It has become customary to give recent productions of Hänsel and Gretel a modern and often murkier twist, perhaps mirroring the current surge in popularity of darker stories, and the appetite for Nordic noir in particular. Humperdinck’s sister Adelheid Wette adapted the tale from the original Grimm brothers, lightening it considerably in the process, for her own children to perform with some songs composed by her brother. The opera eventually followed. Scottish Opera’s new production from Bill Bankes-Jones, who has also provided a fresh translation, took us firmly back to Humperdinck’s original conception, with a traditionally told story. No modern housing estates here, or even male witches.
Designer Tim Meacock produced a simple but effective set of large, planked tree trunks soaring skywards, which shifted about uncannily in the forest scenes, unnerving the lost children. It was enhanced, in the opera’s genuinely frightening centrepiece, by spectacularly eerie lighting from Mark Doubleday. A simple hut in the woods with Germanic rustic furniture in Act One gave way to the forest, and eventually to the gingerbread house in Act Three. Indeed, the appealing look and feel of the opera was very much something one would expect to find in an illustrated version of the book for younger children.
Estonian Kai Rűűtel was a convincingly boyish Hänsel and Ailish Tynan a sweet Gretel. Both were very finely sung and they connived well together, particularly so in the lively dances, which were choreographed by Kally Lloyd Jones. Their mother Gertrude, sung by Shuna Scott Sendall, sent them out to gather strawberries, while their father Peter, Paul Carey Jones in glorious voice, returned after an unexpectedly good day selling brooms.