Humperdinck Hansel Und Gretel (sindram, Reiss; Thielemann) 2015 [hdtv 1080i]

Diana Damrau and Angelika Kirchschlager star in the acclaimed 2008 production of Humperdinck's famous fairytale opera, in the company of two of Britain's most revered musical figures: Thomas Allen, playing the role of the Father, and the legendary conductor Colin Davis. Directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser combine their characteristic wit and a dash of deliciously dark comedy with the opera's fairytale charm. Humperdinck's music mixes catchy folk-like songs with sumptuous instrumental colour, making the result as tunefully approachable, musically memorable and visually delightful as opera gets. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in full Surround Sound.

The casting of the radiant Helen Donath as Gretel, the theatrical Christa Ludwig as the witch, the vibrant Anna Moffo as Hansel, and the noble but lovable Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the father would have been sufficient to secure this recording's fame as the best version of "Hansel and Gretel" ever committed to disc. However, to cast Lucia Popp as the Dew Fairy and Arleen Auger as the Sandman was a master stroke. And, the excellent Charlotte Berthold is an added bonus as the mother. Leading this array of vocal riches, Kurt Eichhorn produces a reading that accentuates the detail and color of the score more than any other, drawing out the richness of the orchestration with astonishing success.

Hänsel und Gretel is a fairy-tale opera (Märchenspiel) by Engelbert Humperdinck to a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette. The idea for the opera was proposed to Humperdinck by his sister, who approached him about writing music for songs that she had written for her children for Christmas based on „Hänsel and Gretel.“ After several revisions, the musical sketches and the songs were turned into a full-scale opera. Hänsel und Gretel has been associated with Christmas since its earliest performances, and it is often performed at Christmas time. It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the prayer from act II. A family classic, it grew out of a set of incidental music and, written between 1890 and 1893, it was first performed on 23 December 1893 under Richard Strauss in Weimar.

If there is such a thing as a classic Christmas opera, it is Hansel and Gretel. Like hardly anyone else, Humperdinck succeeded here in combining popular melodies with the technical sophistication of sophisticated compositional art. Even before the opera, he published a shorter version as a fairy tale game, which, like an essence of the opera, exposes its essential design principles.