We left at the interval...

Hungarian State Opera, Erkel Theatre, Budapest, Saturday December 9 2017 Conductor: János Kovács. Director : Rafael R. Villalobos. Sets: Emanuele Sinisi. Costumes: Rafael R. Villalobos. Choreography: Csaba Sebestyén. Hänsel: Gabriella Balga. Gretel: Nánási Helga. Peter (father): Zsolt Haja. Gertrud (mother): Atala Schöck. Witch: Bernadett Wiedemann. The Sleep Fairy: Eszter Zavaros. The Dew fairy: Ingrid Kertesi. Orchestra and Chorus of the Hungarian State Opera. One of the many nice things about opera in Budapest is that you can usually get a ticket at the last minute. Realising I would be free on Saturday evening, on Friday I hopped on the web and for about 25 euros bought myself a stalls seat at Hänsel und Gretel , or, as here it was sung in Hungarian, Jancsi és Juliska . The new production by Rafael R. Villalobos, who won the 7th Opera Europa Camerata Nuova opera directing prize in 2013, updated the staging to the present day. This inevitably caused the usual mismatches...

La Monnaie at Bozar, Brussels, Sunday December 20 2015 Conductor: Lothar Koenigs. Live projections: Manual Cinema. Conductor of children’s chorus: Denis Menier. Peter: Dietrich Henschel. Gertrud: Natascha Petrinsky. Hänsel: Gaëlle Arquez. Gretel: Talia Or. Die Knusperhexe: Georg Nigl. Sandmännchen and Taumännchen: Ilse Eerens. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra. La Monnaie Children’s Choir, La Maîtrise.  Humperdinck As I’ve already said since this season started, the main Brussels house is undergoing renovation, so La Monnaie is peripatetic. I should imagine management realised that Hänsel und Gretel is hardly “oratorio” fare and therefore offered it to us “semi-staged”, or so they put it, at Bozar, an art-déco arts complex up the hill. Bozar’s concert hall has a warm, enveloping, “sherry commercial” kind of acoustics, so La Monnaie’s orchestra sounded impressively lush and loud there. Anything but post-modern and/or transparently analytical, Lothar Koenigs’ conducting seem...

ONP Garnier, Paris, Friday April 19 2013 Conductor: Claus Peter Flor. Production: Mariame Clément. Sets and costumes: Julia Hansen. Lighting: Philippe Berthomé. Peter: Jochen Schmeckenbecher. Gertrud: Irmgard Vilsmaier. Hänsel: Daniela Sindram. Gretel: Anne-Catherine Gillet. Knusperhexe: Anja Silja. Die Sandmännchen: Elodie Hache. Taumännchen: Olga Seliverstova. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Hauts-de-Seine and ONP children’s choirs. To me, Hänsel und Gretel is the kind of work you have on CD but don't play. You buy it, listen once, think "ho-hum" and, apart from one or two catchy tunes, forget it. (You then buy Königskinder to see if it's more interesting, but end up never listening to that, either.) The music is undeniably pleasant and well-made, but bland; the only interest in the story is the witch. So a lot must depend, in the theatre, on the staging. I say "must" as, though H und G is popular in some countries, including the US, in F...