If Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairytale has always been the opera that young people can get their teeth into, then Opera North’s new version is a Hansel and Gretel for the Haribo generation; in which the Grimms’ cautionary tale exists in a world of e-numbers, additives and internet perils.
Director Edward Dick’s key insight is that, left to their own devices, today’s children will instantly lose themselves online. Hansel and Gretel become a pair of bored, ignored kids on a council estate whose faces are permanently bathed in the glow of their consoles, and whose role-play naturally involves the use of a video camera.
The impact of filming in real time creates a startling sense of how it is possible for children to wander into harm’s way without ever leaving the house. Training the camera on a variety of kitchen utensils beams up a forest whose shaky, hand-held footage evokes a Blair Witch state of mind. And there is no gingerbread house as such, simply a refrigerator stuffed with the junk foods the children crave in place of genuine nourishment.
The technical brilliance of Ian William Galloway’s video design is central to the concept’s success. But it never overwhelms a set of musical performances that are equally fresh and engaging. Katie Bray’s Hansel and Fflur Wyn’s Gretel sing with a light, spontaneous ease that overcomes the disconnect of a pair of pre-teens expressing themselves with mature, adult voices. The famous duet in which they sing themselves to sleep is breathtaking, and heralds a plangent dream-vision of a perfect day out at the seaside. The double casting of the excellent Susan Bullock as both the children’s mother and the witch emphasises the theme of danger being close to home; while the deployment of a hand-held whisk as a domestic wand is a stroke of surreal genius.
Conductor Christoph Altstaedt makes a notable company debut: Humperdinck’s score is both richer and darker than its surfeit of melody might at first suggest. Altstaedt draws out a sweetness that doesn’t set your teeth on edge.
- In rep at Grand theatre, Leeds, until 25 February. Box office: 0844 848 2700. Then touring until 25 March.
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