Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, Alates (2021/2021), Dirigent Dawid Runtz, Ljetna Pozornica, Opatija, Croatia

Hansel and Gretel is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who described it as a Märchenoper (fairy-tale opera). The libretto was written by Humperdinck’s sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”. Opera is performed by Zagrebačka filharmonija (Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra) conducted by meastro Dawid Runtz with esteemed Croatian Opera singers: Martina Tomčić (mezzosoprano), Josipa Bilić (soprano), Josipa Gvozdanić (soprano), Adela Golac Rilović (soprano), Ozren Bilušić (bass-baritone) and “Zvjezdice” Choir. In this version of “Hansel and Gretel”, the witch does not steal their soul but the art – she steals music and voices and this is relevant because it marks a particularly challenging period at the moment in which culture is in existential crisis. The story begins with children who are literally hungry and wanting to forget about this terrible hunger, go to their imaginary world, to play, and do not do the tasks in the house, which their mother told them to do – weave baskets and make brooms, which they sell at the fair and thus feed themselves. When the mother comes into the house and sees a mess of play and unfinished tasks, out of anguish and fear of poverty she chases the children into a terrible forest to pick berries to have something to eat. An important emphasis is on the abolition of the right to play and on the poverty in which they find themselves, because the mother is not evil, but only miserable from poverty. The sequel is known to everyone…