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Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel owes its unique success to the mixture of sophisticated musical diction and simple, folksy melodies. Originally planned as a small Christmas entertainment for their own family, Humperdinck and his sister Adelheid soon developed the piece into a full-length fairy-tale opera. The 1974 Electrola production goes back to these origins: in addition to major singers like Edda Moser and Hermann Prey, it features young soloists of the same age as the two lead characters. And that's what gives this recording its special authenticity and charm. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“Sir Colin Davis has rarely conducted a more glowing opera performance on record than this. It is his inspired direction, beautifully paced, as though captured live, which above all compels attention...the contrast of timbre between the bright, sometimes edgy quality of Gruberova and the plainer sound of Murray is always very clearly defined, and their brilliant characterization and feeling for words seal that sharp distinction.” Gramophone Magazine, October 1993 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Gisela Litz (Hänsel), Rita Streich (Gretel), Res Fischer (Witch), Marianne Schech (Mother), Horst Gunter (Father), Elisabeth Lindermeier (Sandman) & Bruno Brückmann (Dew Fairy) Knabenchor des Wittelsbacher Gymnasiums München, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Münchner Philharmoniker, Fritz Lehmann A welcome back to this famous recording from the vaults of the Yellow Label, with the great Rita Streich and Gisela Litz. An opera based on a children’s tale, but by no means childish! The inherent horror of the tale is painted in Wagnerian colours and the dramatic tension is spine-tingling! Poor Humperdinck! Remembered today for just one work, overshadowed by both Wagner and Richard Strauss (the final indignity came with having his name taken by a 1960s crooner!), he was highly respected by both his colleagues, and assisted Wagner at Bayreuth in 1881-2 working on the premiere of Parsifal. Of his nine works for stage, Hansel und Gretel has remained a firm favourite in opera houses around the world. A skilful blend of Weber’s Der Freischütz, Wagner’s Meistersinger and Siegfried, it weaves a magical spell upon the listener. Conjuring up all the childhood fears of what lives in deep in the forest, and things that go bump in the night (this is after all based on a Grimm Brothers tale!), Humperdinck’s magical score is full of wonderful tunes. “The casting of a mezzo-soprano, as Humperdinck intended, rather than a soprano in the part of Hansel, means that there is more differentiation of voice here than in the Columbia (Karajan) disc…Rita Streich is very
well cast as Gretel….That admirable artist Res Fischer is a much better witch than Columbia's Else Scharhof, really sings all of her part, instead of mouthing it, and is more sinister.” Gramophone Magazine “Streich is a lovely, vocally sparkling Gretel and Lehmann conducts with a sure sense of theatrical pacing.” International Record Review, October 2011 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“it's remarkably good for its age and the GROC remastering used here brings out more detail than earlier incarnations. The performance is adorable - above all from Karajan...there is so much charm that I, for one, can't resist.” International Record Review, January 2011 “this was an instance where everything in the recording went right...There is much to delight here; the smaller parts are beautifully done and Else Schurhoff's Witch is memorable.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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The Met’s classic storybook staging as performed on Christmas Day 1982 “No singers today play Hansel and Gretel more convincingly or sing them more enchantingly [than Frederica von Stade and Judith Blegen].” – New York Daily News This classic Met production “cheerfully evokes a magic world of woodland sprites and candy dreams,” wrote the New York Post reviewer, praising Elias’s “broadly comic witch,” Blegen’s “merry and nimble” Gretel, and von Stade’s “vocal majesty and dramatic integrity” as Hansel. “Even the sourest Scrooge or Grinch,” said the New York Times, “would have to smile when the witch is bested (and basted) and the stage suddenly fills with her revived victims: a beaming bevy of children in dapper folk-tale costume.” “traditional but lively” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Hansel and Gretel
Production: Richard Jones, Set and Costume designer: John Macfarlane, Lighting designed by: Jennifer Tipton, Choreographer: Linda Dobell & Translation: David Pountney Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote and Vladimir Jurowski triumph in Humperdinck’s first and most successful opera – filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera in Hi-Definition. This irresistibly delicious new English-language production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel is the first Metropolitan Opera : Live in High-Definition series release following EMI Classic’s recent collaboration with the Met. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale, a timeless children’s favourite, features a sophisticated score, and this intriguing new staging will appeal to audiences of all ages. Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer are charming as Hansel and Gretel. The role of the Witch, written for a mezzo-soprano, is sometimes sung by a tenor – as is the case in this production - with Philip Langridge in the role. Vladimir Jurowski, one of the world’s most sought-after conductors, leads Germany’s dearest opera, with a sensitive account of Humperdinck’s enchanting score. Hansel and Gretel is considered by many as the salvation of German opera, bringing relief from the murky Wagnerian depths of Teutonic myth and initiating a return to the shimmering world of the fairy tale. In 1923, Hansel and Gretel became the first complete opera to be broadcast on radio from Covent Garden ; Eight years later it was the first to be broadcast from the New York Met. It is significant therefore that this is one of the eight operas chosen to be in this season’s Met HD transmissions. Beautifully staged by Richard Jones and moodily designed by John Macfarlane, this dark and eccentric production ‘is tough and dark, sparse and savage, an exploration of deprivation, cruelty and gluttony in a contemporary always-always-land’. (Financial Times) “…Vladimir Jurowski conducts superbly, and the cast, singing in accessible English, is first-rate, especially Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer and Alan Held's towering Wotanesque Father. The staging… is WNO's familiar Richard Jones effort, with Francis Bacon-style drop curtains of shrieking maws and blood-slathered plates, the Witch visibly roasting in her Auschwitz-style kitchen.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2008 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Staged and Directed by August Everding
This production, filmed in 1981, is now being released on DVD for the first time. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Recorded in 1971 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Hamburg Radio 1962
Gisela Pohl (Gretel), Barbara Scherler (Hansel), Marcel Cordes (Peter), Gertrud Burgstheler-Schuster (Gertrud), Lilian Benningsen (Witch), Gisela Knabba (Sandman), Oda Balsborg (Dew Fairy) NDR Sinfonieorchester, -Chor, -Kinderchor and -Knabenchor, Carl Schuricht Recorded in Hamburg in December 1962. Digitally remastered in 24 bit technology, this is a great sounding recording from this era. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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First conducted in Weimar in 1893 by Richard Strauss, Hänsel und Gretel had immediate worldwide success, the Hamburg premiere in 1894 conducted by Gustav Mahler. In its first year, over 50 German theatres staged a production and it has been translated into over 20 languages. In the UK it was the first complete opera to ever be broadcast from Covent Garden back in 1923, and was a staple in the opera repertory until the 1950s where it fell into a black hole. Here Hänsel und Gretel remained until Glyndebourne’s new production in 2008. This recording comes from the re-staging in 2010. This recording boasts a fine cast, with Alice Coote a seasoned Hänsel having also performed in the role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Lydia Teuscher making a notable UK debut as Gretel with Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke’s beautiful portrayal of the Witch stealing the show. Robin Ticciati, Glyndebourne’s new Artistic Director from 2013, clearly loves the piece: his conducting is nothing short of wonderful, with the performance from the London Philharmonic Orchestra a real highlight on this recording. “his Glyndebourne account is unusually spacious for such a youthful conductor, but the LPO and principal singers sustain his tempi admirably. Alice Coote’s coltish Hänsel and Lydia Teuscher’s diamantine Gretel are near-ideal siblings...Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke steals the limelight with his Mime-like Rosine Leckermaul.” Sunday Times, 3rd June 2012 “The list of major conductors who have recorded Hansel und Gretel is impressive, but I think this is the finest musical account of all. Ticciati conducts on a grand scale, but with extraordinary attention to the detail of Humperdinck's one masterwork...The voices, appropriately, are far from Wagnerian in size, and each singer is fully in character, with mezzo Alice Coote as a plausible Hansel.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ***** “Ticciati rightly lets his winds and horns steal the show; the orchestral playing here is in the luxury class. Alice Coote and Lydia Teuscher are vocally well matched as the two children, both voices capable of singing really softly, really gently...Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke’s Witch is a brilliantly effective pantomime villain... Minimal stage noises and audience reactions add to the atmosphere.” The Arts Desk, 18th August 2012 “Let us first praise conductor and orchestra. Ticciati's Hansel is at a completely other remove from the pseudo-Wagnerian-Siegfried-and-Fafner-have-a-bumpy-day-in-the-woods-with-the-kids approach now mostly favoured in larger opera houses...So far, so very good, and the cast continues the upward curve, with Coote moulding her weightier voice well into, and alongside, Teuscher's gentler tones, [&] Dazeley kicking up a characterful storm” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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