Among the many oddities in “Les Contes D’Hoffmann” (The Tales of Hoffmann), is the conceit that the stories take place during an intermission of “Don Giovanni.”
Based on a popular play by Jules Barbier and Michael Carré in Paris of the 1870s, “Tales” was composed by Jacques Offenbach in the same decade. Left unfinished when he died Oct. 5, 1880, “Tales” premiered Feb. 10, 1881, completed by others. It is considered an operatic masterpiece and embraced by the French, not the least because the stories draw from the ultra Romantic novelist E.T.A. Hoffmann.
The opera begins with a prologue in which Hoffmann and his cronies adjourn to a tavern next to the theater for a drink at intermission. It’s a framing device to set up the writer’s colorful stories of love affairs gone wrong. The prologue also telegraphs an epilogue where Hoffmann is supposed to rendezvous with Stella, an opera singer from “Don Giovanni.” But a rival, Councilor Lindorf, the villain of the piece, intervenes.
The choice of “Don Giovanni” is ironic and meant as a contrast. Don Juan succeeded wildly with women; Hoffmann loses every time.
After the prologue. Hoffmann’s three tales unspool like so much bad luck.
Act I: Olympia is a beautiful singing automaton, a blithering mechanical doll. At a big party, Hoffmann is duped into thinking she loves him, but she keeps winding down – to the amusement of his friends. Be prepared for spectacular singing, dancing and stagecraft.
Act II: Antonia is a brilliant but diseased opera singer. Tuberculosis killed her mother and has left Antonia desperately weak. She is advised to give up her career, but when Dr. Miracle, a quack, arrives, he conjures her mother’s voice, and a spectacular female duet ends in the girl’s death. Hoffmann returns to discover the sad truth.
Act III: This is about Hoffmann’s most opulent lover, the Venetian courtesan Giulietta. She seduces young men who surrender their money and their souls to her and her partner, Captain Dappertutto. Giulietta introduces Hoffmann to her current lover, and our hero kills him. He also surrenders his soul to Giulietta, and the story ends with his arrest. Again, he is no Don Juan.
Throughout the tales, Hoffmann’s friend and muse Nicklausse warns him. When he succumbs to Giulietta’s spell, you’ll hear and recognize some of the most lugubrious music in the whole opera.
For the epilogue back at the tavern, his tales told, Hoffmann sits drunk and exhausted. In his cups, Hoffmann is no Don Juan, as he barely registers Lindorf leaving with the diva.
The MET’s stellar cast includes tenor Vittorio Grigólo as Hoffmann, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as the Muse/Nicklausse, baritone Thomas Hampson as Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dappertutto, soprano Erin Morley as Olympia, soprano Hibla Gerzmava as Antonia and Stella and mezzo Christine Rice as Giulietta.
The original MET production was conceived by the brilliant stage and opera director Bartlett Sher. Yves Abel conducts.
jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, art historian and arts journalist.
If you go
The MET: Live in HD presents Jacques Offenbach’s “Les Contes D’Hoffmann,” at 10:55 a.m. Saturday in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union. Tickets are $23 general, $21 seniors, students and MET members and are available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657, at the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue, or at the door. Note: Surcharges may apply. Running time: 3 hours, 45 minutes. Sung in French with English subtitles.
