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80% Critic Match
Hoffmanns Erzählungen
8.0 / 10• 2011• 2h 48m•NR• French
DramaFantasyMusic
Storyline
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.
Cast & Crew
Rolando Villazón
Hoffmann
Lead
Diana Damrau
Olympia / Giulietta / Antonia / Stella
John Relyea
Lindorff / Coppélius / Miracle / Dapertutto
KC
Kevin Conners
Cochenille / Pitichinaccio / Frantz
Angela Brower
Nicklausse / La Muse
UR
Ulrich Reß
Spalanzani
DP
Dean Power
Nathanaël
TK
Tim Kuypers
Hermann
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Michael Beyer's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
4.0
“Every frame feels alive. Hoffmanns Erzählungen is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
