Humperdinck Hänsel & Gretel
A touch of the grotesque that does not affect the audience’s delight
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Engelbert Humperdinck
Genre:
DVD
Label: Euroarts
Magazine Review Date: 8/2007
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 108
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: 2055888
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Hänsel und Gretel |
Engelbert Humperdinck, Composer
Anna Gabler, Gretel, Soprano Antigone Papoulkas, Hänsel, Mezzo soprano Dresden State Opera Children's Chorus Engelbert Humperdinck, Composer Hans-Joachim Ketelsen, Peter (Father), Baritone Iris Vermillion, Witch, Mezzo soprano Irmgard Vilsmaier, Gertrud (Mother), Mezzo soprano Lydia Teuscher, Sandman, Soprano Lydia Teuscher, Dew Fairy, Soprano Michael Hofstetter, Conductor Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden |
Author: Edward Greenfield
This DVD version of Hänsel und Gretel starts well with the glorious horns of the Dresden Staatskapelle in the overture, and Michael Hofstetter draws warmly expressive playing in a work very much central to their repertory. The recording, live in the helpful acoustic of the Semperoper, adds to expectation, with eager children in the large audience.
That said, Katharina Thalbach’s production will not please everyone. Grotesquerie rather than charm is the keynote. Hänsel and Gretel are portrayed as dolls with crude make-up on spotty faces. Even their movements mimic those of puppets. Costumes are those of German peasants, with the drunken father still more of a caricature, both in costume and acting. The sets and designs by Ezio Toffolutti, minimal and stylised, are undistracting.
Other characters, too, match the grotesque illustrations in traditional German fairy-tale books, which seem strangely old-fashioned to us. The exception is the Witch, characterfully sung by Iris Vermillion, initially glamorous in a form-fitting scarlet gown with shiny high boots but transformed into an old crone when she takes off her wig, revealing a bald head, huge false ears and a hump on her back. Small wonder the children push her into the oven.
The cuckoo is another sort of doll, shooting out from the wings on a spring, with the gigantic sweets of the Witch’s house let down from the flies, and with the little house itself made up of gigantic biscuits. The Sandman is another doll, and the Dew Fairy appears wearing ice skates around her neck. The captured children are revealed as sweets, until Hänsel with a broom frees them all, and they form a long line to shake hands with Hänsel and Gretel in a very Germanic way.
The staging tells the story clearly and believably but the trendy ideas come too thick and fast for comfort; the delight of the children in the audience, shown in close-ups, adds to one’s irritation. Singing is generally good if not outstanding. Hänsel (Antigone Papoulkas) and Gretel (Anna Gabler) are diminutive figures with clear, bright voices, and Hans-Joachim Ketelsen as the Father and Irmgard Vilsmaier as the Mother sing strongly; Lydia Teuscher is jewel-bright as the Sandman and the Dew Fairy. Excellent singing, too, from the chorus of children and women.
That said, Katharina Thalbach’s production will not please everyone. Grotesquerie rather than charm is the keynote. Hänsel and Gretel are portrayed as dolls with crude make-up on spotty faces. Even their movements mimic those of puppets. Costumes are those of German peasants, with the drunken father still more of a caricature, both in costume and acting. The sets and designs by Ezio Toffolutti, minimal and stylised, are undistracting.
Other characters, too, match the grotesque illustrations in traditional German fairy-tale books, which seem strangely old-fashioned to us. The exception is the Witch, characterfully sung by Iris Vermillion, initially glamorous in a form-fitting scarlet gown with shiny high boots but transformed into an old crone when she takes off her wig, revealing a bald head, huge false ears and a hump on her back. Small wonder the children push her into the oven.
The cuckoo is another sort of doll, shooting out from the wings on a spring, with the gigantic sweets of the Witch’s house let down from the flies, and with the little house itself made up of gigantic biscuits. The Sandman is another doll, and the Dew Fairy appears wearing ice skates around her neck. The captured children are revealed as sweets, until Hänsel with a broom frees them all, and they form a long line to shake hands with Hänsel and Gretel in a very Germanic way.
The staging tells the story clearly and believably but the trendy ideas come too thick and fast for comfort; the delight of the children in the audience, shown in close-ups, adds to one’s irritation. Singing is generally good if not outstanding. Hänsel (Antigone Papoulkas) and Gretel (Anna Gabler) are diminutive figures with clear, bright voices, and Hans-Joachim Ketelsen as the Father and Irmgard Vilsmaier as the Mother sing strongly; Lydia Teuscher is jewel-bright as the Sandman and the Dew Fairy. Excellent singing, too, from the chorus of children and women.
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