22 October 2026

Recently, we saw a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, ‘Hansel and Gretel’. It was performed by Scottish Opera under the heading, ‘Opera on Your Doorstep’. The company is taking the opera to 34 locations including the Byre Theatre, the Ryan Centre, Stranraer and Seil Community Hall.

There were five singers, three of whom were described as ‘Scottish Opera Emerging Artists’. They were young with agile voices and a welcome enthusiasm for the tale. It is not as cruel as that featured in the Grimms’ fairy story.

The mother is spared her wickedness although she does double up as the witch in the opera. Instead of being a wicked step-mother, she is a hardworking mother who has reached the end of her tether with the cost of living crisis! She simply cannot afford to keep the children….

The costumes and the set were done on a shoe-string. Cardboard boxes, which must be useful for travelling around Scotland, were used for kitchen cupboards. But the witch’s costume was brilliant and her gingerbread house was mesmerising. There was an effective use of shadow puppetry  to describe journeys on land and air!

In  the programme notes, the director, Lucy Bradley, wrote, ‘Despite the hardship of their circumstances, Hansel and Gretel is about the resilience and imagination of children, the power of creativity and the importance of  reconnecting with nature.’

The latter is a theme which has become obligatory! But the tale clearly celebrates the power of good to overcome evil. And, in particular, the triumph of the small, the weak and the insignificant over the strong and powerful. This resonates in the gospel. ‘For God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong …’