Hansel and Gretel (opera) Hansel and Gretel (opera) Hansel and Gretel (German: ) is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who described it as a "" (fairy-tale opera). The libretto was written by Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel". It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the "" ("Evening Benediction") from act 2. The idea for the opera was proposed to Humperdinck by his sister, who approached him about writing music for songs that she had written for her children for Christmas based on "Hansel and Gretel".
Lina Abarbanell and the Metropolitan Opera House, brought Abarbanell to New York. Her American debut came that October at Irving Place in "Fruehlingsluft" ("Spring Breezes") followed a month later playing Lt. Von Vogel in "Jung Heidelberg" ("Young Heidelberg"), a comic opera with music from Carl Millöcker and book by Leopold Krenn and . Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House as Hänsel to Bella Alten's Gretel came on November 25, 1905. Over the run of "Hänsel und Gretel" the two would at times switch roles. After honing her language skills Abarbarbanell made her English-speaking debut at the Garden Theatre on Christmas Day,