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It has also been open to various kinds of foreign art: Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Verdi's Falstaff, the works of Puccini, Mascagni, and the young Italian school, Richard Strauss's Feuersnot, Rimsky-Korsakow's Snégourotchka, have all been played.
Let it be called the "Prayer Theme," for the melody is that of the prayer which the little ones utter before laying themselves down to sleep in the wood. When past bearing is our grief God, the Lord, will send relief. Humperdinck's splendid contrapuntal skill shows itself in a most varied use of this theme.
Humperdinck's melody is founded upon the Volkslied, and he uses at least one nursery tune with charming effect. The framework of 'Hänsel 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.
The production of Humperdinck's 'Hänsel und Gretel' gave rise to a hope that the merely imitative period was passing away, but it is plain that the mighty shadow of Wagner still hangs over German music. Strauss's 'Salome' may be the herald of a new epoch, but on that subject it is too soon to indulge in prophecy.
Humperdinck's share of 'Die sieben Geislein, a children's ballad opera which was published some years ago, consists only of a few songs of an unimportant character, which will not enhance his reputation. 'Königskinder, which was produced in 1897, must be classed as a play with incidental music rather than as an opera.
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.
The music is instinct with genuine humour, and though but remotely suggesting the methods of Wagner shows complete mastery of technical resource. The most important contribution to German opera made during the decade that followed the death of Wagner was Humperdinck's 'Hänsel und Gretel, which was produced in December 1893.
There is little in it which cannot be traced more or less directly to a prototype in the works of Wagner, and it need scarcely be said that Goldmark does not improve upon his model In 'Das Heimchen am Herd' , the libretto of which is founded upon Dickens's famous story 'The Cricket on the Hearth, Goldmark seems to have tried to emulate the success of Humperdinck's 'Hänsel und Gretel, There are suggestions in it, too, of the influence of Smetana who dawned upon the Viennese horizon in 1890.
The former theme is a pretty illustration of what has already been said of Humperdinck's consistent devotion to the folk-song spirit in his choice of melodies.
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