Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel shows no signs of losing its popularity. Produced this summer for London's Opera Holland Park, these two DVDs capture a couple more high profile productions staged within the last year in the UK. Both attempt to emphasise the work's relevance to modern life, underlining the poverty and destitution that hides behind the score's deliciously sugar-coated Wagnerism.
Of course, the brothers Grimm were not ones to shy away from the dark psychology that informs so many fairy-tales and, despite the healthy bourgeois origins of Adelheid Wette's libretto for Humperdinck, she keeps a fair bit of social commentary in there, adding a nice dash of piety in the children's unthinking acceptance of their father's religious optimism. To varying degrees, these two productions latch on to that social commentary: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's Royal Opera Production emphasises the grim reality of late nineteenth century poverty in Germany, giving it a slight contemporary twist, while Laurent Pelly produces a typically flamboyant and stylish (if rather broad) swipe at the vulgarity and profligacy promoted by consumerist society. Both DVDs feature interviews with the directors that emphasise many of the same points, but Pelly goes farthest in elucidating his desire to give the piece strong contemporary emphasis and relevance, simultaneously expressing his disagreement with Humperdinck's strongly religious overtones.
Central to Pelly's concept is a critique of consumerism, his witch (the excellent tenor Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke) is recast as the owner of a ghastly German supermarket; the more wholesome gingerbread and confectionary of a century ago replaced by garish packaging and E-numbers. The forest itself has been decimated by climate change and is strewn with discarded wrappers – Gretel collects several of them to make her crown – while the children saved at the end are padded out into obese caricatures of poor health and inactivity.
Pelly's production itself was subjected to a fair amount of criticism when it opened last summer, charges of the romance of the piece being lost, in particular. It was filmed, too, for a cinema release which saw an additional spate of uncomprehending – and to my mind unfair – reviews from film critics. Seeing it again on DVD, however, one can only admire the imagination of the production, its humour and the élan with which it's carried out. We start with a specially filmed introduction sequence in which a cardboard box is delivered to Glyndebourne, passing through the hands of several of the cast before ending up with Hansel and Gretel, who then proceed to fight over it. The cardboard box itself provides an imaginative conceit for the set of Act One. Jennifer Holloway makes a lively and boyish Hänsel while Adriana Kučerová is a delightfully wide-eyed Gretel. Their rapport is outstanding and I particularly like Pelly's direction of them in the forest: he doesn't shy away of a certain sensuality in their feeding each other the illicit berries.
As the mother Irmgard Vilsmaier – who incidently sang the role in the second cast at Covent Garden – manages to be imposing but full of humanity, her laments deeply affecting. Klaus Kuttler's father does not quite achieve the same depth and is no match for a wonderful Thomas Allen in the Covent Garden performance, but sings strongly and captures the character's uncomplicated big-heartedness well. Ablinger-Sperrhacke manages to be both hugely entertaining and genuinely chilling as the witch, emphasised here by excellent camera-work, providing the most memorable image of the whole production first in his awful pink-rinse wig, then bald and bare-breasted. The London Philharmonic Orchestra play beautifully for Kazushi Ono who leads an instinctive and nuanced account of the score.
Musically, the Opus Arte release is, if anything, slightly superior to Decca's. Sir Colin Davis elicits luminous playing from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in a reading that is both romantically expansive and urgent. The cast is led by two world-class stars in Angelika Kirchschlager and Diana Damrau who act quite and sing superbly as brother and sister. Thomas Allen's performance as the father is a minor miracle in characterisation, imbuing him with profound humanity, warmth and humour, while Elizabeth Connell is not far off, giving the mother nobility in the face of such grim privation. Anja Silja's performance as the witch is not quite the dramatic tour-de-force one suspects it was meant to be: she's no longer able to sing much of the role and seems less than entirely comfortable with the acting at times.
Yet for all its stylishness, Leiser and Caurier's production simply lacks the conviction of Pelly's. Both witches, for example, rely on bared prosthetic breasts for comic effect, but this seems somehow a lot more feasible - as well as less of a cheap trick - in the context of Pelly's production. The central idea of poverty in Leiser and Caurier's production also culminates in a rather laboured dream sequence where the children receive at Christmas half a sandwich each. There is also an imbalance in sets between a lavish interior of the witch's house – replete with several ovens, life-size gingerbread men, and children hanging from meat-hooks – and the rather pathetic model house that Hänsel and Gretel address and begin to eat in the previous scene. That said, the animated backdrop for the forest and the lighting, designed by Christophe Forey, are highly effective, and Agostino Cavalca's costume designs for the Sandman (Pumeza Matshikiza) and the Dew Fairy (Anita Watson) are extremely imaginative.
Both DVDs are beautifully filmed, produced and presented, enjoying excellent sound and picture quality and packed with extra features. There's a chance the Leiser and Caurier's Royal Production on Opus Arte might stand the test of time and repeated viewing better than Pelly's Glyndebourne rethink, but for me, for the moment, it's Pelly's more courageous and outrageous production that I find the more thought-provoking and enjoyable.
By Hugo Shirley
Related articles:
Opera Review: The Royal Opera's Hansel and Gretel (December '08)
Opera Review: Glyndebourne's Hansel and Gretel (August '08)
DVD Review: Three Wagner productions from the Bayreuth Festival (DG)
DVD Review: First two instalments of the Weimar Ring (Arthaus)