Hänsel und Gretel – Bühnen Bern Stadttheater

Chloé Underwood will make her house debut as the Taumännchen.

The composer called his opera a “Kinderstubenweihfestspiel” (Children’s Festival Play), which he conceived as a Christmas fairy tale together with his sister Adelheid Wette and which premiered in Weimar in 1893 under the direction of Richard Strauss. The family is plagued by poverty, and the children are threatened by a witch in the forest. But the children manage to free themselves from their difficult situation. The evil forces cannot harm them. They experience an adventure in which they simultaneously demonstrate how they can take responsibility for one another and defend themselves, even at a young age. Even as a family, there is new hope after the reunion.

Humperdinck’s highly Romantic music incorporates well-known children’s songs such as “Suse, dear Suse, what’s rustling in the straw” and “A little man stands in the forest.” And at the end of the work, a children’s choir appears as transformed gingerbread children – a true masterpiece of operatic literature. For the still-young children’s choir of the Bühnen Bern, this is another opportunity to demonstrate on the main stage of the Stadttheater that the art form of musical theater offers something exciting for all ages. Following the success of Tosca , Raimund Orfeo Voigt will once again be in charge of the production and stage design – an evening for all generations.