Hänsel und Gretel

[MishaK]

I wonder if Dvořák knew the opera, but it is rather likely and it seems that his fairy tale tone poems which were composed only 3-4 years later were to a certain degree influenced by it - or maybe it was Humprdinck who took some inspiration from Dvořák and Smetana who had created a distinct folk tale/fairy tale sound of which I find some echoes in this opera. But there is certainly also a strong element of Weber and other romantic composers, especially Wagner, in there. Strange that Humperdinck's other works never became even remotely as well known, there is some nice music in Dornröschen and Die Königskinder.

I actually wondered if in any way it influenced Jancek's Cunning Little Vixen (despite the completely different musical language of the two).

[uffeviking]

Anybody listening to the broadcast from the Met? I recommend it highly, even if it's from the Met, but Vladimir Jurowski is a conductor to enjoy, no matter what he conducts or where he does it. A most versatile talent.

I am listening to it from

KING FM.com


10:30 am
HUMPERDINCK: Hansel and Gretel
Vladimir Jurowski/Metropolitan Opera of New York
Christine Sch�fer; Rosalind Plowright; Alice Coote; Philip Langridge; Alan Held
LIVE PERFORMANCE: Met Opera

[Susan de Visne]

I'm listening to the broadcast (in England), though it's apt to make me cry because it reminds me of my childhood. Good diction from Alan Held, and I'm expecting Philip Langridge (who is in his late-ish sixties) to be good as the Witch. He did a marvellous Aschenbach (Death in Venice) in a concert performance in London fairly recently.

But chefs?? What happened to the angels? Best performance of this I ever saw was in Vienna, with the most beautiful angel tableau you could possibly imagine. They're in the music!

[uffeviking]

It's not unknown here at GMG that I am a defender of productions, labeled by US opera lovers as 'Eurotrash', but when a director makes drastic changes, contorting the meaning of an opera, I get a bit testy!

The children pray to angels in their evening devotions. That's what children have been taught by their parents and spiritual guides, and that's what the composer was putting to music; the libretto says: "...Englein bei mir..." not 'cooks', for crying out loud!

And how did Hänsel mark their trail through the woods? Breadcrumbs all over the kitchen, not familiar with the layout of his kitchen?

Ah, but there are advantages to just listen to the music, lovely, great music, wonderfully conducted by Vladimir Jurowski!

[Susan de Visne]

I'm really enjoying the orchestra, which I think is rather better than the school orchestra plus a lot of piano that we had when we did it at school!

The Dew Fairy had an intonation problem.

[bhodges]

Just returned from seeing this production, and I must say, it is fantastic.  Vladimir Jurowski and the orchestra made the score sound like the best opera ever composed (despite someone near me murmuring "second-rate Wagner), and the cast was superb.  Christine Schäfer was especially sparkling as Gretel, but so was Alice Coote as Hänsel, doing a very believable turn as a boy.  And Philip Langridge probably stole the show as the Witch, looking like a frumpy matron.  I had to look twice at his "bare" arms, that were covered with knit tights and made up to look like the arms of a 70-ish woman.

The production uses three different rooms: a kitchen in the beginning, a dining room for the dream sequence, and an even larger kitchen for the last scene.  And although I can empathize with wanting the angels in the dream, the chef idea worked beautifully!  For me, that whole scene was the highlight of this production.  The friend with me had tears in her eyes after.  I mean, for two hungry children, a roomful of chefs, all bearing food, would definitely be angelic.  The room is high-ceilinged, the walls covered with leaves to represent the forest, with six "treemen" along the walls.  These guys wear dark suits, but instead of heads, each one has a bundle of tree branches--terrific.  And lighting candles along a long table center stage was a formal butler dressed in a tuxedo--but with an oversized fish head, like a character in Alice in Wonderland.  (After all, it is a dream!)  All marvelous.  Until a friend urged me to see it, I wasn't planning to go, but I'm so happy I did. 

--Bruce

[MishaK]

Bruce. Glad you enjoyed it. Robert Levine at ClassicsToday panned it so badly that he undermined the credibility of his own review.

[bhodges]

Oh, thanks for posting that link, which I probably would have missed.  I dunno...I have a wide range of things I enjoy, and am inclined to give new productions the benefit of the doubt, but I thought it was maybe...brilliant.  Where Levine describes the chefs as "chubby" (which they are) I would use the word "jolly," which to me better describes their benevolent nature.  It's not like they are Pillsbury doughboy clones (which they do resemble, somewhat). 

And his comments about the neurotic, unsettling aspects...well...it's a neurotic, unsettling story!  There were many children in the audience today, but I would hesitate taking a child under say, ten years old to this opera, whether in this production or another one.  The witch sings about her "magic oven turning children into gingerbread" and then eating them--how is any production going to avoid that?  I didn't see the final scene as something out of Saw or Hostel, either.  It's just a slightly industrial, rather scary kitchen!

The production just plays up some of the story's natural grisliness, which I guess is too much for some. 

--Bruce

[jlaurson]

Crunch Time for Missing Children

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/crunch-time-for-missing-children.html

The Scoping Report on Missing and Abducted Children 2011 states the following: "Children who go missing are at risk of harm. When a child goes missing, there is something wrong, often quite seriously, in that child's life. The reasons behind missing incidents are varied, where children go missing as a consequence of specific, distinct circumstances. The serious problem of missing and abducted children is a broad, complex and challenging issue. It tends to be poorly defined, lacking in accurate statistics, and is subject to an array of responses at local, national and international levels. At the same time, there is a pressing and urgent concern for improving responses to cases of missing and abducted children. Being missing from home or a place of residence not only entails several inherent risks for children and young people, but is also a cause and consequence of other grave concerns in any child's life."

The FBI cites a 2002 federal study on missing children according to which a heartening 99.8 percent of children reported missing "were located or returned home alive. The remaining 0.2 percent either did not return home or were not found. The study estimated that most of missing children cases involved runaways from juvenile facilities and that only an estimated 0.0068 percent were true kidnappings by a stranger. The primary conclusion of the study was that child abductions perpetrated by strangers rarely occur. However, when they do occur, the results can be tragic."

Tragic, indeed. Which makes the following events all the more dramatic: After a domestic altercation on the evening of April 1st, two underage siblings went missing near Munich...