his wife with the story of the witch of Schornstein, who is given to eating little children, and they both hurry off to bring Haensel and Gretel home.  Meanwhile, out in the forest the children amuse themselves with picking strawberries and making flower garlands, until the approach of night, when they find to their horror that they have lost their way.  They search for it in vain, and at last, completely tired out, they sink down upon the moss beneath a spreading tree.  The Dustman—­the German sleep-fairy—­appears and throws dust in their weary eyes.  Together they sing their little evening hymn, and drop off to sleep locked in each other’s arms.  Then the heavens open, and down a shining staircase come the bright forms of angels, who group themselves round the sleeping children, and watch over their innocent slumbers until the break of day.  Haensel and Gretel are aroused by the Dew-fairy, who sprinkles his magic branch over them and drives the sleep from their eyes.  They tell each other of the wonderful dream which came to both of them, and then, looking round for the first time, discover a beautiful gingerbread house, close to where they were sleeping.  This is where the witch of the forest lives, who bakes little children into gingerbread in her great oven, and eats them up.  She catches Haensel and Gretel, and nearly succeeds in her wicked schemes, but the children, with great presence of mind, defeat her malice by pushing her into her own oven.  Then they free the other children who have been turned into gingerbread through her magic spells, and the father and mother opportunely appearing, all join in a hymn of thanksgiving for their deliverance.

Humperdinck’s music reproduces, with infinite art, the tender and childlike charm of the delightful old fairy tale.  His score is amazingly elaborate, and his treatment of the guiding themes which compose it is kaleidoscopic in its variety, yet the whole thing flows on as naturally as a ballad.  The voice-parts are always suave and melodious, and the orchestral score, however complicated, never loses touch of consummate musical beauty.  Humperdinck’s melody is founded upon the Volkslied, and he uses at least one nursery tune with charming effect.  The framework of ‘Haensel und Gretel’ is that bequeathed by Wagner, but the spirit which animates and informs the work is so different from that of the Bayreuth master, that there can be no suspicion of imitation, much less of plagiarism.  Humperdinck is the first German operatic composer of distinct individuality since the death of Wagner.  He has shown that the methods of the great composer can be used as a garment to cover an individuality as distinct as that of any writer in the history of opera.