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.
Credits
Hoffmanns Erzählungen Cast
| Name |
Character |
|
Diana Damrau
She was 40, now 53 years old
|
as Olympia / Giulietta / Antonia / Stella |
|
Rolando Villazón
He was 39, now 52 years old
|
as Hoffmann |
Hoffmanns Erzählungen Crew
| Name |
Department |
|
Jacques Offenbach as Original Music Composer. He was 192 (61) years old when He died
|
Sound |
|
Richard Jones as Production Design. He was 64 (now 78) years old
|
Art |
|
E.T.A. Hoffmann as Original Story. He was 235 (46) years old when He died
|
Writing |
|
Jules Barbier as Writer. He was 186 (75) years old when He died
|
Writing |
|
Michael Beyer as Director. |
Directing |
