Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel - Salzburg Marionette Theatre (2009) [Blu-ray]

The Salzburg Marionette Theatre created a fascinating, heart-warming production with renowned singers and highly skilled puppeteers. “Hansel and Gretel” is a Fairy Tale Opera, which Engelbert Humperdinck brilliantly composed in 1892. The charming melodies make it an opera that children enjoy. However, its wonderful music is for everyone. The Salzburg Marionette Theatre created a fascinating production with renowned singers and highly skilled puppeteers. The disaster has already happened. The tired mother is sitting at the table, holding the broken jug in her hands. Then the father returns from the market. He’s drunk again, which just makes things worse. In a rage, the mother has already chased her children, Hansel and Gretel, into the woods to pick berries. But the witch is already lying in wait. She lures the children into their gingerbread-house. Gretel has to work for her and Hansel is imprisoned. Hansel and Gretel are clever and shrewd, and they stop the witch’s evilness. It is finished off through its own evil methods. The children are free now and find the way home to their parents. The German composer Engelbert Humperdinck wrote his first opera, Hansel and Gretel, in 1892. Within the next year, it had already been performed at over fifty opera houses around Europe. Today it is still very popular, and is often performed in the weeks before Christmas. The story is after the famous fairy tale of Brother Grimm, the opera’s lovely melodies are well known around the world.