Customer Reviews

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a marvelous recording. I have loved it since it first came out in lp (those wonderful box sets with a full-size libretto you could actually read) and have missed it since I "lost" all my opera recordings. I have wanted for so long to replace it on cd and now at last I have it.

Cotrubas and Von Stade are just wonderful as Gretel and Hansel; so, for that matter is everyone, especially Soderstom as the Witch. The music is so beautiful that I get tears from just the introduction alone.

However, when I opened the package I was thunderstruck! Some bonehead at Sony Masterworks decided not to include a libretto and booklet with notes about the artist and the work. Instead, s/he or them decided to put the libretto on as a cd-rom. Great! For those who don't have a libretto and are not familiar with the opera and don't have a computer, bad news. For those who do have a computer and for some reason you cannot access the cd-rom, there is a note that your computer might not be compatible with the cd-rom.

This is the very first opera on cd that this has happened with and I am amazed that a company like Sony would send out a cd without a printed libretto. For me there is no problem since I know this opera completely. But for those who don't and want their child/children to hear it, there is no synopsis or libretto or anything there. And no track numbers, either.

But it is a fabulous recording!

Humperdinck's "Christmas Opera That Really Isn't a Christmas Opera" exists in several fine audio recordings, and this is one of them. Maestro Pritchard achieves some very lovely sonorities from this little-known orchestra and childrens chorus. Cotrubas and von Stade are wonderful as the kids (although I wish Sony had tried for Judith Blegen as Gretel; you'll have to content yourself with the DVD of the wonderful Metropolitan Opera production in English for that). Ludwig this time is the mother (she has previously recorded the Hexe, or Witch, not once but twice but never performed it on stage!), Nimsgern as the Father and Soderstrom doing what she said was an unintentional impersonation of Schwarzkoph as the Hexe. (Would you believe that Jon Vickers was originally cast as the Witch? Vickers is wonderful, but I'm rather glad that bit of imaginative casting didn't happen. Could you imagine Florestan or Otello as the Witch?). The late Ruth Welting and Kiri TeKanawa do lovely cameos as the Dew Fairy and Sandman. All in all, a wonderful recording and happy that it is available again. It's on the same plane as Donath/Moffo/Fischer-Dieskau on RCA or Schwarzkoph/von Karajan on EMI, and any one of these recordings gets my vote for Hansel.

Regrettably Hansel and Gretel has acquired a reputation as an opera for children. Yes, the title characters are children (sung by adult sopranos) and children often find this opera more appealing than most other operas, but Hansel and Gretel is a great opera which should appeal to people of all ages, if they will listen to it without bias. Personally, I think it's one of the half dozen or so greatest operas ever written. Humperdinck was a student and devotee of Wagner and was heavily influenced by him, but he managed to express the best elements of the Wagnerian style on a human scale. Even people who regard Wager's operas as long and tedious should find Hansel and Gretel quite beautiful and appealing. This is a very good performance. If you love great operas, please get Hansel and Gretel and listen to it without any preconceived notions.

This is a wonderful recording of the opera. Frederica von Stade is the best Hansel, and Ileana Cotrubus' Gretel is perfect! Those of you who swear by the Met production with Blegen and von Stade will not be disappointed by Cotrubas. This is enchanting and wonderful. The parents are wonderful -- Nimsgern is good, and how could you NOT love Christa Ludwig as the mother??? And Elisabeth Soderstrom is a wonderful witch. Also of note: Kiri Te Kanawa's Sandman is outstanding, and Welting's Dew fairy is great.

I love the musik of Humperdinck. He incorporated children songs that once you learn them will stay with you. It is dramatic, entertaining, represents children's feelings and fears. It is just a joy to listen to it all. A tremendous representation of the brother Grimm's tale. I love it.

Hansel and Gretel is such a great opera, definitely Humperdink's best work. This is an older recording in the original German with a soprano witch. The Met recently produced this in English with a man, Philip Langridge, playing the witch. While I don't mind the translation, I prefer the soprano witch- reminds me of what I grew up with. The price on this particular recording is hard to beat.