With not one but two productions about to run concurrently in Her Majesty’s Theatre, there is no mistaking it’s party time right now for State Opera South Australia. The company is in full swing during its Golden Jubilee Season and is taking on what might seem an impossible task of running two simultaneous shows – Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel and Sondheim’s Into the Woods – during this last week of August.

Yet it must be said: a 50th birthday celebration calls for something special, and State Opera South Australia is clearly pulling out all the stops.

Those who don’t mind a fairy story and hanker after Englebert Humperdinck’s beautiful music in Hansel & Gretel are especially in luck. This writer was able to get along to a preview ahead of first night – a rare opportunity not normally afforded to reviewers – and can report that this brand-new production hits high standards. Final touches were still being put in place as the minutes ticked, as is to be expected in any dress rehearsal, but suffice to say: audiences will be in for an enchanting night.

Director Constantine Costi brings the clearest vision to the opera’s time-honoured fable about how two siblings wander off into the forest to be lured by a greedy witch in a house of candy. On one level, Hansel & Gretel possesses a complete storybook innocence, but on another it is a sophisticated adaptation of the Grimm brothers’ already profound fairy tale of the same name by playing into our darkest fears – of being left abandoned.

Costi’s production takes us from a cozy haven of domesticity in a humble worker’s hut into the wild of nature using a particularly clever theatrical trick. The children’s mother and the witch are in fact played by the same performer. For us the viewer, it is quite a twist to discover that mezzo-soprano Catherine Carby sings both roles. Initially, she is the stern-faced mother who towels down her children for breaking a jug. But then she reappears as the snarling, cackling witch who plans to devour them. The transformation is so complete that one could not believe it without reading the credits – except that this Australian mezzo-soprano is extremely well known for her versatility.

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For Hansel, we have the fine American-Korean countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim. He plays up to this mischievous brotherly role with fun and humour. American soprano Sofia Troncoso is our Gretel, although in this preview performance she decided to give her voice a rest. This meant that a cover singer – Meechot Marrero, another highly capable soprano who stood to one side – sang this lead role while Troncoso herself just mouthed the words and went on with the acting. Even so, Troncoso showed a magnetic stage presence and hopefully will be ready vocally for opening night.

Morgan Pearse makes a sizzling cameo role as Father Peter. His clear and punchy baritone has the perfect edge to cut across and inject real drama.

There aren’t many other main characters in Hansel & Gretel, but the dual roles of the Dew Fairy and Sandman are taken very capably by one of State Opera’s up-and-coming artists, Lucy Stoddart. She contributes lovely moments.

Visually, we have a complex rotating set designed by Jonathon Oxlade with geometric pine trees in the middle – they look plain to begin with, but wait until the branches open out to reveal their inner metallic surfaces: beams of light reflect from them across the auditorium. And when the witch turns up, the lighting turns red and two enormous eyes peer down from above. A pair of even more enormous hands slide onto the stage. Twitching robotically, it’s the creepiest look.

Otherwise, Hansel & Gretel’s music is what this opera is all about. It is a gem for this reason alone. Just to note there’s always a degree of confusion about the composer, thanks to a certain 1960s pop crooner who adopted the same name, but who was obviously a completely different person (he was born Arnold Dorsey). The real Engelbert Humperdinck was a highly credentialed composer who, living in the shadow of Wagner, was in fact the latter’s right-hand man. He assisted in the production of Parsifal to the extent of even writing some transitional passages in that opera.

That Humperdinck had the fullest experience of any composer of his day shows in the gorgeously lush music he wrote for Hansel & Gretel. Conductor Dane Lam (who is of course also State Opera South Australia’s artistic director) shows a deep understanding of the score, and he conducts the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with great affection and skill. One can settle back and luxuriate in the orchestra’s full, proud call of horns and its warm glow of strings against the singers’ simple folk-like melodies. The children’s choir in the ‘Dream Pantomime’, when 14 guardian angels surround and protect the two lost children, is an exquisite moment, beautifully performed.

Hansel & Gretel is a magical work when done as well as this. Get along and see what is looking to be a wonderful production.

State Opera South Australia’s Hansel & Gretel runs from August runs 21-29 at Her Majesty’s Theatre