Hansel and Gretel – Royal Opera House

Last Updated on February 7, 2026

Christmas opera comes to Covent Garden

There are plenty of ballets that make a great Christmas production – Nutcracker, Cinderella and Coppelia to name but a few. However, opera that works well for younger visitors is rare. A revival of the 2018 production of Hansel and Gretel by Antony McDonald is the offer from Royal Ballet and Opera this Christmas. The work by Engelbert Humperdinck (the composer, not the singer) premiered in 1893. Inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tale it blends folk melodies with lush orchestration in a Wagnerian-style score. The story follows the mischievous but hungry siblings when they are sent to hunt for berries and become lost in the forest, confronting a wicked witch, and triumphing through bravery and love.

McDonald’s production of Hansel and Gretel has sets and costumes straight out of fairytale books. A painted backdrop takes us to the hills and mountains of Bavaria and clever lighting lets us peek into the family home and watch their descent into poverty. The hands of the cuckoo clock, perched neatly above the main curtain, move rapidly to show the passing of time. The opera is sung in English, translated by Kelley Rourke into an accessible and comprehensible rhyming score.

Kate Lindsey as Hansel and Heidi Stober as Gretel are a convincing duo, both vocally and with some exemplary dancing/movement. Stober’s mellifluous voice is countered by the somewhat more piercing mezzo tones of Lindsey’s Hansel – an effective girl and boy vocal characterisation. Both manage to convince as children, singing everything from folk songs to the beautiful evening prayer. Peter and Gertrud too are well cast with Thomas Lehman a convincing father who delivers his drinking song “Ra-la-la-la” with conviction and with Catherine Carby an articulate and beautifully characterised mother.

Grimm tales are children’s fairy stories from another generation when dark tales were permitted. This production of Hansel and Gretel balances dark staging and some gruesome moments with almost Disneyfied characters. Colourful costumes punctuate the gloom and more characters from popular Grimm tales (Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Cinderella and her Prince, Rapunzel, Snow White and more) appear as dancers, guiding the siblings to safety and watching over them while they sleep. The Sandman, a charismatic Sarah Brady, helps settle things down for the night. But all the while there are witches lurking in the background waiting to pounce.

Act III, which makes up the entirety of the second half, is just 45 minutes long. Packed with action, the children first encounter the edible witch’s house before meeting the heavily disguised witch herself, a pink-cheeked charmer called Rosina Leckermaul (Rosina Tasty Muzzle).

Once Rosina has lured the children into the house, she shows her true colours. Carole Wilson made a fabulous pantomime-style witch, convincingly evil enough to be booed at the curtain call for all the right (non-vocal) reasons! Her Witch’s Aria was both dramatic and beautifully sung.

Of course, though, things end as they should with the witch booted into her own blast-furnace-sized chocolate pot and a children’s chorus of sunglass-wearing blind urchins from the Royal Opera’s own Youth Opera Company, singing angelically as they regain their sight.

The music for Hansel and Gretel is stunning, a fantastically accessible fusion of folk songs and romanticism and for the most part the orchestra performed magnificently. A momentary brass blip in the opening of the overture and occasional lack of balance can be forgiven for a first-night performance. Conductor Giedrė Šlekytė is making her debut at the Royal Opera House and ably controlled the band, drawing out the leitmotifs and harmonic richness of the piece. It’s a Wagnerian-inspired work with some truly fabulous orchestral moments and I for one now want to listen to the score all over again.

Most importantly though, this production of Hansel and Gretel works for all ages. Two six-year-olds on one side of me were on the edge of their seats throughout, and despite the darker moments (at one point, Hansel is enchained and fed through a funnel like a goose for foie gras, at another the dead witch’s arm is brandished on stage), didn’t flinch. On the other side, three women on what looked like a pre-Christmas treat giggled their way through the lighter moments and gasped at all the right points.

Hansel and Gretel is at the Royal Ballet and Opera and runs from 22 December 2024 through to 9 January 2025

Royal Opera House
Covent Garden
Bow Street,
London,
WC2E 9DD

For something different this Christmas we also love Cinderella from the Royal Ballet and Lost Dog’s Ruination currently showing at the Linbury Theatre downstairs at the Royal Opera House

Photos credit Tristam Kenton