Hoffmanns Erzählungen

Live performance, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2011. The Tales of Hoffmann (French: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN) is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach that combines three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann into a haunting whole: a melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer. One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue. In this production, Richard Jones solves the puzzle by turning it into an autobiographical journey which ends with a grand meet-up of all the characters Hoffmann has encountered: for once, Hoffmann is not presented as a rollicking kind of drunken story-spinner, but rather a sad-eyed, sobered-up depressive, who reaches for the bottle only because his disastrous love life has gone wrong yet again.

Country:

Germany

Genre:

Drama,

Fantasy,

Music

Duration:

168 minutes

Year:

2011

Director:

Michael Beyer

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Company:

BR,

Bayerische Staatsoper,

ARTE

Cast:
Rolando Villazón

Hoffmann

Diana Damrau

Olympia / Giulietta / Antonia / Stella

John Relyea

Lindorff / Coppélius / Miracle / Dapertutto

Kevin Conners

Cochenille / Pitichinaccio / Frantz

Angela Brower

Nicklausse / La Muse

Crew:
Michael Beyer

Director

E. T. A. Hoffmann

Original Story

Jules Barbier

Writer

Jacques Offenbach

Original Music Composer

Constantinos Carydis

Music Director