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A quick overview of Humperdinck’s 1893 opera based on the Grimm brothers fairy tale.

Premiered

1893

Music by

Englebert Humperdinck

Libretto by

Adelheid Wette

Language

German

Humperdinck’s opera began as a favor for the composer’s sister, Adelheid Wette. Wette, an adept librettist herself, asked Humperdinck to compose a few folksongs based on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale for her children to perform at Christmas. Humperdinck’s initial product was met with delighted enthusiasm. Though he had reservations about how a fairy tale would work as material for something as grand as opera, Humperdinck went on to score a complete opera, while his sister Adelheid supplied the libretto.

Hansel and Gretel premiered in 1893 in Weimar, Germany. Richard Strauss, who conducted the premiere, declared the work a “masterpiece.” When the opera reached Berlin, even the emperor, Wilhelm II, offered his praises.

Though the opera makes no direct reference to Christmas, it has become almost as inextricably entwined with the holidays as Handel’s Messiah, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, or Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Act I

Once upon a time, two children named Hansel and Gretel lived in a small cottage next to a forest with their parents. They were poor and did not have much food to eat. Deep in the forest lived an old witch who was known for taking little children and baking them into gingerbread for her to eat. One day, their mother came home and found that Hansel and Gretel had not done their chores around the cottage. Hansel and Gretel’s mother angrily sent her two children into the forest to gather food for everyone.

Act II

Hansel and Gretel lost track of time. Suddenly, the forest was very dark. They followed a shimmering light named Sandman, the Bringer of Dreams. Sandman sprinkled Hansel and Gretel with golden dream-sand that made them dream of 14 guardian angels in their sleep.

Act III

Soon after, a Dew Fairy appeared and woke Hansel and Gretel up from their sleep. When they awoke, Hansel and Gretel were very hungry as they had not eaten since breakfast the previous day, so they began looking for food. Finally, they came upon a house made of gingerbread, biscuits, cakes, and chocolate.

This house belonged to a strange old Witch, who for many years had been capturing little boys and girls and turning them into gingerbread to decorate her house. Hansel greedily began to eat the house until the Witch appeared.

Before the children knew it, she used a magical branch to capture poor Hansel and put him in a cage. But, when the Witch left Hansel and Gretel for a moment, Gretel took the same magical branch to reverse the spell and unlock the cage.

When the Witch returned, she did not know that Gretel had reversed her spell and was surprised when Hansel ran quickly out of the cage. Suddenly, the two children pushed the Witch into the cage. Gretel used the magical branch once again to bring each boy and girl back to life. The Witch’s house caught fire and exploded into pieces. Eventually, Hansel and Gretel’s parents found them and hugged them because they were so happy to find them safe and sound. Hansel remembered his dream from the night before, looked up at the sky, and saw the 14 smiling guardian angels that had kept them safe from harm.

Read the Student Guide

Read the Cuesheet

Listen to the Story

Illustration of Hansel and Gretel, a well-known German folktale from the Brothers Grimm, by Arthur Rackham, 1909 [].

Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein takes you through the musical world of Humperdinck’s 1893 opera based on the Grimm brothers fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel.

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