Join Mid Wales Opera at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Tuesday, 14 March for magic, music and a pinch of peril as they wander into the woods with Hansel and Gretel.

MWO return to main-stage touring this month with their first ever production of Humperdinck’s late 19th century classic Hansel and Gretel.

Based on the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale, two children are banished to the enchanted woods by their hungry, frustrated mother. When their father returns and learns of their whereabouts, he reveals to their mother the true terrors of the gingerbread Witch, and the two of them hurry out to find them.

Meanwhile, out in the woods, the two children get lost before wandering into the clutches of the Witch who is determined to fatten them up and turn them into gingerbread. At the last minute the Witch is outwitted, and the gingerbread figures that surround the Witch’s house are revealed as dead children waiting to be brought back to life.

This new production of Hansel and Gretel, the first ever by Mid Wales Opera, is directed and designed by their artistic director Richard Studer. His vision for the work has a real contemporary resonance and explores the darker side of the story’s fairy tale origins.

He explained: “Fairy tales are nightmare, not dreamscapes. They play on our primitive and primordial fears. They are the knock in the dark, the crack of a branch, the footstep on the stair rousing you from your slumber.

“What loving parent has not, in a moment of frustration, banished their child from their presence – prematurely untethering the apron strings. Hansel and Gretel’s parents love them, but their situation is cruel and in the midst of grinding poverty, with the challenges of father’s unemployment and mother’s sense of inadequacy, who wouldn’t cry over spilt milk and scream at the kids?”

The dark side of the story is reinforced by Montgomeryshire-based mezzo soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones’ twin roles as Mother and Witch, a position familiar to many parents we’re sure.

Rebecca makes her stage debut with MWO in this production, having toured with prestigious companies across the UK and beyond.

Rebecca said: “It’s been an exciting challenge preparing two roles in one opera – a bit like learning Jekyll and Hyde...the mother and witch are more similar that perhaps we’re prepared to admit. I am looking forward to finding the extremes in both their characters and finding out how this unfolds in rehearsal!”

The opera is sung in the English translation by David Pountney, with a cast of eight professional singers, together with a chorus of children assembled locally for each theatre.

Humperdinck’s lush and effervescent orchestral score, performed by MWO’s partner orchestra Ensemble Cymru, is conducted by their music director Jonathan Lyness who has also created a new orchestration of the work especially for this production.

Hansel and Gretel is at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Tuesday, 14 March at 7pm.

The production is suitable for children aged eight and over. The performance starts at 7pm.