At just 29 years old, conductor Robin Ticciati has already been named as the next music director of Glyndebourne, a position he will take up in 2014. If this charming Hänsel und Gretel, recorded in 2010, is anything to go by, the venerable festival is in very safe hands indeed. Ticciati’s account of Humperdinck’s opera is both expansive and electric, tripping through Humperdinck’s numerous folksong quotations while still maintaining the grand sweep of his score, and best of all evoking a true sense of fairytale magic.

He’s aided and abetted by two first-rate siblings in the form of Alice Coote and Lydia Teuscher. Coote’s robust and earthy mezzo is tailor-made for breeches roles, and she’s a delightful Hänsel, conveying perfectly the boy’s ongoing battle between bravado and complete terror. Teuscher is a sweet and sparkling Gretel, her light soprano convincingly girlish but thankfully never too cutesy or twee. Together they’re a perfectly matched pair, and even without the benefit of visuals, their playful dynamic is palpable. Indeed, vocal acting is a strength throughout the cast: Irmgard Vilsmaier is a mother to be reckoned with, her bluster underpinned by the full force of a dramatic soprano, while William Dazeley’s Father...