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Donald Macleod sees Humperdinck collaborate with Wagner and develop as a composer for the stage.

German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, became an international celebrity with his music for the stage. His lasting hit was his opera, Hansel and Gretel, which is featured in its entirety across this week. There were other huge successes too. Die Heirat wider Willen (The Reluctant Marriage) was highly praised after its premiere at the Royal Opera in Berlin, and Humperdinck took 19 curtain calls in London for his stage work Das Wunder (The Miracle). In New York, at the Metropolitan Opera House, after the premiere of Humperdinck’s opera Königskinder (King's Children), the applause just kept going so that the management had to turn the lights off, in order to force the audience to leave.

Humperdinck was born in Siegburg, and from early on his parents encouraged his musical abilities, provided he focused on his other school commitments, too. He went on to study at the Cologne Conservatoire and soon fell under the spell of Wagner whom he met, and later worked with, in the preparation of Wagner’s opera, Parsifal. Humperdinck travelled Europe, and in the early 1890s he saw the premiere of his own opera Hansel and Gretel, which was performed on sixty-nine German stages within one year. Humperdinck became a professor of composition in Berlin and, between his teaching duties, he continued to write many works for the stage. Opera houses clambered to give the premiere of a new work by Humperdinck and he became a giant of his times. It is his opera Hansel and Gretel for which he is remembered today.

Today, Donald explores the composer's early career. Humperdinck found himself a member of Wagner’s inner circle, working closely with this musical giant on the premiere of Parsifal. Humperdinck even composed a few bars of music which was inserted into the opera to cover the movement of scenery. This early training into the world of music for the stage must have had a significant impact upon Humperdinck, who went on to have a highly successful career himself in this arena. In the late 1880s, Humperdinck composed some songs, setting texts by his sister based on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. He was encouraged by his family to develop this music into a Singspiel but, as he worked on it, Humperdinck realised that it was strong enough to stand operatic treatment. Soon after, his most famous work for the stage was born.

Die Lerche
Christina Landshamer, soprano
Hinrich Alpers, piano

String Quartet in C minor
Diogenes Quartet

Wagner arr. Humperdinck
Parsifal (Herzeleide)
Ana-Marija Markovina, piano
Cord Garben, piano

Humperdinck
Hansel and Gretel (excerpt)
Jennifer Larmore (Hansel), mezzo-soprano
Ruth Ziesak (Gretel), soprano
Hildegard Behrens (Gertrud), soprano
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor

Nachtstück in A flat
Elisabeth Plank, harp

Hansel and Gretel (excerpt)
Hildegard Behrens (Gertrud), soprano
Bernd Weikl (Peter), baritone
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor

Christkindleins Wiegenlied
Christina Landshamer, soprano
Hinrich Alpers, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock