HANSEL AND GRETEL. THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE. MONTESQUIEU: DE L´ESPRIT DES LOIS

 22 December 2024–9 January 2025

BEWARE THE WOODS...

Two performers in bright costumes dance and smile on a table in the opera Hansel and Gretel. The set is a small ramshackle wooden hut. The singers are smiling while they perform.

Sent into the woods to look for strawberries, the hungry Hansel and Gretel are about to embark on a fantastic adventure. As they fall asleep, a fairy-tale world comes to life around them. But the mysterious forest is not always safe for children, and little do they know, something darkly delicious awaits them when they wake... They can’t believe their luck when they come across an edible house made of chocolate – but their host, a witch in disguise, has an insatiable appetite – for young children! Brother and sister must use all their cunning if they are to survive – and break the charm that has captured many children before them.

Background

Kate Lindsey and Heidi Stober (making her debut with The Royal Opera) star as Hansel and Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck’s enchanting opera. Drawing out the magic of the score is conductor Giedrė Šlekytė, who also makes her debut. Antony McDonald’s witty and imaginative production is the perfect treat for families and operatic newcomers alike.

A Grimm history

Brothers Jacob Ludwig and Wilhelm Carl Grimm were distinguished academics and folklorists. Through their work, preserving and transcribing the oral tradition of folk tales, they preserved much precious material from being lost. Their first publication, in 1812, of Kind und Hausmärchen (Child and Household Tales), featured the story of Hansel and Gretel, and was such a success that they produced several more collections, inspiring similar story-gathering efforts across Europe.

Catchy tunes throughout

Humperdinck's music combines the rustic charm of folksong with majestic orchestral scoring, with highlights including the 'Evening Prayer', the Witch's aria, and the Dew Fairy's song. The opera dates from a time in history when many composers were seeking an ‘authentically German’ form of opera. 

In Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck uses real folk songs, and transforms them in a similar way to the ‘leitmotifs’ (or recurring musical fragments) to those found in Richard Wagner’s operas. Listen out for the catchy tune of the children’s dance, which returns later in the Witch’s ride. Humperdinck’s orchestration also transports us to the German forest of olden times, with prominent melodies played by the horns, recalling hunting traditions.

Trouser-roles: an operatic tradition

The role of Hansel is performed by a female singer with a mezzo-soprano voice. This is an operatic tradition that recalls the 17th-century origins of the art form, when castrati (castrated male performers) would sing high-pitched roles. As fashions changed, and castrati were no longer in favour, composers still wrote high-pitched male roles, and women stepped in, performing en travesti, or ‘trouser roles’, as they are sometimes called.

An opera for children

Engelbert Humperdinck’s sister, Adelheid Wette, wrote the libretto to the opera, but it began life as an informal piece, for amateur performance at home. Initially, Adelheid asked her brother to set a number of songs for a Hansel and Gretel play that she had written for her children to perform in their living room. 

This was then expanded into a singspiel (a play with music), and finally, it was through-composed, resulting in the non-stop musical feast that audiences know and love today.

https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/hansel-and-gretel-details

UN LIVRE

Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède, dit Montesquieu (1689-1655), a fait de son œuvre un hymne à la raison, à la liberté, au bonheur. Auteur mordant et spirituel des Lettres persanes (1721), voyageur curieux de comprendre les sociétés européennes de son temps, lecteur infatigable, il est également le publiciste grave et rigoureux de De l’Esprit des lois (1748). En perçant à jour les rapports entre la géographie physique, le droit, la forme du gouvernement, l’histoire des mentalités, la religion, l’économie, Montesquieu offre une intelligente synthèse entre les Anciens et les Modernes, refusant de renier les apports d’Homère et de Virgile, tout en accueillant l’esprit critique et historique de son temps. En Moderne déterminé, avec un sens aigu de l’observation et de l’expérience, il formule une science politique nouvelle dans la langue élégante des honnêtes gens, élabore une méthode pour les sciences humaines qu’il contribue à fonder : sociologie, démographie, économie politique, science politique, anthropologie, ethnologie… Véritable somme politique, De l’Esprit des lois a été repris, défendu contre les attaques virulentes et amendé par son auteur jusqu’à sa mort. Montesquieu y engage tout à la fois une réfl exion sur les différents gouvernements, une enquête sur les sociétés humaines et une analyse comparée des lois afin de former tout homme à évaluer l’intervention législatrice pour mieux appréhender la réalité sociale. Chef-d’œuvre absolu, il est l’un des livres les plus importants, les plus clairvoyants du siècle des Lumières et de la littérature mondiale. Grâce à une orthographe modernisée, cette édition fournit les clefs nécessaires pour aborder ce grand oeuvre et l’inscrit dans l’exceptionnel cheminement intellectuel que fut celui de son auteur.    Éditions Gallimard - ISBN : 9782073101402