Published: 23 August, 2012

• I MAY well have misunderstood Amy Smith’s recent theatre column (August 10), in which the operetta Hansel and Gretel is mentioned side-by-side with the name of Engelbert Humperdinck, the singer.

It might, of course, have been a sly joke on your part?

Or is it April 1 and I haven’t noticed?

Anyway, the facts are these: Hansel and Gretel, the opera (also known as a children’s operetta), was the only lasting success of German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, born Siegburg 1854, died Neustrelitz, 1921.

Hansel and Gretel was written in 1893. He wrote other operas, songs and incidental music.

Amy is certainly not the only person to have made this error. I once attended a performance of this children’s opera, and in the interval a couple demanded their money back from the box office, as “Engelbert Humperdinck was not singing that afternoon”.

I don’t know the outcome of their complaint.

I feel sure that had you shown your copy to your classical music colleague, he would have put you right. By the way, has the singer Engelbert actually got a sister?

JANET CAPON NERI
W10