Engelbert Humperdinck

Evening Prayer from Hansel and Gretel

A firm favourite with singers of all ages, this simple but moving duet is now attractively presented in this new edition.
Hansel and Gretel is one of the most-performed operas ever written - within a year of its premiere in Weimar in 1893 it hadbeen performed 50 times in Germany alone.
The story
In Act I Hansel and Gretel have annoyed their Mother by dancing when they should havebeen making brooms and knitting. In her anger the Mother knocks over the jug of milk, the only food in the house. She sends the children out into the nearby forest to pick strawberries, but when the Father returns he is horrified, because this is where the Witch lives in her gingerbread cottage.
He and the Mother go out to find their Children. In Act II, after the children have picked and then eaten the strawberries, a mist arises and, when it clears, there is the Sandman, a smallgrey figure with a sack on his back. He throws sand in their eyes and, after they saytheir evening prayer, they fall asleep in each other's arms. After the prayer, the mistdescends again and turns into a magic staircase, down which comes the fourteen angels of whom they sang, to surround them and keep them safe through the night.