Hansel and Gretel, Quarantined

Need to Know

Hänsel und Gretel grew out of the music Humperdinck composed for his two young nieces Isolde and Gudrun, who had a home-made puppet theater at their house in Cologne. The two young girls liked to stage little plays devised by their mother Adelheid Wette, one of which was a play based on the Grimm Brother’s fairy tale of two children captured by a wicked witch but outwit her and escaped.

The opera is usually performed by adults, with the role of Hänsel being played by a mezzo-soprano, but the opera is about children and is intended to entertain people of all ages. The opera also includes a few traditional children’s songs and folksongs without disturbing Humperdinck’s overall compositional style.

The opera premiered in 1893 at Weimar and was conducted by Richard Strauss. In a letter to Humperdinck, Strauss called the new work “a masterpiece of the first water… you have bestowed upon our fellow citizens a work that they hardly deserve, though one hopes that very soon they will be worthy of it.”

Hänsel und Gretel is a fairy tale by brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and was not originally intended for children. The brothers were medieval scholars and had a passion for collecting German folklore. The story of Hänsel und Gretel dates back to the Great famine of 1314-1322. Here is a quote from Joseph Williams’ Discover The Truly Grim History Behind The Fairy Tale Of Hansel And Gretel: “An Irish chronicler also wrote that the famine was so bad people “were so destroyed by hunger that they extracted bodies of the dead from cemeteries and dug out the flesh from the skulls and ate it, and women ate their children out of hunger.” Read more from Williams about the fairytale here.

Sugar and Spice and everything nice!

In honor of Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel your pre-opera cocktail is a Gingerbread Eggnog. This holiday spirited cocktail is sure to get the witch’s approval, celebrating all the flavors of the season. Watch John build the cocktail here.

Ingredients: 3 1/2 ounces Eggnog, 1 1/2 ounces Coffee Liqueur, 3/4 ounce Rum, 3/4 ounce Brandy, Sugar & Cinnamon rimmed glass, Nutmeg for garnish. Directions: Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake until chilled, strain into prepared coupe glass and grate nutmeg over drink. Enjoy!

Synopsis

Overview

Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel follows much of the original story by the Grimm brothers. A woodcutter, his wife, and their two children, Hansel and Gretel, live next to a haunted forest. One day the mother, frustrated with her children, sends them into the woods to fetch strawberries. The children become lost and eventually seek shelter in a house made out of gingerbread and pastries. There, they meet the houses owner, a Witch who fattens up children to feast on. When the witch opens the oven to prepare Gretel, the two children quickly turn the tables and throw the witch into the oven. The oven then explodes and the magic spell is broken and all the gingerbread people become children again. Hansel and Gretel are also reunited with their mother and father and all are grateful to see each other.