[Met Performance] CID:36030

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production

Hänsel und Gretel
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, November 25, 1905 Matinee


Debut : Lina Abarbanell




Hänsel und Gretel (1)
Engelbert Humperdinck | Adelheid Wette
Hänsel
Lina Abarbanell [Debut]

Gretel
Bella Alten

Gertrud
Marion Weed

Peter
Otto Goritz

Witch
Louise Homer

Sandman
Florence Mulford

Dew Fairy
Roberta Glanville


Conductor
Alfred Hertz


Director
Jacques Goldberg

Set Designer
Burghart & Co.

Costume Designer
Blaschke & Cie

Composer
Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck





Review 1:

Review of Richard Aldrich in The New York Times:

Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel," in an English version, was produced in New York just ten years ago at Daly's Theater. That was less than two years after its original production in Germany, but ever since the little opera has kept a tenacious hold upon life. It has not been heard in this country since that season of 1895, till it was produced yesterday at the Metropolitan Opera House. There was a very large audience there, and a performance of the work was given that in many respects was remarkably good.

When "Hansel und Gretel" was first heard here there were certain doubts about how it ought to be taken, how it should be explained-this gay little children's tale elaborated musically with all the resources of the Wagnerian method and orchestra. Was it a jest? Was the genial composer amusing himself with a "tour de force" that only the knowing could understand and see through? There seemed to be no need of such questionings on hearing the opera yesterday after ten years.

"Hansel und Gretel," indeed, presents itself to the knowing as an achievement of the highest talent and skill in much that pertains to modern musicianship, but it did not seem as if there could be anybody in the house to whom this fairy story did not appeal as something beautiful, something delightful and enjoyable, without comment or elucidation. "Hansel und Gretel" is a sort of "Alice in Wonderland" in that its real point is for children of a larger growth. But this in no way invalidates its fresh naturalness and spontaneity. Its elaborate forms of expression are sincere and genuine, and because they are so they are a real expression of the fairy story.

The story is not buried under the narration of it because of the extraordinary skill and prescience with which his most varied and elaborate musical apparatus is employed by Mr. Humperdinck. He touched, as by an inspiration, a fresh spring of imagination and beauty in the folk tales and folk music of Germany and in his novel and original treatment of them. It may be that hearts here in America will not be so deeply touched as those of Germany have been, where those songs and tales are native and where they are bred in the same bone. But, after all, there is a kind of beauty in them that is not measured by the limits of a national frontier, and that it moved the audience yesterday there could be no doubt. At any rate it touched a chord that has never vibrated to the representations of the passions, lusts, jealousies, revenge and murder of the operatic stage.

The subject of "Hansel und Gretel" is made only with some difficulty to stretch to the limits of a three-act opera. There are lengths in the first act and the last that even the flow of melody and the extremely skillful development of the orchestral fabric cannot conceal. The children are charming, and it is ungracious to find their doings in this act too long; perhaps it is less so to find the father and mother somewhat circumstantial in their account of their straitened circumstances.

In the second act the composer and the librettist both reached the summit of their imagination in their evocation of naive and beautiful pictures and the creation of a truly poetical atmosphere. Mr. Humperdinck has used certain familiar folk tunes; he has devised others of his own in their spirit. His more pretentious themes have charm, expressiveness and fine feeling. His writing for the orchestra is subtle and full of the most delicate color effects, brilliancy and warmth, yet always delightfully transparent. In thematic treatment he commands all the art and learning that the modern contrapuntalist has learned from Wagner's later methods.

And the composer, it must be said, is deeply indebted to the Wagner of "Die Meistersinger." There are many pages of the first act whose relation to that score are too obvious to be overlooked. There is much of the "Meistersinger" color and feeling throughout the work, and there are suggestions from "The Ring" and even a strain from "Tannhäuser." But the disposal of such borrowing from such a source, in such a manner, is the work of a man of remarkable cleverness. It is not given to all to bend the bow of Ulysses as he has.

The cast was extremely well fitted to make all the peculiar charm of the work count for the utmost and to bring out its most characteristic features. Bella Alten achieved a veritable triumph as Gretel. She entered into the spirit of the part with exuberance and a delightful juvenile vivacity. Her action was arch and naïve, her singing wholly charming, and never has she appeared to better advantage. Miss Abarbanell, who took the boy's part of Hänsel, also had an evident sympathy with her task.

It was her first appearance on the stage of the Metropolitan though she has been acting successfully in soubrette parts at the Irving Place Theater. Her voice has a pleasing quality, but it is not skillfully produced, and there was yesterday a certain throatiness. Mme. Homer was a blood-curdling witch of fearful and wonderful appearance, capable of any iniquity toward rash children; and she was willing to sacrifice something of the beauty of her voice to the dramatic exigencies of her character.

Mr. Goritz accentuated the peasant rudeness of Peter, the good-for-nothing father, his drunken entrance, his boisterous proceedings at home, his rough voice, till they made the character unpleasantly out of focus in the picture. So accomplished a dramatic singer as Mr. Goritz has no need to do this. Miss Weed did well the comparatively little she had to do as the mother. The little parts of the Sandman and the Dewman, sung by Miss Mulford and Miss Glanville, need a lit little more presence on the stage and a little surer singing.

Mr. Hertz had prepared a carefully wrought performance of the score that brought out much of its delicate beauty and glowing sonority and presented some resounding climaxes. Some of his tempos seemed rather heavy-footed, as in the dances of the first act; but it was on the whole admirably played, and the opera was carried through in a way that caught much of its spirit.

There was liberal applause when the singers were called before the curtain at the end of the second act. Mr. Humperdinck, who came from Europe to be present at this performance, appeared with them and acknowledged the plaudits that were given his work and its performers. Then came Mr. Conried and, finally, Mr. Hertz.



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