Hansel & Gretel
- Sarah Waggoner – Gretel
- Bethany Smith – Hansel
- Mandi Barrus – Gingerbread Witch
- Kathryn Clark – Mother
- Jan Michael Kliewer – Father
- Debra Gloor- Sandman and the Dew Fairy
- Composer Englebert Humperdick
- Music Director/ Chorus Master/ Accompanist – Dulais Rhys
- Director – Anthony Buck
March 23, 2025 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
“Hansel and Gretel” is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck. The libretto was written in German by Humperdinck’s sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale of the same name. Our production is sung in an English translation.
ACT I
Hansel and Gretel, the young children of a poor broom-maker are at home and hungry since the family is nearly out of food. Gretel shows Hansel some milk that a neighbor has given for the family’s supper. Their mother returns and is angry with how little work the children have done. She accidentally spills the milk and chases the children out into the woods to pick strawberries. The father returns home with an unexpected load of food after selling all his brooms at the market. The mother tells him she has sent the children into the woods. The father says there is a dangerous Witch who lives there, and the parents go to look for their children.
ACT II
In the woods, Hansel and Gretel pick strawberries but soon get lost and grow frightened. When night falls, the Sandman comes to bring them sleep. The children say their evening prayer, and while they dream, guardian angels come to protect them.
ACT III
The Dew Fairy wakes Hansel and Gretel when morning comes, and the children discover the Witch’s gingerbread house. The Witch captures the children and makes a plan to eat them. Gretel outwits the Witch, and defeats her by pushing her into her own oven. All the children the Witch captured before are turned back from gingerbread to real people. The mother and father find the children, and all live happily ever after.
