Operas don’t get more Christmassy than Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Not so much in content – crushing poverty, a scary forest, a child-eating witch – as by venerable association since its world premiere on 23 December 1893. Long before it became a fixture of festive programming, the composer gifted early versions of the score to his fiancee for Christmas. Twice.
We can only hope she was as delighted by it as the hordes of children brought to the Royal Opera’s latest “family-friendly” matinee revival of Antony McDonald’s 2018 production, sung in English translation. Clad in plastic wellies, mini bow ties and everything in between – only the inflatable booster seat was de rigueur – they provided a constant backdrop of muted wonder and sensible questions. Who was that figure lurking threateningly in the woods? Why did that stag have a rifle?
