Humperdinck’s first and most successful opera began life as a commission from his sister Adelheid Wette, who asked him to write music for a children’s play she had adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck initially provided his sister with just four songs, but was soon convinced of the fable’s operatic potential and, three years later, came up with a work that Richard Strauss described as "a masterpiece of the highest quality…all of it original, new and so authentically German." Strauss was not alone in seeing Hänsel und Gretel as the salvation of German opera, bringing relief from the murky Wagnerian depths of Teutonic myth and initiating a return to the shimmering world of the fairy-tale. A Fairy Tale Opera by Adelheid Wette, based on the story by The Brothers Grimm. Music by Engelbert Humperdinck. Peter, a broom-maker: .Alfred Muff. Gertrud, his wife: Gabriele Lechner. Hänsel, his son: Liliana Nikiteanu. Gretel, his daughter: Malin Hartelius. The Witch: Volker Vogel. The Children’s Chorus Of The Zurich Opera House and The Orchestra Of The Zurich Opera House. Stage Design and Costumes: MAURICE SENDAK. Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst.