Opera: The Tales of Hoffmann

The Tales of Hoffmann - Jacques Offenbach Opéra fantastique in five acts. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. First performed on 10 February 1881 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. While Stella is lighting up the stage in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, her lover Hoffmann is in the tavern next door with his close friend Nicklausse, The Muse in disguise. Emboldened by booze, bawdy songs, and the disconcerting presence of his romantic rival Lindorf, Hoffmann regales his students with memories of three women he once loved—Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta—but whom fate (or the devil) persisted in stealing from him, as if he were destined to relive the same tragic love story over and over. But isn’t it the artist’s lot to rise reborn from the ashes of a broken heart? As The Muse tells us, if humankind is made great by love, the poet is made far greater by tears. Offenbach is considered the absolute master of operetta in France from the 1850s to the 1870s and devoted the final months of his life to composing the most ambitious opus of his career: an opera as heart-rending as it is entertaining with the power to make you laugh one moment and gasp the next. It delivers this musical tour de force against a libretto that is equally masterful, weaving together three stories into one. Its protagonist the writer (and musician) E. T. A. Hoffmann is the hero of his own fantastical tales that have become part of the collective Romantic imagination. Collaborating with the conductor Pierre Dumoussaud, Lotte de Beer takes the audience on a wild ride through the psyche and fantasies of an artist battling his internal demons in this updated version of an opera classic. In French, overtitled in French and German. Duration 3h15 with intervals. Age limit : from 8 years.