperdinck succeeded both musically and textually to portray that eternal battle between good and evil; in his story, good and innocence triumph in their battle with evil. But Humperdinck expresses those conflicts and tensions from Grimms’s simple fairy tale in the operatic medium; the story’s text, combined with the emotive power of music add impact to the story; in effect, in Hansel and Gretel, the composer transformed fairy tale into music drama, which perhaps explains its enduring fascination on the opera stage.

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