Hänsel und Gretel
Royal Academy of Music
Jenufa
Birmingham Hippodrome
Pelléas et Mélisande
Sadler’s Wells
Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel loses none of its charm with repeated viewings, a good thing since there are plenty of productions of it around this year in the UK, the latest being at the Royal Academy of Music. I saw the first and almost wholly excellent cast, with the two children cast more plausibly than I have ever seen them before, though both Robyn Kirk, the Gretel, and Charlotte Stephenson, the Hänsel, are in their twenties. Both their singing and acting were ideal, worthy of DVD-ing, our version of immortality. The casting was strong throughout, though the Witch of Stuart Haycock, a very fine tenor, sounded too beautiful to frighten anyone. John Ramster’s production was the usual kind of thing, a contemporary kitchen, though with an extraordinarily large number of fridges, washing machines and so on, all of them empty. Dad was a lurching drunk, while Mum, more effectively, was a rather tarty and attractive youngster. Atmosphere and acting all went well until the Dream Pantomime, when good taste gave way to the grossest kitsch: the children dreamt of their parents’ wedding, and then of holding babies — themselves — in their arms. Oddly ,at exactly the same moment the orchestral playing, which had been perfectly adequate for this magical score, underwent a collapse too, with scrawny strings and wayward winds. Act III, much the least inspired, was too leisurely, and the ‘redeemed’ children were too hearty. Still, it was mainly a fine evening, with Sian Edwards conducting with deep insight.
Two evenings later I was in Birmingham, and so was she, for Jenufa from the Welsh National Opera. Here she was still more impressive, indeed her conducting was inspired from first to last, effecting miracles where Janáček’s invention momentarily falters, and rising to extraordinary heights in the terrifying Act II and the sublime ending of the work.
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