Hansel and Gretel Synopsis 5 Guiding Questions 6
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2 Table of Contents An Introduction to Pathways for Understanding Study Materials 3 Production Information/Meet the Characters 4 The Story of Hansel and Gretel Synopsis 5 Guiding Questions 6 The History of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel 7 Guided Listening Goosey goosey gander, the mouse in the straw 10 Little brother, dance with me 13 At night it’s a gruesome and sordid place 15 Cuckoo, cuckoo, eggs are blue 17 Where each child lays down its head 19 Hansel, don’t be greedy 21 So hopp hopp hopp, galopp lopp lopp 23 The dead arise but cannot see 25 Hansel and Gretel Resources About the Composer 27 Online Resources 28 Additional Resources Reflections after the Opera 30 The Emergence of Opera 31 A Guide to Voice Parts and Families of the Orchestra 35 Glossary 36 References Works Consulted 40 2 An Introduction to Pathways for Understanding Study Materials The goal of Pathways for Understanding materials is to provide multiple “pathways” for learning about a specific opera as well as the operatic art form, and to allow teachers to create lessons that work best for their particular teaching style, subject area, and class of students. Meet the Characters / The Story/ Resources Fostering familiarity with specific operas as well as the operatic art form, these sections describe characters and story, and provide historical context. Guiding questions are included to suggest connections to other subject areas, encourage higher-order thinking, and promote a broader understanding of the opera and its potential significance to other areas of learning. Guided Listening The Guided Listening section highlights key musical moments from the opera and provides areas of focus for listening to each musical excerpt. Main topics and questions are introduced, giving teachers of all musical backgrounds (or none at all) the means to discuss the music of the opera with their students. A complimentary CD of the full opera, as well as the full libretto (with English translation), are provided as part of the Guided Listening resources and are sent via mail. Guiding Questions / Discussion Points Guiding Questions or Discussion Points appear within several sections of these materials to spark discussion in your classroom and facilitate student exploration. Note that these questions are not intended to serve as “official” learning outcomes for the opera experience; rather, we hope that they act as a point of departure for prompting meaningful analysis and conversation amongst students. We are aware that teachers incorporate the study of opera into their classrooms in many ways and to address a variety of student outcomes, and we expect that individual teachers will adapt these materials to best serve their specific curriculum and instructional goals. CD Provided (Libretto Included) - Humperdinck: Hansel & Gretel - Jennifer Larmore, Rebecca Evans, Jane Henschel - Philharmonia Orchestra, New London Children’s Choir - Sir Charles Mackerras (Conductor) - Copyright 2007 by Chandoa Records Ltd 3 Production Information: Music: Engelbert Humperdinck Text (English): Adelheid Wette, based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. English Translation by David Pountney. World Premiere: Wiemar, Court Theater December 23, 1893 Meet the Characters Hansel (mezzo-soprano ): A young boy who lives with his sister and parents in a cottage in the woods. He cleverly figures out how to escape from the witch. Gretel (soprano): Hansel’s sister. She follows Hansel’s advice and frees them both from the evil witch. The Witch : (mezzo-soprano/tenor) An evil old woman who lives deep in the forest. She captures Hansel and Gretel, puts a spell on them, and intends to bake them in her magic oven. Mother (soprano): Hansel and Gretel’s mother, Gertrude. She sends them out of the forest to collect berries for dinner, and is frantic when she realizes that they might be lost. Father (baritone): Hansel and Gretel’s father, Peter, is a broom- maker. He is distraught when he learns that his wife sent the children off alone into the strange forest. Sandman (Soprano): A mysterious old man who sprinkles Hansel and Gretel with a magic dust, making them sleepy. Dew Fairy (Soprano): A magical fairy, she sprinkles the children with dew to wake them after a night of refreshing sleep. 4 The Story of Hansel and Gretel : Synopsis Act I In Hansel and Gretel’s house. Hansel complains he is hungry. Gretel shows him some milk that a neighbor has given for the family’s supper. The children dance. Their mother returns and wants to know why they have gotten so little work done. She accidentally spills the milk and chases the children out into the woods to pick strawberries. Their father, a broom-maker, returns home drunk. He brings out the food he has bought, then asks where the children have gone. The mother tells him that she has sent them into the woods. He tells her about the Witch who lives there and says that the children are in danger. They go out into the woods to look for them. Act II Hansel picks strawberries. The children hear a cuckoo singing and eat the strawberries. Soon they have eaten every one. In the sudden silence of the wood, Hansel admits to Gretel that he has lost the way. The children grow frightened. The Sandman comes to bring them sleep, sprinkling sand over their eyes. The children say their evening prayer. In a dream, they see 14 angels. Act III The Dew Fairy comes to waken the children. Gretel wakes Hansel, and they see the gingerbread house. They end up in the Witch’s kitchen. The Witch decides to fatten Hansel up and casts a spell on him. The oven is hot. Gretel breaks the Witch’s spell and sets Hansel free. When the Witch asks her to look in the oven, she pretends she doesn’t know how to: the Witch must show her. When the Witch peers into the oven, the children shove her inside and shut the door. The oven explodes. The gingerbread children come back to life. The mother and father find the children, and all express gratitude for their salvation. COURTESY WELSH NATIONAL OPERA 5 The Story of Hansel and Gretel : Guiding Questions Act I – Bad Kids In the first act of Hansel and Gretel the children are scolded by their mother and sent into the woods. • Why are the children in trouble? Is spilling some milk so wrong? Why or why not? • What are some other instances–in literature, history or other musical works– where a witch is the villain? Act II – Sandman In the second act the children are lost in the woods and meet some strange characters. • What is the purpose of the Sandman? Does he help the children? • Are the woods a magical place? Why or why not? Act III – Witch Hunt Hansel and Gretel free themselves, and the Gingerbread children, from the evil witch. • How is the opera of Hansel and Gretel different than the fairy tale? How is it similar? • Do you have any sympathy for the witch? Explain your reasoning. 6 The History of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Appropriately enough, the story of how the opera Hansel and Gretel came to be written begins with two children. Englebert Humperdinck, a German composer who had written vocal music but never a full opera, had two teenaged nieces. Their mother, Humperdinck’s youngest sister, Adelheid Wette, asked Humperdinck to compose a series of four folksongs based on the famous children’s story “Hansel and Gretel” for her daughters to perform at a small family Christmas gathering. Humperdinck agreed, but went above and beyond his commission. With Wette writing the libretto, he created a short singspiel (a dramatic piece in which songs alternate with spoken dialogue) based on “Hansel and Gretel.” His nieces performed it, and the family was so delighted with it that Humperdinck decided to expand it further into a full-scale opera. The opera is based on the story by the Brothers Grimm. Adelheide Wette used the basic elements of two children who are thrust out of their home, get lost in the woods, and are accosted by a hungry witch, but modified it slightly to fit her needs. In Wette’s hands, the story is not about being lost and then found or even necessarily about the witch’s atrocities. Instead, it is about God’s ever-watchful eye and power to care for people in need. Wette changes the evil stepmother from the Grimm tale into a put- upon mother who is desperate because of her family’s near-starvation but is not intrinsically evil. In the Grimm tale, the stepmother dies at the same time as the witch. In Wette’s libretto, the mother comes with the father to rescue the children and lives to sing the moral of the story along with everyone else on stage. Despite these changes, Wette did not shy away from the gruesome details of the original story. The libretto is certainly dark at times, with the children’s strict parents, the dangers of the spooky forest, and the cannibalistic witch all featured prominently. Also terrifying is the children’s response to all of this darkness around them – they commit a violent act themselves and push the witch into her own oven. The libretto, however, is not absolutely dark. There are also scenes of children at play, siblings bickering, prayers, and guardian angels and fairies. 7 Before writing Hansel and Gretel , Humperdinck had been invited to Bayreuth to help Richard Wagner with his production of Parsifal . Humperdinck leapt at this opportunity to learn first hand the inner workings of Wagner’s methods of opera composition and production. Hansel and Gretel is Wagnerian in a number of important ways.