There is quite a bit of sex in The Royal Opera’s current production of Hänsel und Gretel: the children’s parents come close to having it in their bedroom and the witch makes her first entrance in a cardigan that leaves nothing to the imagination. I do not see the problem with ‘family shows’ exploring the stories’ darker strands. What are fairytales for if they do not serve as touchstones for children on the murky world that lies on the other side of adolescence? A great deal more sex, violence and skulduggery air in the four pre-watershed weekly episodes of Eastenders than in the trim two hours and fifteen minutes of Humperdinck’s opera and nobody fills column inches denouncing the BBC now that Mary Whitehouse is no more.
Christian Fenouillant’s ingenious sets are as sinister as anything the Brothers Grimm imagined and do much to conjure the disturbed universe in which a witch would eat a child. The children’s bedroom is a spiky oblong full of jagged diagonals and skewed perspectives. The forest is a fecund kaleidoscope of sinister greens and menacing shadows while the witch’s kitchen looks like a concentration camp. The children buried in the wall and hung from the rafters may be a step too far for the fainthearted but, without the horror, you cannot have the magic when the spell is broken.
The music is a treat for Engelbert Humperdinck’s many fans and it’s hard not to join their legions when you’ve seen this production. Alice Coote and Camilla Tilling have both the vocal range and body language to be convincing kids and Ann Murray is a superbly sinister sexy witch. Robin Ticciati or Colin Davis conduct.
Real hunger is still rare this early in the recession and still rarer in the restaurant at the Royal Opera House but the most moving moment must be the end of Act II when angels grant Hänsel and Gretel’s hearts’ desire: a whole sandwich. From the rapturous expressions on their faces those slices of bread are better than sex: maybe it’s the smoked salmon.
Hänsel und Gretel will be on BBC2 on Christmas Day at 3pm. It clashes with the Queen’s Speech: what would Mary Whitehouse have made of that?
Hänsel und Gretel
The Royal Opera
9 December 2008 to 1 January 2009 (Calendar)
Main Auditorium
