The tenor Peter Marsh as a scary crispy witch
Cult: The inimitable original.
Image: Michael Braunschädel
In Keith Warner’s Frankfurt production of the fairytale opera “Hansel and Gretel” there is a terrible witch who will never be forgotten by anyone who has ever seen her: Peter Marsh has played the hybrid of man and woman since the premiere in 2014.
AAttention, it’s about to get loud,” warns Peter Marsh fortunately. His “witch laugh” goes through your bones, especially in the small make-up room in the Frankfurt Opera: “Jihihihi!” exclaims the American tenor with the remarkably bright voice, which he bends into a nasty shriek for an amusing moment similar to this wild cowboy scream. Marsh seems to be enjoying his starring role as a witch in Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairytale opera Hansel and Gretel. Thanks to his strong performance in Keith Warner’s production, he has become a cult figure at the Frankfurt Opera: a terrifying hybrid of man and woman, for whom Marsh is first bald in the mask and then made up for a stark long-distance effect.
The fact that the witches role, which Humperdinck originally wrote for mezzo-soprano, is sung by a tenor obviously corresponds to a performance tradition and is nothing special. What’s even more unusual is that the creepy witch hasn’t lived in a tempting crunchy little house since the successful production premiered in 2014, but in a real horror shack, according to Jason Southgate’s stage design. In the series, Hansel is being held captive in a dingy freezer next to the large oven. Peter Marsh achieved insane effects with furious costume and position changes as well as small stage tricks, so that it seems as if the witch, who appears in changing forms, can stretch her arm for meters. Since the premiere and now at Christmas time in the third and final revival, Marsh has been seen as a witch.