Westben Kids - Hansel and Gretel
An opera composed by the German composer Engelbert Humperdinck
Let’s explore this favourite opera through the icon Glyndbourne Opera company located on another beautiful rural location in southern England. As you know from experiencing music at Westben, it’s wonderful to connect music and nature.
Let’s Get Started!
1. READ OR WATCH
What is an Opera?
An opera is like a play in which everything is sung instead of spoken. Operas are usually performed in opera houses. The singers who sing and act out the story are on the stage, and the orchestra is in front of the stage but lower down, in the orchestra pit, so that the audience can see the stage.
Tell me about the Hansel and Gretel opera.
Hansel and Gretel is based on the Grimm’s fairy tale. The opera has some interesting changes in the story so listen to the synopsis as told by the Glyndebourne Opera festival in England or read for yourself. See the links below.
Synopsis:
Listen or Read!
ACT I
In the broom-maker’s house. Hansel complains he is hungry. Gretel shows him some milk that a neighbor has given for the family’s supper. The children dance. Their mother returns and wants to know why they have got so little work done. She accidentally spills the milk and chases the children out into the woods to pick strawberries.
Their father, a broom-maker, returns home drunk. He brings out the food he has bought, then asks where the children have gone. The mother tells him that she has sent them into the woods. He tells her about the Witch who lives there, and that the children are in danger. They go out into the woods to look for them.
ACT II
In the woods. Hansel picks strawberries. The children hear a cuckoo singing and eat the strawberries. Soon they have eaten every one. In the sudden silence of the wood, Hansel admits to Gretel that he has lost the way. The children grow frightened. The Sandman comes to bring them sleep, sprinkling sand over their eyes. The children say their evening prayer. In a dream, they see 14 angels.
ACT III
The gingerbread house. The Dew Fairy comes to waken the children. Gretel wakes Hansel, and they see the gingerbread house. They do not notice the Witch. The Witch decides to fatten Hansel up and puts a spell on him. The oven is hot. Gretel breaks the Witch’s spell and sets Hansel free. When the Witch asks her to look in the oven, she pretends she doesn’t know how to: the Witch must show her. When the Witch peers into the oven, the children shove her inside and shut the door. The oven explodes. The gingerbread children come back to life. The mother and father find the children, and all express gratitude for their salvation.
Courtesy of the Welsh National Opera
2. DANCE: Let’s do the dance that Hansel and Gretel do in their home:
Watch the video and dance along. They are singing in German so here are the words in English:
Hansel and Gretel’s Dance Duet, ‘Come Dance with Me’
Gretel: Brother dear, come dance with me, Both my hands I offer thee, Right foot first, left foot then, Round about and back again.
Hansel: I would dance but don’t know how! When to turn or when to bow. Show me what I ought to do, So that I may dance like you!
Gretel: With your foot you tap, tap, tap, With your hands you clap, clap, clap, Right foot first, left foot then! Round about and back again.
That was very good indeed, And I’m sure that you’ll succeed. Try again and I can see, Hansel soon will dance like me!, With your fingers you click, click, click, , Right foot first, left foot then, ! Round about and back again.
Hansel: With your head you nick, nick, nick, , With your fingers you click, click, click, Right foot first, left foot then, Round about and back again.
Now it’s your turn to watch the video and dance along with Hansel and Gretal!
This video is from the 2008 Glyndebourne Festival production.
3. Let’s speak German!:
Tanzen – dancing
Hexe – Witch
Kinder – Kids
Tannenbaum – Pine Tree
4. Go Behind the Scenes of Hansel and Gretel:
Backstage: Watch this short video and discover backstage at Glyndbourne.
5. Colour or Draw and Listen
Colour Hansel & Gretel while listening to the whole opera or draw your own version of the Witch’s candy house, their adventure in the forest, the dance or anything you like.
Explore other productions of Hansel and Gretel:
The link below brings you a full version of the opera (1 hour, 45 minutes) and is conducted by Georg Solti
Meet the Witch Puppet and other puppet characters from the San Diego Opera Company https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZHXCLVl2o