Opera and Ballet Stories in Music    

Lesson 2: Hansel and Gretel - Act 1, Scene 2

by Engelbert Humperdinck

Performer: Paolo Dalmoro

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Read the synopsis.
• Review any vocabulary terms.
• Read about the composer.
• Complete the enrichment activities.

Synopsis

Just as Hansel and Gretel fall while dancing, their mother, Gertrude, enters and she is so angry at seeing them do no work that she boxes their ears. In her excitement, Gertrude gives the milk pitcher a push. It falls off the table, breaks in pieces, and spills all the milk. At this, Gertrude is beside herself, seizes a basket, and orders the children to go to the wood and pick strawberries. She tells the children they must not return home until the basket is full. Hansel and Gretel run off, while Gertrude, weary of life, sits sobbing herself to sleep [1].

Vocabulary

Idle: Doing nothing in particular.
Ill-behaved: Exhibiting bad behavior.
Yodel: To sing (a song) in such a way that the voice fluctuates rapidly between the normal chest voice and falsetto.
Lazybones: A person who is unwilling to do work and without ambition.
Besom: A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.
Score (Musical): The written form of a musical composition showing all instrumental and/or vocal parts.

Composer

1. Engelbert Humperdinck was born in 1854 in Siegburg, Germany. Examine his picture.

2. Zoom in and find Humperdinck's country of birth on the map of Europe below.

3. Humperdinck took piano lessons starting at a young age and wrote his first composition at the age of seven.
4. Humperdinck's parents disapproved of his music aspirations, wanting him to become an architect.
5. Humperdinck persevered, earning a scholarship to study music and eventually becoming a music professor at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany.

6. Humperdinck died at the age of 67 after suffering two heart attacks.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Recite the Opera Information

• Recite the name of the composer, the name of the opera, and the act and scene(s) of the opera.

Activity 2: Recite the Dramatis Personae

Read aloud the Dramatis Personae.

• Peter, Broom-maker.
• Gertrude, his wife.
• Hansel, their son.
• Gretel, their daughter.
• The Witch who eats children.
• Sandman, the Sleep Fairy.
• Dewman, the Dawn Fairy.
• Children.
• The Fourteen Angels.

Activity 3: Listen to the Opera While Reading the Text

• Play the opera music softly in the background.
• Select roles to read as desired.
• Read aloud the scene according to your selected roles.

Activity 4: Narrate the Lesson

• Narrate the lesson events aloud in your own words.

Activity 5: Read About the Three Great Schools of Opera

THREE TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS OF OPERA:

• According to [2], there are three great schools of opera: Italian, French, and German.
• Find the related countries on the map of Europe.

ITALIAN:

• Of the three standard schools, the earliest Italian operas often ignored the importance of the libretto (story) in favor of the melody.
• However, Italian composers and librettists later rectified this imbalance.
• Italian opera composers include Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Puccini.

FRENCH:

• A first cousin of Italian opera, the traditional French opera tended to be more carefully thought out, sometimes even too calculated.
• French operas are in general less florid (elaborately ornate or showy), and never indifferent to the librettist and the significance of the lines they have written and the situations they have evoked.
• French opera composers include Halévy, Auber, Gounod, Bizet, and Massenet.

GERMAN:

• The traditional German school of opera was distinguished by a seriousness of purpose.
• Traditional German operas strove for balance between voice and orchestra.
• Famous German opera composers include Handel, Beethoven, Strauss, Humperdinck, and Mendelssohn.

References

'Metropolitan Opera House Grand Opera Libretto Hansel und Gretel - A Fairy Opera in Three Acts by Adelheid Wette (CC0 1.0)' Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/hnselgretelfai00humpuoft/. n.p.

'The Complete Opera Book' by Gustav Kobbé (CC0 1.0). Gutenberg.org. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40540/40540-h/40540-h.htm. n.p.