`Hansel and Gretel' a sweet treat

CLEVELAND - A child-eating witch at the Cleveland Orchestra and a customer-slaying barber at the Cleveland Opera.

Hmm, sounds like grisly holiday fare.

But unlike Sweeney Todd, which opens tonight at Cleveland Opera, the opera Hansel and Gretel, which opened in a concert production Thursday night by the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Moest, does have a happy ending suited to the season.

Thursday's sparkling production of the Engelbert Humperdinck opera was lit up from the inside by the playful, innocent performances of soprano Malin Hartelius as Gretel and mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer as Hansel. The orchestra played with a singing line that carried along the folk music-inflected writing.

Hartelius and Mentzer were beautifully matched, both vocally and as actors in this classic children's story. Mentzer's voluptuous mezzo always allowed Hartelius' brighter soprano to show.

As Hansel, Mentzer plunged her hands into her pants pockets and pulled faces at Hartelius, dressed in a gathered skirt and looking fresh-faced as a schoolgirl. Whether getting bawled out by their mother (Denise Knowlton, a mezzo with excellent projection of a tone that sometimes went shrill) or trying to fool the Witch, the two were both deeply engaged in their roles.

Sometimes, as in this case, the role of the Witch is sung by a man instead of a woman. Volker Vogel mugged up his part, making the most of the comic element. As the Father, the veteran baritone Hakan Hagegard brought a well-honed professionalism to the role, though he was less convincingly involved in the drama than his stage children. Malia Bendi Merad doubled nicely as The Sandman/Dew Fairy.

English surtitles were supplied to translate the original German text. There were no sets or staging (the singers simply sat onstage in front of the orchestra), but explanations in the surtitles made the scenes clear.

And while the costuming was mostly limited to variations on black, it was a clever idea to have the talented young singers of the Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus wear bright, candy-colored shirts for their entrance onstage at the end.

The witch's spell was broken, the children were miraculously brought back to life, and all was good.