Hansel and Gretel is a late romantic opera in three acts that was composed in the early 1890s. The music is by Engelbert Humperdinck, the libretto was written by his sister Adelheid Wette based on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel from the children's and household tales by the Brothers Grimm. The title of the work by the authors is “Fairy Tale Game in Three Pictures”, Humperdinck called his work a “Children's Parlor Festival” in an ironic allusion to Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal.
Hänsel und Gretel was performed for the first time on December 23, 1893 at the Hoftheater in Weimar under Richard Strauss as conductor. The opera, which has a playing time of around two hours, is now part of the frequently performed repertoire of opera houses and is performed particularly frequently during Advent.