Engelbert Humperdinck was 29 years old when he gained his first great international success with his children's opera, Hansel and Gretel. The fact that it was genuine family entertainment is confirmed by the story of the work's creation. Adelheid Wetter, the composer's younger sister, had been planning to put on a 'nursery theatre' as a surprise for her husband's birthday, but the few songs they wrote together were soon developed into an entire opera. The creative pair ended up making some... significant changes to the original work. The wicked stepmother was replaced by the children's mother, who drives them into the woods. Humperdinck, who was a Wagner enthusiast and assisted the German maestro in the premiere of Parsifal, created a partitura which is absolutely exemplary in terms of its passion, reasoning and construction. To show us that the story of Hansel and Gretel holds true not only in the pages of a fairy-tale book but also on the opera stage, we can enjoy the playing of Sinfonietta Erudita, conducted by Péter Oberfrank, along with the director Sylvie Gábor.

Before the performance, between 9.45 and 10.30, we will be running a free (and playful) interactive session for children entitled Tune-up. We look forward to welcoming both school groups and individual school-age youngsters attending the subsequent performance. Please register via csip@mupa.hu by midnight on the Wednesday before the performance, specifying the number of participating children and their ages. The activity is recommended for children aged 6 and over, and will take place with a minimum of six children.