Ballantyne Magazine covers news, events, real estate, restaurants, shopping, health, schools and business in the upscale Ballantyne Area of Charlotte, NC.
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"When they approached the little house, they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cake, but the windows were of spun sugar." Hänsel and Gretel's House TREASURED CONFECTION HAS SURPRISING, DARK ORIGIN By Nan Bauroth SINCE THE 1800s, this delectable vision in the Brother Grimm's fairy tale of Hänsel and Gretel has enchanted children the world over. But the first association of gingerbread with the edible fantasy is the legacy of Engelbert Humperdinck, the German composer who set the popular folk story to music. When his opera "Hänsel und Gretel" premiered in Weimar, Germany on Dec. 23, 1893, the show was an instant hit, which explains its connection with Christmas. In the original libretto, the fence was fashioned of gingerbread figures, while the house was depicted as a confectionary wonder. As Gretel sings, "What odour delicious, o say, do I dream? A cottage all made of chocolate cream. The roof is all cover'd with Turkish delight. The windows with lustre of sugar are white. And on all the gables the gingerbread hedge!" The gingerbread figures are ultimately revealed as bewitched children who return to life WINTER 2012-2013 BALLANTYNE MAGAZINE 39