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Music: Engelbert Humperdinck. Lyrics: Adelheid Wette after a fairytelling by the Grimm-brothers.
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First performance: Weimar, Hofteater 23 december 1892.
| Role | Voicetype |
|---|---|
| Gertrud | mezzosoprano |
| Gretel | soprano |
| Hänsel | mezzosoprano |
| Knusperhexe | mezzosoprano |
| Peter | baritone |
| Sandmänchen | soprano |
| Taumännchen | soprano |
Hänsel and Gretel have been given chores by their mother Gertrud, who is furious upon her return to find the tasks incomplete. She sends them out to pick strawberries in the wood, but when their father Peter comes home drunk and hears that his children are in the forest he tells Gertrud of a childeating witch. They leave together to search for them.
Hänsel and Gretel have eaten all the strawberries. They begin to grow fearful and from out of the mist emerges the Sandman, who throws sand in their eyes. They kneel to say their prayers, then fall asleep. They are watched over during the night by fourteen angels.
In the morning, having been woken by the Dew Fairy, they find themselves near a house made of gingerbread and sweets. Unable to resist the temptation, they eat little pieces from the house. The witch who lives there captures the children; she puts Gretel to work in the kitchen and begins to fatten Hänsel for eating. Gretel tricks the witch and pushes her head-first into her own oven, causing it to explode. Around the house, gingerbread men turn into children and all the children whom the witch has baked in the oven rise from the earth. The witch is pulled from the ruined oven, having been baked into a gigantic honey cake; the opera ends with a hymn of thanksgiving.