Hansel And Gretel, Welsh National Opera, The Mayflower, Southampton

ALMOST 100 years be-fore anyone had heard of Hannibal Lecter, cannibalism was being served up as popular entertainment.

Hansel And Gretel is not the whimsy-coated confection opera newcomers might have expected, but a dark fantasy with a yucky central premise that leaves you feeling distinctly queasy.

Horror and violence are as much a part of the operatic language as love and tragedy, but the prospect of two children being cooked and eaten alive is far more disturbing than the sight of Madam Butterfly falling on her sword.

As much as they loved to sentimentalise children, the Victorians had a raging appetite for the macabre - and the imagination to feed it.

Hansel And Gretel is a prime example of twisted Victoriana. Its nightmare imagery - the witch's kitchen full of children turned to gingerbread; Hansel trussed up like a chicken in readiness for the oven - is probably far more unsettling to a modern sensitised audience.

In WNO's award-winning production, Humperdinck's score - haunting and playful, but always accessible - was served by some brilliant designs, best of which was a wood populated by trees wearing three-piece suits.

The phantasmagoria continued in a dream sequence in which the ravenous children were served a feast by 14 angels dresses as chefs and a waiter with a fish's head.

Imelda Drumm and Linda Kitchen were convincingly child-like as Hansel and Gretel, but Peter Hoare stole the show as a comic-grotesque witch, whose wrinkled tights and frumpy fashion sense were almost as disturbing as her plans for our innocent heroes.

This was a Grimm joy - in every sense of the word.