A SWEET TREAT FOR ALL!

A holiday treat for younger opera fans and a fabulous family outing! Helmed by Welsh National Opera's director Richard Jones, Edward Gardner conducts the Metropolitan Opera's holiday production Hansel and Gretel. Experience their fear and trepidation as they journey their way through a labyrinthine forest, full of giant puppet chefs and suit-wearing trees, all the way to a huge industrial kitchen nestling inside an innocent gingerbread house to find the wicked witch. Full of surreal characters and settings, this opera is a feast for both the ears and eyes!

Each act takes place in a kitchen to represent the children's growing hunger. Wittily staged by Richard Jones, with exceptional set design by John Macfarlane, this fantastically surreal production is an abundant feast for the eyes and ears.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Richard Jones' has turned this well-loved fairy tale into a deliciously dark interpretation of Humperdinck's original opera, and is guaranteed to be gobbled up by those with a wicked sense of fun and fantasy. The costuming and sets revel in the nightmarish aspects of the story, with Jones' storytelling focusing on the themes of hunger, gluttony and cannibalism which lurk beneath the tale's surface. Deep in the depths of the forest Hansel and Gretel must use all their guile and trickery to avoid a horrific fate.

Whilst being sent out to the dark forest by their annoyed mother, they fill their time by picking strawberries, but end up eating them. As it gets dark, they panic; but the Sandman comes to them and sends them to sleep and places angels to guard them while they slumber.

Featuring a beautiful dream sequence involving a banquet served by a fish, this surreal yet enchanting production will intrigue those who wish to delve into the dark and comic side of fantasy opera.