Hansel and Gretel in Brisbane
What a fabulous night. I'm just back from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel , a student production at the Queensland Conservatorium , directed by Michael Gow and conducted by Johannes Fritzsch . How blessed these students are to be working on this glorious score with two great artists. And the design by recent NIDA grad Charles Davis is worthy of any opera house. Great to see the Con devoting significant resources to what must be a priceless learning experience f or the students involved, in the pit and on the stage. I love this opera. I've known every note for 25 years, and it's a score that keeps on giving. It's a miraculous synthesis of German folkiness and Wagnerian complexity. Humperdinck was a student of Wagner's - he assisted at the premiere of Parsifal , and even wrote a bar or two for a tricky scene transition. Hansel and Gretel , completed in 1893, with a libretto by his sister who urged on the project, is full of Wagner - the climaxes, ...