(Photo by Ken Howard courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera)
By Martin Bernheimer [Financial Times, 1 January 2008]

Remember Hansel and Gretel? Remember Engelbert Humperdinck’s marvellously gooey, quasi-Wagnerian opera about folksy babes in the wood, evil spirits on broomsticks, winged angels selling solace, sentimental piety über alles and rose-coloured salvation? Forget it.