"Hansel and Gretel" At The Met

In honour of the debut of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel - in Weimar on this day in 1893 - here is the opening of the 2008 production done by New York's Metropolitan Opera, starring Alice Coote as Hansel and Christine Schäfer as Gretel; unseen is Philip Langridge, who portrayed the Witch. The conductor is Vladimir Jurowski.

Long a Christmas-time favourite, Richard Ford initially gave the show this audaciously modern staging at the Welsh National Opera in 2007 - for which it won a Laurence Olivier Award; it was no less successful in its American run, being broadcast on both radio and television as well as captured on DVD. Ford's staging has proven popular enough that it has also been copied by many regional companies as well.
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