Judging from the photos of the Glyndebourne production at which this performance was recorded, it must have been very special: The kids home is a cardboard box, the forest is bare-looking and bleak, and the Witch’s House is a well-stocked supermarket. Furthermore, the witch is sung by a tenor in hot-pink drag—a glorious image of overstuffed malice. And the CDs have much to recommend them as well, but not enough to push the frontrunners—and this opera has been very lucky on disc—to the background.
Beginning with the Sandman’s (a fine Tara Erraught) entrance and the following prayer and pantomime, this is a radiant performance, both vocally and orchestrally. The Prayer is hypnotically lovely, with Alice Coote’s (Hänsel) and Lydia Teuscher’s (Gretel) voices blending perfectly, and the orchestra, under Robin Ticciati, playing angelically. The third act is a thrilling ride despite Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as the Witch occasionally stooping to Sprechstimme, and it ends in utter joy.
The first part of the opera seems off to me: Coote is too burly as Hänsel (her acting must have called for plenty of horsing around) and repeated listenings don’t fall well on the ear. Teuscher is good but not particularly memorable; I cannot recall the sound of her voice after the CD stopped playing. William Dazeley and Irmgard Vilsmaier are good as the Mother and Father; they sound properly rough and properly concerned, alternately. Robin Ticciati is really quite wonderful in the pit, wedding the Wagnerian orchestration with a sense of childlike charm and wonderment. And so the real problem with this set is not so much with this set: it’s with the very-available competition. At the top of the order, we have Schwarzkopf/Grümmer/Karajan/EMI; they sort-of leave this Glyndebourne performance with nowhere to go.
