Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, From (2023/2023), Directed by Richard Studer, Conductor Jonathan Lyness, The Hafren, Newtown, United Kingdom

Mid Wales Opera’s Fairy Tales season culminates in a new production of Humperdinck’s late nineteenth century classic Hansel and Gretel. Based on the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale, two children are banished to the enchanted woods by their hungry, frustrated parents. There, they wander into the clutches of a wicked witch determined to fatten them up and turn them into gingerbread. With only their cunning to protect them, how will they ever escape the oven? This new production is sung in English with a cast of young professional singers, together with a chorus of children assembled locally for each theatre. Humperdinck’s miraculous score, performed by MWO’s partner orchestra Ensemble Cymru, is given a specially created new reduced orchestration by MWO’s Music Director Jonathan Lyness