HANSEL AND GRETEL (Scottish Opera)*****

  

By Megan 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHFQpXzL6PI 

Available until: Unknown

Scottish Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel is really fun and magical. It was only posted on YouTube last month but it is obviously a really Christmassy production and even watching it in March still feels very exciting. There are trees and Christmas jumpers and for one hour and fifty-five minutes it’s like it’s Christmas again.

As it was filmed during the pandemic, there is social distancing but I hardly noticed it at all. The stage is big so it’s natural for the performers not to be next to each other all the time but Hansel and Gretel do a lot of rushing around and it has all been very cleverly directed so they can keep themselves safe.

Scottish Opera are using David Pountney’s English translation of Adelheid Wette’s original German but there are still subtitles available on the video. The translation is really good and it has lots of very good rhymes which I enjoyed.

The stage is arranged with the conductor and orchestra right at the back of the stage, then some trees in front of them, then the stage where the singers perform. I’m not sure what the usual arrangement is for the orchestra at Scottish Opera but there is usually more space on the stage than in the orchestra pit and as Hansel and Gretel has a small cast, there was always enough room onstage. David Parry the conductor does a really light reading of Engelbert Humperdinck’s score that really brings out all the fun elements. Director and designer Daisy Evans has created a really pretty staging which looks Christmassy (and there’s a brilliant bit with umbrellas) and Neil Foulis’ lighting makes the stage go different colours and it’s beautiful.

Hansel and Gretel are played by Kitty Whately and Rhian Lois. They are very childlike, running and jumping all over the stage. Ms Whately has a man bun like my dad and you could immediately tell it was a man bun and not a woman bun because of her boyish body language. So it is obvious straight away that she is Hansel. Ms Lois is a very sweet but still intelligent Gretel. They both have really nice light voices which helps make them convincing as children.

Nadine Benjamin plays Mother and the Witch. This is something that happens sometimes but it seems quite odd to me because Mother is nice really (she is strict but she is very worried about money) and the Witch is cruel. But Ms Benjamin is such a good performer, it seems like she’s two completely different people. Mother is really tired and stressed and the Witch is cheerful in a really creepy way. Ms Benjamin has a really beautiful voice. Philip Rhodes is funny and slightly drunk as Father and Charlie Drummond has lots of personality as the Sandman and Dew Fairy.

 

It's a lovely opera and even though it’s based on a fairy story, I don’t think it’s really just for children. The music and the libretto are really good and I think most people who like opera would enjoy it.