Hansel and
Gretel

A carousel of a performance 

In director Alexander Mørk-Eidem’s critically acclaimed version of Hansel and Gretel, the familiar forest has been replaced by an abandoned carnival, complete with bumper cars, a Ferris wheel and cotton candy. But a shadowy figure lurks in the wings...  

Aftenposten critic Maren Ørstavik called Mørk-Eidem’s tampering with Humperdinck’s classic opera “delightfully creepy”, while NRK’s Eystein Sandvik asserted that the set design alone was worth the price of admission at the Oslo Opera House. 

The evening promises to be both unnerving and amusing for young and old alike. So, take the kids, grandma or your best friend and hop on a carousel of a performance! 

Direction that sears itself into the mind.

OLAV EGIL AUNE, VÅRT LAND  

Fairytale and reality 

The story about two children who meet a witch in the woods is found in many countries and variants, with no fewer than 12 different versions found in Norway alone. Humperdinck’s opera is a milder version of the Brothers Grimm’s rather brutal fairytale. 

Fairytales sprout from a seed of reality and in Hansel and Gretel, we find a fear that was very real at one time. When the Grimm’s fairytale was written in 1812, children were sometimes placed in the woods to die. But like in the fairytale, the children overcome both the witch and their own fear. 

This freaky figure (Rossini Wildenway) is a stroke of performance genius.

EYSTEIN SANDVIK, NRK 

Playful music that endures 

The world’s most famous children’s opera was first performed on the night before Christmas Eve in 1893, when Humperdinck’s opera premiered, and with no other than Richard Strauss as conductor. But even though Hansel and Gretel was written for children, it holds its own among Wagner’s great romantic operas, with playful, German folk tunes that are hard to forget.