‘Tales of Hoffmann’: a new staging at the Royal Opera
Offenbach’s opera Tales of Hoffmann refers to E.T.A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus) Hoffmann (1776–1822), whose stories include those behind the ballets Nutcracker and Coppelia . Born in Königsberg, the intellectual and spiritual heart of Prussia, he was a brilliant and original author who also worked as a jurist, composer, music critic and artist.
The opera was based on a play by those well-known French opera librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré with the title Les contes fantastiques d’Hoffmann , produced in Paris in 1851. It cast Hoffmann as a protagonist in his own tales, notably “The Sandman”, “Councillor Krespel” (or “The Cremona Violin”), and “The Lost Reflection” (or a “A New Year’s Eve Adventure”). Musically, this was Offenbach’s greatest work. Previously famous for his operettas, he was determined to write something of far greater depth. This opera begins and ends in a beer cellar in Nuremberg, where Hoffmann recalls three loves from his life: Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta, in each of the three tales just mentioned.
Offenbach never lived to complete it, leaving directors the option of making choices about what to include, but I’m pleased to see this new production for the Royal Opera by Damiano Michieletto places the three acts in the order mentioned above. The director has staged the Prologue and Epilogue in an empty hall with chairs scattered around, supposedly during an interval in a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (the Amadeus in Hoffmann’s name, altered from the original Wilhelm, was a deliberate homage to Mozart). Hoffmann himself is shown as an old man, though in reality he died at 46. I prefer the beer hall with a slightly inebriated, younger Hoffmann.
However there are some excellent aspects to the production, notably the capture of Hoffmann’s image in the mirror during the Giulietta episode, and the giant eye of the Sandman (who is traditionally said to throw sand in the eyes of children to help them fall asleep) during the first episode. In Offenbach’s original, Antonia (second episode) is a singer, but here she is a ballerina. There are also devilish dancing sprites, making for an elaborate staging, perhaps too much so.
Under the baton of Antonello Manacorda this warmed up after an uncertain start, and developed into a musical treat with excellent singing from both Juan Diego Floréz as Hoffmann himself and Christine Rice as his muse. His faithful Nicklausse was gently sung by Julie Boulianne, and the four dark figures spoiling his life were all very well sung as a menacing presence by the Italian bass-baritone Alex Esposito. His lovers in the three acts were portrayed by different singers: the Russian soprano Olga Pudova showed magnificent coloratura as Olympia, Ermonela Jaho made a superbly sung Antonia, and the American soprano Marina Costa-Jackson a lovely Giulietta. These parts can be all be performed by the same singer, but that’s a tough call.
Indeed this is altogether a tough opera to stage, but well worth the Royal Opera’s effort and expense. Try to catch it on the present run and I look forward to its revival in a few years’ time.
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