According to Peter Damm’s own biographical notes, he performed Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel at Christmas when he was sixteen years old. In Germany, it is a long-standing tradition for families with children to attend a full staging of this opera at the theatre during the Christmas season. It is natural to assume, therefore, that he performed not merely the overture but the opera in its entirety.
To perform at thirty-six the very piece you played for the first time at sixteen — this must surely have been a recording of special significance for Peter Damm.
About the Music
A masterpiece opera by Humperdinck, a pupil of Wagner. In Germany it is cherished far more widely than the operas of Wagner or Richard Strauss.
The Grimm fairy tale of Hänsel und Gretel is set in a medieval village struck by famine and contains some rather dark elements. For the opera, the story was softened with a Christmas family audience in mind.
The “Evening Prayer” melody, played by four horns at the very opening of the overture, has been arranged in many forms. My Master looks back fondly on his student days, recalling how he and his friends would often play this piece together in the university building at dusk.
It sounds like my Master spent his university days playing the horn instead of studying.
Now, now — we really shouldn’t go around telling the truth like that. 💦
Performers and Recording
Conductor: Otmar Suitner
Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden
Principal soloists: Theo Adam (Father), Ingeborg Springer (Hänsel), Renate Hoff (Gretel), Peter Schreier (the Witch), Renate Krahmer (the Sandman)
Chorus: Dresden Kreuzchor
Recording Engineer: Claus Strüben
Recorded: 1973 (Peter Damm, age 36)
Highlights to Listen For
The Opening of the Overture
The first highlight is the solo horn passage at the very opening of the overture — this is where you hear the sound that says “this is Peter Damm!” The melody is the “Evening Prayer” that the two children sing together in the middle of the opera, just before they fall asleep. It is a magnificent performance by Peter Damm that immediately signals this will be a remarkable account of the opera. The way the strings take over the melody partway through is equally beautiful. The whole orchestra is lifted by Peter Damm’s playing, and that heightened tension carries through to the very end of the opera.
The role of the Witch is conventionally taken by a female voice, but here the celebrated East German tenor Peter Schreier suppresses his beautiful voice and sings in a rasping character tone. While writing this article, I learned that he passed away on Christmas Day, 25 December 2019 — just before the pandemic began. Hänsel und Gretel must have been playing in theatres across Germany on that very day.
Peter Schreier — my favourite tenor of all. May he rest in peace.
After the Evening Prayer
The next highlight begins with the scene in which Hänsel and Gretel finish singing the “Evening Prayer” and drift off to sleep. This is the moment when the fourteen angels the children sang of in their prayer descend from the sky and gather around the sleeping siblings. It is a magical spectacle, the eyes of the children in the audience lighting up at the sight of the angels in their many costumes. Even in a studio recording, Peter Damm’s playing — so full of tenderness — is simply wonderful. This is a passage I would never want anyone to miss.
The “Evening Prayer” goes like this:
“Abends, will ich schlafen gehen,
vierzehn Engel um mich stehn… ”
(When evening comes and I lie down to sleep, fourteen angels gather around me…)
It continues: “two at my head, two at my feet, two on my right side, two on my left…” — there is even an angel whose task is to wake the children in the morning. What a blissfully happy sleep, surrounded by fourteen angels!
I wonder if fourteen angels might come to my Master’s bedside — and mine — too?
Let’s just make sure they don’t whisk us away by mistake. Hehehe.
When Peter Damm performs opera, his gift for singing through the instrument comes into its own without restraint. There are many more outstanding opera recordings to explore — Weber’s Der Freischütz, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, and others. I hope to introduce them in due course.
