Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel goes well in just about any language and that is the case here where this timeless classic is sung in a charming Italian translation. The entire video of this is available on YouTube and it is even more endearing when one can see the singers acting their roles and having the time of their lives.Heard purely as a recording, it is very good. Cossotto sings and acts simply and honestly as Hansel. Jan Poleri looks like Gretel to the life, but her actual voice is rather watery and unsteady and she sings none of Gretel's optional higher notes (there's a top D and C in Act Three). Amadini and Campi are both very good as the parents. Palombini, whose career stretched back quite a few years (she was Suzuki to Toti Dal Monte's Butterfly), sings and acts the Witch superbly with a menacing cackle. The Sandman and Dew Fairy are also sung very well. Sanzogno leads a brisk account of the score.Except for a minor tape glitch in the parents' scene and some odd and fleeting crackle in Act Three the sound is excellent (and pitched correctly too.) I wish a broadcast of this opera with Cossotto, Renata Scotto, and Elena Nicolai from La Scala in the early 60s had survived, but that doesn't seem to have happened. There is another wonderful performance from RAI 1954 with Jurinac, Schwarzkopf, and Palombini under Karajan's direction that has survived. It was once on the Walhall and Datum labels - if you love this opera as I do, you'll seek it out!