Hansel and Gretel

Hi, welcome back to my blog. Today I will be telling you about my opinion and summary of Hansel and Gretel by the RNZB ( The Royal New Zealand Ballet ). They performed the show last year but luckily had it recorded so in the last couple of days they have been doing free showings of the recordings, so that people can watch the show from home. There were certain times when we could see the show and Mum decided that 10:30 am on Sunday was the best time for us.  Dad had said that he could put it on the computer that had been sitting on the garage for ever, so we were waiting and counting down the time until the show started.

It was spectacular. They did it in an old fashioned way almost black and white, until the witch came in with her flamboyant style and colourful clothing. The story line was a bit different.  The parent where kind and loving the whole time and the witch made her first appearance when the  other school children were teasing Hansel and Gretel for being poor and different. The witch appeared as an ice cream lady and all the children lined up for ice cream, unfortunately for Hansel and Gretel it cost money so they felt left out once again.

Hansel and Gretel were portrayed as poor children that loved each other but liked teasing each other, wishing for more.  They ran away because they had been about to take more food than they had been given and thought that their Mum had caught them. They got lost but luckily dew fairies found them and helped them sleep. When they woke up they were lost in a forest, so while they were trying to get out the stumbled across a gingerbread house. They start to eat it then they found the door to go inside. There the witch was waiting. She pretends to be nice to them for a bit, giving them sweet food and acting sweet then the lights went out. When they came back on Hansel was in a cage and was quite fat. Gretel was very upset but didn't have time to save Hansel because the witch came in. She makes Gretel start the oven but Gretel pretend that she doesn't know how to, so the witch had to do it herself. While she was half in the oven trying to get it started Gretel pushes her in and gets Hansel out of the cage. Meanwhile their parents have been looking for them and have found the dew faires who help them look for Hansel and Gretel. They found them at the gingerbread house with a lot of money from the witches lackeys who are very grateful to Gretel for killing the witch.

Over all I loved the show, the sets were incredible, especially the way they portrayed the forest with knives and forks acting as trees and I loved the colourfulness of the witches house and how it was so different to the bleakness at the beginning.  The dancing was beautiful and my favourite part was the dew fairy queens par de deux with the dew fairy king - I loved how they were so light, posed and the light made them sparkle and look like stars. The costumes contrasted darkness and lightness depending on the characters - Hansel and Gretel and their parents all wore dark colours and the witches, her lackeys and witch friends were all colourful.  Pink and red were their predominant colors.  The music was an original score and was stunning overall.  I can't wait until I can see another one.

Gretel holding the bellows to start the oven

That was a quick summary of Hansel and Gretel. I thought that it was incredible. Have you seen it and if so what did you think of it?