Hansel and Gretel Opera Assignment

Hansel and Gretel: An Opera for Children

            Hansel and Gretel was originally a fairytale written by the Brothers Grimm, but in 1890 Engelbert Humperdinck’s sister, Adelheid Wette, requested he write a set of four songs based on the Grimm’s fairytale for her children to perform (Cantoni). From these four songs Humperdinck created a singspiel; a singspiel was an 18^th-century opera containing spoken dialogue and is usually comic in tone (Stewart). Humperdinck ultimately turned the Hansel and Gretel singspiel into a full opera, and it first premiered in Weimar, Germany, on December 23, 1893 (Stewart). The opera was first conducted by Richard Strauss and was an instant success. Within a year, the opera had spread throughout Germany; in addition, the world premiere of Hansel and Gretel was near Christmas which caused the opera to become a holiday tradition (Stewart). Furthermore, this opera was the Met’s first Saturday matinée radio-broadcast, which appropriately was played on Christmas of 1931 (Stewart). The popularity and familiarity of this opera has allowed it to stay a Christmas tradition and perpetuated it through the ages.

            The Hansel and Gretel opera I watched was filmed in Vienna, Austria, in 1981 and was conducted by Georg Solti. The opera begins with a young boy, Hansel, and his sister, Gretel, making brooms in their house. As they work, they begin complaining about how hungry they are, and soon start to dance to distract themselves from their dire situation. When their mother, Gertrude, returns home and finds her children playing instead of working, she becomes infuriated and begins to hit Hansel; during this confrontation the mother accidentally hits a jug of milk that breaks and spills their only food for the night. As a result of this mishap, she chases her kids into the woods, and tells them not to come back until they pick enough strawberries to fill a basket. Hansel and Gretel’s father, Peter, then drunkenly stumbles into the house and shows his wife all the food he has acquired throughout the day. Peter is struck with fear as Gertrude informs him of the whereabouts of their children; he begins telling tales of the Nibblewitch that lures children into her home with food so she can bake and eat them. Upon hearing this horrifying tale, both of the parents run off into the woods in search of Hansel and Gretel, but soon become disheartened as they find a piece of their children’s clothing on the ground. During this time, Hansel and Gretel finally finish filling their basket with strawberries; overjoyed, they begin indulging on them. Afterwards they realize that not only have they finished all the strawberries, but they have lost their way in the woods. As nighttime approaches, the children are visited by the Sandman, who sprinkles magic sand in their eyes that causes them to fall asleep. Morning approaches and the Dewman is introduced, he claims to travel with the sun and sees whose awake and who is lazy and still asleep. Eventually, both children wake up and resume trying to find their way home through the woods, and soon they stumble upon a field full of sunflowers and gingerbread men. Suddenly, a gingerbread house appears to the delight of Hansel and Gretel because they believe that angels led them here to eat the house, but once they begin to eat the house, the Nibblewitch appears and snares Hansel with a net. The witch then casts a spell on the children so they are unable to move. The witch claims Hansel is to skinny and must be fattened up, so she locks him in a cage and begins to feed him; to check if he is fat enough she asks to feel his finger, but he is able to deceive her by using a stick. All the while, Gretel is able to steal the witch’s wand and key, and sets Hansel free. The Nibblewitch then attempts to lure Gretel in the oven, but the children are able to again deceive her and manage to push her into the oven. Hansel and Gretel then run out of the house, and soon they realize that all the gingerbread men have turned back into children. Hansel and Gretel are reunited with their parents, and the Nibblewitch is transformed into a giant cake that all the children begin to eat with delight.

            Engelbert Humperdinck’s version of Hansel and Gretel differed greatly from the Brothers Grimm version in that it removed most of the gruesome details of the story, like Hansel and Gretel being abandoned by their parents twice, to try and create a more lighthearted opera. Furthermore, the opera adapted a few new characters like the Dewman and the Sandman. Humperdinck’s adaptation was received well by all when it first premiered. The opera’s light-hearted nature was easily comprehended by all, including children with no prior exposure to opera, and soon it became regarded as the leading children’s opera (Stevenson). The opera was not only revered by children; Richard Strauss, the man who conducted the world premiere of Hansel and Gretel, described the opera by saying, “truly, it’s a masterpiece of the highest quality” (Stewart). Children and Adults alike relished in Humperdinck’s version of Hansel and Gretel, where good triumphs over evil with the help of the divine, and the opera’s success quickly spread throughout Germany, eventually taking hold as a holiday tradition.

            I thought Humperdinck’s opera of Hansel and Gretel strayed to far from the original fairytale, thus causing the opera to lack a true story line. By removing parts of the tale in order to make the opera more lighthearted, Humperdinck created a lackluster storyline that contained no lessons learned and an overly dramatized happy ending. The ending of the opera seemed almost lazily thrown together, by basically allowing the kids to easily triumph over evil and everything returns to normal because God wanted it that way. On the other hand, I thought the opera utilized lighting, costume design, and special effects to keep the viewers entertained and enticed in the story. I also noticed that the orchestra kept an overall happy tone to their music which allowed for emphasis on more serious or scary moments in the opera by becoming silent or chaotic in nature. Along with the orchestra, the lighting usually gave the viewer an idea of how they should feel at any given moment, like becoming dark or casting shadows during a more frightful time, allowing it to be more easily comprehended by children viewers.

            The opera I viewed utilized a number of different forms of technology throughout it. The more common uses of technology throughout the opera was the use of fog to make the woods seem more eerie, and this was most likely done by utilizing dry ice. Furthermore, the witch’s house contained a laboratory with all sorts of bubbling and smoking flasks, that again most likely made use of dry ice to achieve this effect. The opera also used projections of animations to make it appear as though witches were flying around in the background. When the Nibblewitch begins to fly around her house, it becomes apparent that pulleys must have been utilized in order to achieve this effect. One thing that was not as common in terms of technology seen in most operas, was the utilization of post-filming editing. There were a number of image overlays of shots, as well as smooth transitions from set to set that led me to believe that this film had a decent amount of post-filming editing. While this was not a common technological tactic of operas, I found it allowed the opera to smoothly move along and keep my attention.

If I were a 21^st century director that was tasked with turning this opera into a video game; there would be a number of changes to the opera’s plot that I would need to make. Overall, I would rely heavily on the plot of the Brothers Grimm’s version of Hansel and Gretel. The video game would be reminiscent of a Mario-type gameplay, in that the story would start with Gretel being stolen by the Nibblewitch, just as Bowser stole Princess Peach from Mario. The game would be a third person action/adventure, and the game would be played from the perspective of Hansel as he tries to save Gretel from the Nibblewitch. Hansel’s character would be able to unlock certain power-ups throughout the game play, and would be able to recharge his health by eating candy found throughout the game. His first task would be finding his way back to his house after being abandoned by his parents. Once Hansel’s character returns home he must face the first boss, which turns out to be his parents. After defeating his parents, Hansel receives the ability to see trials in the woods along with a sword. Now being able to find his way around the woods, the character will have to travel through each trail battling gingerbread men as he goes. Eventually, Hansel will have to fight the second boss which turns out to be the Sandman. Upon beating the Sandman, Hansel receives the power to cast spells on his enemies that put them to sleep, as well as the Sandman guiding him to the Nibblewitch’s gingerbread fortress. Now Hansel must stealthily sneak into and throughout the castle, using his sleeping spells to silence all his foes. Next, Hansel will battle the Nibblewitch atop the fortress surrounded by lava. Hansel must cast spells on the witch, while avoiding her magic spells. Hansel’s spells would momentarily stun the witch so he can grab her and try to throw her into the lava. Once Hansel defeats the Nibblewitch atop her gingerbread fortress, he receives a broom which allows him to fly, and the ability to access the witch’s sky-land. The Nibblewitch’s sky-land is one full of mysterious and dark creatures of the underworld. Now Hansel must fly around and battle these creatures as he attempts to find the witch once again, but now in her own territory. The third and final battle will take place in the sky, each character on their own brooms, and once the Nibblewitch is defeated for the second time, Hansel will finally be reunited with Gretel. Now the player will be free to play as Hansel or Gretel and can further explore the maps, even though the game has technically been won, but Gretel’s character will have special abilities to further access parts of the maps that Hansel could not. The game would also offer a multiplayer option where any of the characters can be chosen and battled in a Supermash Brothers type game play.

Works Cited

 

Cantoni, Linda. "Encyclopedia Britannica." 2017. britannica.com. 22 09 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hansel-and-Gretel-opera-by-Humperdinck>.

Hänsel Und Gretel. By Engelbert Humperdinck. Dir. August Everding. Perf. Georg Solti. 1981. Opera.

Stevenson, Joseph. Hänsel und Gretel, opera. n.d. 22 September 2017. <http://www.allmusic.com/composition/hänsel-und-gretel-opera-mc0002359858>.

Stewart, Henry. "Operapedia: Hansel and Gretel." December 2015: 14-15.