# Engelbert Humperdinck



## Dustin

I noticed this composer doesn't have a guestbook yet so I'll start one. Personally I don't know much about him but I've started listening to his most famous work recently, Hansel and Gretel. I'll also be attending a performance of the work in the next month. So far I'm really liking this opera.


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## hpowders

Yes. I have seen it several times. Outstanding Wagner-like music.


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## Wood

It was pretty inevitable really, someone was going to do this. At least there are subtitles.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.


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## Dustin

Wood said:


> It was pretty inevitable really, someone was going to do this. At least there are subtitles.
> 
> Sorry, sorry, sorry.


I think he should just stick to writing operas...


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## Hmmbug

I saw Humperdinck on the listings of performances in the theater near me. I was hoping it was a couple operas they were putting on, but you can guess who it actually was.


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## hpowders

Returning the thread back to the level it deserves, Hansel and Gretel is a masterpiece in its own right. I've seen it live several times, once at the Met and once in Sarasota, Florida. Most entertaining!


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## Itullian

hpowders said:


> Returning the thread back to the level it deserves, Hansel and Gretel is a masterpiece in its own right. I've seen it live several times, once at the Met and once in Sarasota, Florida. Most entertaining!


Except it's way too short.


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## hpowders

Itullian said:


> Except it's way too short.


Yeah. Maybe about as long (short?) as La Boheme? A good opera for folks who are new to opera and wouldn't be able to sit through Les Troyens, Meistersinger or Götterdämmerung. Most of 'em already know the story too!


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## Headphone Hermit

^^^ Ouch! That will sting a bit!


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## hpowders

Headphone Hermit said:


> ^^^ Ouch! That will sting a bit!


Why? Most folks already know the plot. And it's not very long. And it has a lot of beautiful music.

I prevented my parents from ever seeing it for fear it would give them an idea of how to throw me out of the house so I would never come back. Stupid, I'm not!!!


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## Dustin

Just a quick update. I'll be seeing this tomorrow at Opera in the Heights here in Houston. Being a small opera company, they are using an orchestral reduction by Derek Clark, head of the music staff at the Scottish Opera. The reviews for it so far have been fantastic so I'm dying to see it. I always hear about how it is very Wagnerian, yet that notion always confused me because of the extreme lyricism in this piece, which I have yet to find more often than sporadically in the Wagner I've heard. I am very much a musical amateur so I'm not saying that it is not Wagnerian, simply that I can't hear it and I'm not real familiar with Wagner. I read a review today talking about the irony in the fact that the piece is claimed by some to be the most germanic piece since Wagner, but at the same time it possesses Italianate lyricism.


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## hpowders

Don't analyze. Read my signature. Relax and enjoy. Don't worry about what you are "supposed" to hear.


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## Dustin

hpowders said:


> Don't analyze. Read my signature. Relax and enjoy. Don't worry about what you are "supposed" to hear.


Well I just got back and I can say that was one of the best classical performances I've been to. Such a moving score and I was about 3 feet away from the conductor and orchestra. They were on my same level as well, not elevated way above my head like in most orchestral halls. I was talking with the concertmaster and he was telling me about how he is looking forward to learning La Clamenza di Tito for the first time in his life, which will be the next show coming up in February.


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## DavidA

Itullian said:


> Except it's way too short.


Actually a certain Mr Wagner could have learned a bit from his pupil!


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## DavidA

Love Hansel and Gretel. Some of the most charming music ever written. Just hate it when producers make out it's about child abuse or something like that. There was a nasty ENO one some time ago like that. Just play it straight as the composer intended - a fairy tale. 
I've a couple of really good recordings - the classic Karajan and a more modern one with Tate I bought for next to nothing in a charity shop. Enjoy the delicious score!


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## hpowders

Dustin said:


> Well I just got back and I can say that was one of the best classical performances I've been to. Such a moving score and I was about 3 feet away from the conductor and orchestra. They were on my same level as well, not elevated way above my head like in most orchestral halls. I was talking with the concertmaster and he was telling me about how he is looking forward to learning La Clamenza di Tito for the first time in his life, which will be the next show coming up in February.


Excellent! There really is nothing to compare with attending a live music performance!

Oh! Was that YOU I was talking to?


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## Dustin

hpowders said:


> Excellent! There really is nothing to compare with attending a live music performance!
> 
> Oh! Was that YOU I was talking to?


Haha oh ok it all makes sense now!


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