Hänsel und Gretel

By Engelbert Humperdinck

A revival of the 2008 Festival Production
Sung in German with English supertitles

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Photo: Mike Hoban

Clips Courtesy of the Glyndebourne Label. Taken from the DVD/Blu-Ray Release, available from the Glyndebourne Shop

Listen to Robin Ticciati on Hänsel und Gretel

Conductor Robin Ticciati talks to James Whitbourn about Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.

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Introduction

With its familiar fairy-tale story, feel-good ending and magical mix of simple folk tunes and rich Wagnerian textures, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel has long cast its musical spell over both adults and children alike. Laurent Pelly’s deliciously witty 2008 production with an underlying subtext of modern consumerism, sees the broom-maker’s two outcast children lose their way in the enchanted forest before finding themselves in every hungry child’s dream.

Glyndebourne on Tour’s current Music Director, Robin Ticciati, conducted this production on Tour in 2008, shortly before conducting the opera again for his Covent Garden debut. Now Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, he returns to Glyndebourne to conduct a largely new cast, led by the British mezzo Alice Coote (who made her Festival debut as Nero in L’incoronazione di Poppea in 2008) and the young German soprano Lydia Teuscher (here making her UK opera debut) as the two innocent children, with Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke reprising his role as the witch.

Performance schedule Festival 2010

Date	Price band	Perf starts	Long interval	Finish	Train departs Victoria	Post opera coach
Sun 25 July *	2	4.55	6.10-7.30	8.25	1.47	8.55
Fri 30 July	2	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Sun 1 August *	2	4.55	6.10-7.30	8.25	1.47	8.55
Wed 4 August	3	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Sat 7 August	2	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Tue 10 August	3	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Sat 14 August	2	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Tues 17 August #	3	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Sun 22 August	2	4.55	6.10-7.30	8.25	1.47	8.55
Wed 25 August # %	3	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15
Sat 28 August	2	6.10	7.25-8.45	9.40	2.47	10.15

Key

* = Pre-performance talk available in the in the Ebert Room.
# = Family Ticket Available
% = Family Workshop

Creative team

Conductor Robin Ticciati
Director Laurent Pelly
Revival Director Stéphane Marlot
Set Designer Barbara de Limburg Stirum
Costume Designer Laurent Pelly
Lighting Designer Joël Adam

Cast

Hänsel Alice Coote / Elizabeth DeShong (August 25 & 28)
Gretel Lydia Teuscher
Mother Irmgard Vilsmaier
Father William Dazeley
Witch Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
The Sandman Tara Erraught
Dew Fairy Ida Falk Winland

London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Chorus

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