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© Semperoper/Klaus Gigga
Hansel and Gretel
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Hansel and Gretel - Engelbert Humperdinck
Fairy tale drama in three acts
After the poetry by Adelheid Wette
Performed in German with German and English supertitles
Premiere: December 9, 2006
The famous fairytale opera bursting with magical melodies and moments!
Storyline
Scene 1
Hänsel and Gretel are supposed to be working but they are so hungry. They escape their hunger by dancing and playing. Their mother returns home. Exasperated by the fact that the children have not completed their work, she accidentally knocks over the cooking pot with their last meal onto the floor. She sends the children off to pick berries in the wood. The children’s father has done a good day’s work: he was able to sell a lot and brings plenty of food home. There is great joy. The father learns that the children are picking berries on Ilsenstein. He tells his wife about the wicked witch who lives there. In haste, father and mother go in search of the children.
Scene 2
Hänsel and Gretel are picking berries but eat as many as they pick. They play a game and get lost in the wood. As night falls, they become scared. They say their nightly prayer and fall asleep. Many angels appear.
Scene 3
The children awake to find a tempting world full of sweets, inhabited by a witch who turns out to be very dangerous. She wants to eat first Gretel and then Hänsel. Gretel frees Hänsel. Together they trick the witch and push her into the oven. Other children under the witch’s spell are released by her death. When the mother and father eventually find the children, their joy is great.
Program and cast
Hänsel: Nicole Chirka (December 10, 13, 22, 26, 2024), Valerie Eickhoff (December 22, 26, 2024)
Gretel: Christina Gansch (December 10, 13, 22, 26, 2024), Andrea Carroll (December 22, 26, 2024)
Peter (Father): Markus Marquardt (December 10, 13, 22, 26, 2024), Oleksandr Pushniak (December 22, 26, 2024)
Gertrud (Mother): Christa Mayer
The Witch: Evelyn Herlitzius
Sandman: Dewman: Sofia Savenko
Musical Direction: John Fiore
Production: Katharina Thalbach
Set & Costumes: Ezio Toffolutti
Lighting: Jan Seeger
Choreography: Erica Trivett
Children’s Choir: Claudia Sebastian-Bertsch
Dramaturgy: Hans-Georg Wegner
Children's Choir of the Semperoper Dresden
Saxon State Orchestra Dresden
Dancers of the Palucca University of Dance Dresden
Photo gallery
© Semperoper/Klaus Gigga
© Semperoper/Klaus Gigga
Semperoper Dresden
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper ballet. The building is located near the Elbe River in the historic centre of Dresden, Germany.
The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the opera house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper, and completed in 1878. The opera house has a long history of premieres, including major works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.
The first opera house at the location of today's Semperoper was built by the architect Gottfried Semper. It opened on 13 April 1841 with an opera by Carl Maria von Weber. The building style itself is debated among many, as it has features that appear in three styles; Early Renaissance and Baroque, with Corinthian style pillars typical of Greek classical revival. Perhaps the most suitable label for this style would be eclecticism, where influences from many styles are used, a practice most common during this period. Nevertheless, the opera building, Semper's first, is regarded as one of the most beautiful European opera houses.
© Semperoper/Klaus Gigga
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