Hansel and Gretel: Overture

Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel orginated as an intimate little family entertainment. The earliest music in it was conceived in 1890 when the composer’s sister asked him to set four folk songs from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale (as told by the Brothers Grimm) for her children to sing. The songs were developed into a little play with music, again to be performed privately in Humperdinck’s sister’s house, and then into a full-scale opera, which was first produced at the Court Theatre in Weimar in 1893. It was a great success and has been performed regularly ever since, usually as a Christmas treat.

The Overture begins with the most memorable tune in the whole opera, the “Evening Prayer” which, although it is anticipated in Act 1, is definitively introduced in Act 2.    Here it is intoned first by horns and bassoons and then developed by strings in a slow introduction ending with high, ethereal woodwind sounds. The tempo changes to admit a selection of lively dances but the sweet strains of the “Evening Prayer” rarely remain unheard for very long.