Hansel and Gretel, Opera North, Leeds, review: It will be widely enjoyed

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​Opera North’s winter schedule consists of three fairy tale operas, of which Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden is the most seasonally apt, but Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel has been given an exuberant Christmas finale. This is the opera most likely to appeal to children, as the company is well aware, and Edward Dick’s new production reflects this.

It is very much an up-to-the-minute staging, making use of Ian William Galloway’s video projections. The children film each other, and their magnified images are projected onto the set; but while Katie Bray and Fflur Wyn sing beautifully and make convincing children, the big images disconcertingly reveal them to be adult singers.

A permanent set is used. The kitchen of the impoverished family becomes later the witch’s kitchen, just as Susan Bullock, the mother, becomes the witch. She relishes both roles, especially the latter, in which she is perhaps more entertaining than frightening. But that is the ethos of the production, which is consistently well sung and played under the direction of Christoph Altstaedt. It will be widely enjoyed.