Hänsel

Hänsel (Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel). Mezzo-Soprano. Travesti role. Son of Peter and Gertrud and brother of Gretel. He helps his father make brooms to sell. Is sent with his sister to pick strawberries in the forest. They become lost and are put to sleep by the Sandman and protected by angels. When they wake the next morning, they are captured by the Witch and Hänsel is put in a cage to be fattened up before he is baked. He is rescued by Gretel who pushes the Witch into the oven. Duet (with Gretel): Abends wenn ich schlafen gehn (‘In the evening when I go to sleep’). Created (1893) by Fräulein Schubert (who was to have created Gretel, but took over the travesti role at short notice because of the illness of the intended Hänsel, Pauline de Ahna, the future wife of Richard Strauss).