Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera |
Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck
Librettists: Adelheid Wette; English translation by David Pountney
Production: Richard Jones
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Performers: Alice Coote (Hansel), Christine Schäfer (Gretel), Philip Langridge (The Witch), Rosalind Plowright (Gertrude), Alan Held (Peter), Sasha Cooke (The Sandman), Lisette Oropesa (The Dew Fairy)
Synopsis:
The second season of GREAT PERFORMANCES at The Met on PBS features 14 operas from the Met’s series of live high-definition transmissions initially presented in movie theaters around the world. The season launches with the family favorite Hansel and Gretel, in a production by Richard Jones, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. Most fairy tales—while charming on the outside—resonate long past bedtime with darker underpinnings. Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer play the siblings lost in a shadowy world of unknown menace, pursued by the Witch, portrayed by tenor Philip Langridge, who seeks to devour them. The English-language production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s adaptation of the beloved story by the Brothers Grimm was originally created for Welsh National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Opera synopsis courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.
Funding for GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “Hansel and Gretel” has been provided by Toll Brothers, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Herman Lissner Foundation, and PBS.
Related Web Sites
PBS,
Is the Metropolitan Opera’s play of “Hansel and Gretel” available on DVD?
Thank you.
Yes , it is now available .
Where can I purchase a DVD of GREAT PERFORMANCES Hansel & Gretel? Could not find it on your site.
Ditto #3
What about Thais?
I also would like to know where to purchase some of the DVDs of the MET performances.
Thanks.
Is anyone paying attention here??? We want to but the damned DVD!!! Can someone please tell us where to send money for a cheap piece of plastic??? (and we wonder why PBS requires government funding !!!)
A non-traditional but fantastic production of a wonderful opera! A rather uncomfortable scene seeing the witch inside the oven, but other than that it was very inventive and delightful.
Take a look at the Covent Garden production now on YouTube first. You may prefer it.
I don’t know who said it was available, but I know GP can’t make all of their productions available due to copyright. If it was available it would be on http://www.shoppbs.org or call Shop PBS at 1-800-531-4727 to talk to a live person to see if it is available.
Is this appropriate for 9 yr olds?
To buy MET Opera DVDs, I recommend going to the Metropolitan Opera gift shop. They seem to have DVDs of every opera ever produced there. And the best part is that depending on when you’re there, you can watch the opera being performed, broadcast on the TV in the gift shop, while you’re shopping. Location: Lincoln Center, (approx. 62nd St. and Broadway in NYC).
Going to the MET gift shop is great if you’re in NY. For those of us several states away an online option would sing!
I would like a program of the operas coming up for this year, 1910.
I went to the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop website and found the DVD there for $26.
Here is the link:
http://www.metoperashop.org/product/detail/1000002383.aspx
I managed to catch the performance by chance and fell absolutely in love with it. I just might have to buy the DVD myself.