A lip-smacking Hansel and Gretel at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

By Mark Valencia, 18 June 2019

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“connoisseurs of simple but ingenious stagecraft will be in heaven”

Reviewed at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London on 17 June 2019

Humperdinck, Hänsel und Gretel (Sung in English)

English National Opera

Ben Glassberg, Conductor

Timothy Sheader, Director

Peter McKintosh, Set Designer

Rachel Kelly, Hänsel

Susanna Hurrell, Gretel

Alasdair Elliott, Witch

Duncan Rock, Peter / Father

Rosie Aldridge, Gertrude / Mother

Gillian Keith, Sandman

He Wu, Dew Fairy

Oliver Fenwick, Lighting Designer

English National Opera Orchestra, Members of the ENO Orchestra

ENO’s Mahagonny: biting, bleak, brilliantly executed satire

David Karlin, 16th February

Never has Brecht and Weill’s satire on the inhumanity of man to man been render with such utter darkness; Simon O’Neill heads up a superb cast.

*****

Taken for a ride: an energetic revival of Così fan tutte at ENO

Dominic Lowe, 6th February

English National Opera's revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular production is a blend of spectacle with some first-class singing, with Lucy Crowe emphasising her Mozartian credentials.

****1

Cocteau-esque camp: Alden’s Partenope returns to ENO

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Christopher Alden’s Olivier Award-winning production of Handel’s Partenope returns to the Coliseum, but it's the singing that earns the plaudits.

****1

Dead Man Walking at English National Opera: a superb execution

David Karlin, 1st November

Anneliese Miskimmon's ENO production of Jake Heggie and Terence McNally's tale of crime, repentance, compassion and redemption compels from start to finish.

*****

Comedy falls flat in ENO's season opening Cinderella

Mark Valencia, 27th September

Julia Burbach and her designer, Herbert Murauer, are defeated by the wide canyons of the Coliseum stage in their modern-dress Cinderella.

**111

ENO gives Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots a worthy performance

Nick Boston, 15th February

Musgrave's powerful depiction of a powerful woman at the mercy of male manipulation receives a strong staging from at ENO.

****1

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

ENO and the Open Air Theatre join forces for a lip-smacking Hansel and Gretel