For all their huge stylistic differences, both operas I saw this weekend were linked by being fables, with story-lines in which characters confronted dark forces within themselves.

Far from the fairy-tale opera for children as it is often described, Hansel and Gretel has huge psychological resonances, and Longborough Festival Opera's thoughtful new production directed by Alan Privett does not shirk from exploring them.

So even as Humperdinck's gorgeous Prelude (sumptuously played by Paul McGrath's splendid orchestra) unfolds, we see the children's father musing on guilt and responsibility, surrounded by ghosts of children - earlier offspring of his? - busy sweeping away with the brooms he makes, and on which witches ride.

This teasingly enigmatic device is mirrored at the end of Act Two, when Hansel and Gretel, lost in the evil forest, fall exhaustedly asleep and see visions of protective woodland creatures presided over by some kind of huge, benevolent bird (a moment similar to the beautiful Pan chapter in Wind in the Willows). Guy Hoare's sensitively atmospheric lighting deployed over Jane Bruce's witty, practical set adds much to the magic both here and throughout.

Musically matters were not entirely perfect on Friday's opening night, with singers occasionally pushing on ahead of the pit. And the pit, enlarged experimentally to accommodate these 47 players, did sometimes drown events onstage (though diction was assiduously cultivated).

But the successes undoubtedly outweighed the failures. Hansel and Gretel, both huge roles, were impressively taken by Maria Jagusz (who also coached the ultra-professional children's chorus) and Jane Streeton, and they both looked so convincingly child-like, too. Henry Newman, a long-time favourite with Welsh National Opera audiences, was a likeable Father, and Tinuke Olafimihan made the Stepmother infinitely more sympathetic and understandable than she is sometimes portrayed.

Catherine Redding was delightful as the Sandman/Dew Fairy, and it is only a pity that Jenny Miller's Witch relied so much on repetitious mannerisms, with vocal volume which seemed to come and go.

Tony Burke's orchestral reduction worked brilliantly, as did Meirion Bowen's of Tippett's The Knot Garden, which Music Theatre Wales brought to Birmingham on Saturday in a joint production with the Royal Opera House.

Orchestral playing in this exuberantly rich score, dancing with typical Tippettian lyricism, touchingly referential (a Schubert song, Jacobean viol sonorities, "We shall overcome", even) was expertly sculpted under conductor Michael Rafferty, wellmatched to the varying layers of texture conveyed by Tippett's own libretto. And that, true to form, embraces both highs and lows of literary allusion, from The Tempest to (no kidding) "Stop the world, I want to get off".

Unfortunately the Rep's lack of an orchestral pit, plus the placing of brass and percussion either side of the stage, added to an acoustic which gave bass timbres a double-whammy, meant that so much of this complex verbal web was lost, despite the remarkably devoted delivery of the small, excellent cast.

Michael McCarthy's direction relied a good deal on surrounding video screens (the most important one angled in such a way that it must have been all but invisible towards the left of the auditorium --and we never saw the maze Tippett intended for the selfexplorations of Act Two), but also allowed his cast ample opportunity for symbolic characterisation.

And they gave wonderful accounts of this melismatic, exalted music, with Jeremy Huw Williams charismatic as Mangus/Prospero and Lucy Schaufer particularly outstanding as the troubled Thea, moving towards an ending of radiant self-recognition.

Hansel and Gretel is repeated on July 19, 20 and 27 (6.30pm, running time three hours 15 minutes, including extended supper interval). Details on 01451 830292

Christopher Morley