Proms 2010: Power and pantomine for Hansel and Gretel

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The wonder is that so much survives. In the case of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, there were even some theatrical coups that Glyndebourne didn’t get. The children’s father made his entrance tottering drunkenly through the Prommers, while the Witch’s gingerbread house proved to be a miniature Albert Hall made from gaudily packaged junk food.

That chimes well with director Laurent Pelly’s basic concept of Hansel and Gretel as victims of a very contemporary poverty trap. The insight isn’t new but nor was it overplayed. In the title roles, Alice Coote and Lydia Teuscher went through the usual hyperactive gyrations that are meant to convince us that they’re real kids but their voices more than compensated. The star of the show, although not for entirely musical reasons, was Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke’s cross-dressed and prostheticised Witch, a comic turn fully deserving the pantomime boos.

With conductor Robin Ticciati guiding the London Philharmonic Orchestra through every detail of Humperdinck’s score, no one was complaining about not getting the full Glyndebourne experience.

Glyndebourne Chorus/London Philharmonic Orchestra: Prom 61: Hansel And Gretel
Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP