Engelbert Humperdinck / Roger Nichols

Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, and Piano (German and English)

In Act I Hansel and Gretel have annoyed their Mother by dancing when they should have been making brooms and knitting. In her anger she knocks over the jug of milk, the only food in the house. She sends the children out into the nearby forest to pick strawberries, but when the Father returns he is horrified, because that is where the Witch lives in her gingerbread cottage. He and the Mother go out to find the children. In Act II, after the children have picked and then eaten the strawberries, a mist arises, and when it clears, there is the Sandman, a small grey figure with a sack on his back. He throws sand in their eyes and after they say their evening prayer, they fall asleep in each other's arms. The mist then returns and becomes a magic staircase, down which come the fourteen angels of whom the children sang, to surround them and keep them safe through the night. -- Engelbert Humperdinck was born on September 1st, 1854. He died in Neustrelitz, Germany, on September 27th, 1921. Hansel and Gretel was an instant success at its premiere on December 23rd, 1893, and remains a worlwide favorite to this day.

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