Hänsel und Gretel – the opera — goes green

The Financial Times has terrific reviews of opera — witty, trenchant, and caustic when reviewing some of the avant-garde European productions. One such production is the Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s current Hänsel und Gretel, the opera by Engelbert Humperdinck based on the Brothers Grimm tale.

The production, according to the FT, portrays ecological disaster caused by over-consumption. Here’s what happens:

When they [Hänsel und Gretel] enter the forest, they find an ecological disaster: acid rain has stripped the trees bare and the only foliage consists of plastic carrier bags hanging from the branches. Further on, the Witch’s gingerbread house has become a supermarket piled high with free offers, and the Witch is at the till.

And, when the children escape from the Witch’s supermarket that was full of junk food, they are obese.

The reviewer Richard Fairman has ideas for what to do with this version:

As for the production: one for the recycling bag, I think.