Hänsel und Gretel — Dutch National Opera

There is not a dark forest or gingerbread house to be seen. The production takes us to a Brazilian rubbish tip, which is brought to life by the children playing among the junk. They been sleeping between the rubbish. They wake up and start playing in the debris. We see a little hand grab some dirt and turn it into a puppet. This is Hänsel and they make Gretel as well. Then we see them make a fairytale house of an old cornflakes box. We dive into the children’s imagination and see those puppets come to life in a blown up version of that box.

In this way we can see the fairytale through the eyes of the Hänsel and Gretels of our time.

Composition

E. Humperdinck

Conductor

Marc Albrecht

Director

Lotte de Beer

Set design

Michael Levine

Costume design | masks and make up

Clement & Sanôu