28.12.2024

THOMAS EBENSTEIN in his role debut as the Gingerbread Witch in Vienna

Since its premiere in 1893, Engelbert Humperdinck's fairytale opera "Hansel and Gretel" has awakened a passion for musical theater in generations of children. But great composer colleagues - such as Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Johannes Brahms - were also enthusiastic about this work. The opera is full of magical moments, enchanting music and a timeless message about courage, solidarity and the victory of good over evil. And so the Vienna State Opera's production is aimed equally at children and adults and takes us right into the heart of the fairy-tale story through wondrous projections from a magic lantern. It is the successful mixture of folksong-like simplicity and the complex musical language of the direct successor to Wagner, of simple melodies and artful orchestral treatment, of socio-critical realism and atmospheric magic that makes this setting of the well-known story by the Brothers Grimm so appealing.

In Adrian Noble's staged realisation of the opera and under the direction of Axel Kober, Thomas Ebenstein can be seen for the first time as the Gingerbread Witch at the Vienna State Opera.