To Sleep, and an Evening Prayer
Sep 15th, 2008 by oldfogey
My second post on Sleep follows on from the lullaby theme of my last one. But here it is lullaby with menace. From a fairy story. And how terrified are we, as children, lost in our dreams of the fairy story, by the unknown threat of violation that lurks in the forest of sleep.
Englebert Humperdinck’s opera ‘Hansel und Gretel’ is a classic - but it frightens children as much as it charms their parents. Hansel and Gretel are lost in the forest, run away from home and the wrath of their parents after spilling the milk in the jar. Around them the forest closes in, in the dark of night. Fear surrounds them. They cling to each other till their eyes droop - and the Sandman arrives. To sprinkle sand in their eyes and usher in the darkness. And as if fearful of the unconsciousness of sleep they momentarily shake themselves out it and the Sandman’s spell - to pray. So they kneel, as the children they are, as if at the side of their bed (like once I did), and pray together for angels to come and guard them; two at their head, two at their feet.
The prayer saves them for the morning, when reality, and real terror, arrives.
This is Adelaide Wette as the Sandmann and Irmgard Seefried and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Hansel and Gretel.
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