Apart from lending his name to a tight-trousered pop star of the 1960s, the composer Engelbert Humperdink (German, 1854-1921) has one enduring claim to fame: his opera Hansel und Gretel, whose application of easy if Wagnerian lyricism to a classic fairytale makes it a family favourite around Christmastide. And the new production at London’s Covent Garden (pictured) is purpose-built to be a Christmas perennial.
Directed and designed by Antony McDonald, it’s a picture-pretty show whose simple innocence will disappoint anyone looking for the darkness in its Brothers Grimm story of abandoned children being baked alive by a culinary witch. The witch here could be Mary Berry, she so lacks demonic qualities. And apart from the fact that her gingerbread house looks like Bates Motel (it certainly doesn’t look edible), what you see is pure Walt Disney – with a touch of Sondheim’s Into the Woods as the story opens out, fairy tales collide, and Cinderella, Snow White and Red Riding Hood turn up with silent, walk-on parts.
