Hansel & Gretel
A living diorama of spectacle, song and puppets inspired by the classic fairytale opera by Englebert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel premiered on September 25, 1894 in Hamburg, Germany. It was based on the Grimms’ fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” and rooted in Christian principles, frequently staged at Christmas time for children and families. In the libretto, written by Humperdinck’s sister, Adelheid Wette, the children set off on a pilgrimage and sustain one another under times of hardship, hunger, and hope. In a coming-of-age story, the children offset their dependence on their parents for survival by learning to play out, for themselves, the motto, “God helps them who help themselves.”
The HKU Black Box original production of Hansel & Gretel takes inspiration from Humperdinck’s 19th-century opera and resituates its ritual roots, running from Aesop’s fables through its Christian allegories, in a predominantly updated and contemporary context. Hansel and Gretel are now urban castaways. Their father struggles with piles of responsibility, and their mother, casting a worried eye on everyone’s progress, appears unnecessarily critical. Putting up their daily masks to cope with these legacies of burden and fear, the children head out into the city too soon.
The Mother’s flipside, the Witch, will go all out to seduce and consume their desires. Inspired on their paths by the Sandman of relaxation and the Dew Fairy of awakening, Hansel and Gretel decide to take a risk. It is finally time on their journey to push back their paralysis, unmask their own voices, and find a new way home.
Drawing from tremendous Hong Kong talent, the show’s selected songs from Hansel & Gretel will be sung in the original German, and lightly storyboarded with English text and visual collage. Rising stars in musical direction and opera, young designers from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and members of The University of Hong Kong all join together on this journey for a modern version of a classic tale.
One more thing. The passage of time is often not the most interesting feature in an opera. The time frame of many operatic works can be maddeningly hazy or epic in outline. (Mozart’s Così fan tutte contains one of the shortest wars in musical history.) What is striking about the passage of time in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel is how natural it is; the children play and gather strawberries during the daytime, and they actually sleep when darkness falls. The twist is that Hansel and Gretel do not encounter any dangers at night. The cuckoo and other sounds of nature in Humperdinck’s opera only sound menacing, given the fears that the children carry, but they bring no real harm. It is only the next morning, when they come across civilization again, that disaster looms: staging the challenge for them to “help themselves” and prove themselves of age.
So the HKU Black Box production grounds this updated story of Hansel & Gretel in increasingly urban and global images of “civilization.” We briefly peer into a diorama of overworked parents and children: disappearing time and voices to the demands of a clock and achievement. In the burst of just one hour, we call back the visual inspirations of color and emerging texts from the Book of Hours, which the Middle Ages offered to voices otherwise relegated to masks and margins of their own decisions and wonder. We hope you will sit back and relax while, in a flash, these Hong Kong singers spark new voice, trust, and confidence in our midst.
Cast & Musicians
Gretel | Rebekah AuYeung |
Hansel | Jessica Ng Jeannette Lee |
Mother/Witch | Christina Marcenkus |
Father | Francis Mok |
Sandman | Ruth Lau |
Dew Fairy | Eva Chi Jessica Ng |
Piano | Ming Kwong |
1st Violin | Andrew Hsu |
2nd Violin | Elaine Lui |
Cello | Stephen Bin |
Double Bass | Charlie Wong |
1st Flute | Alice Hui |
2nd Flute | Crystal Chuk Hiu-lam |
Production Team
Directors | Jessica Ng Page Richards |
Musical Director | Ming Kwong |
Producers | Page Richards Aarti Hemnani |
Stage Manager | Libby Cheung |
Assistant Stage Managers | Wong Ka Yan Ng Ka Chun |
Set Designer | Wiki Lo Wan Ki |
Deputy Set Designer | Jacob Wu |
Props & Puppet Maker | Niki Tse |
Costume Designer | Tracy Giu |
Lighting Designer | Au Yeung Hon-Ki |
Projection Designer | Cheng Sei Hong |
Make Up | Story Koo |
Publicity Photos | Hilda Fung |
Videography | Aaron T. Michelson |
HKU Black Box Interns | Cora Chan Rosanne Lau Katy Leung Michaela Forte Nicole Lee Ona Wong |
The HKU Black Box
The HKU Black Box produces, curates, and hosts a range of events in the arts, scholarship, and performance throughout the year. Key support for the HKU Black Box includes the Development & Alumni Affairs Office (DAAO), the Faculty of Arts and the School of English at The University of Hong Kong. Special thanks to Dr. Alice Lam for her generous support of the HKU Black Box.
Special thanks to Eric Mok and Yuki Kwan for their contributions to the process and production.
The producers of Hansel & Gretel wish to thank all those whose names came too late to be included in this programme.