Tales of Hoffman

[jordanz 0]

My wife and I went to the Metropolitan Opera movie theater showing of Tales of Hoffman last night. I'd never seen this opera before. Such beautiful music. Strange story, though. The story reminds me of French Cinema - not much plot with lots of melodrama.

Here's Marilyn Horne and La Stupenda performing the famous Barcarole:

[alann 0]

. . .Such beautiful music. Strange story, though. The story reminds me of French Cinema - not much plot with lots of melodrama.

Yes, it is gorgeous music. Unfortunately for us, Offenbach died before completing the score and he was a famous tinkerer, so I'm sure he would have trimmed and cleaned up the storytelling if he had lived. There are several competing versions out there, from the first Giraud version, then the "traditional" Choudens edition, to the "critical editions" of Keck and Kaye, which aim to reinstate Offenbach's original music and settings and eliminate the additions of non-Offenbach and non-Hoffmann music into the show. But it is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's fantasy short stories and is, therefore, vignettes woven together by the thin thread of the 3 women who are all facets of the same actress he is now besotted with, to the detriment of his writing. The plot-theme is that he's hopeless at love, falling in love unwisely, with a pretty mechanical doll, a fragile girl who will die if she does the thing she loves and that he loves her for, and a pitiless courtesan who literally, in this case, steals his soul. He would be better off swearing off women for good and just writing his wonderful stories (uh... of women that he falls in love with unwisely,...). The theme is mind-body dichotomy, that he can be a miserable success or a happy failure, but not both. And which is which actually depends on which half of the false dichotomy he prefers. E.T.A Hoffmann was probably the first magic realist, so there's another interpretation; that the hero has to live his fantasies to write them, but we're left wondering if any of it is true, or if he just made it all up.

So who cares! The arias and ensembles are gorgeous and even the non-Offenbach Septet is beautiful as well. I've sung Hoffmann and it is one of the most exciting, demanding, and rewarding roles around for a lyric tenor.

[Bold Standard 0]

"Doll Song" from Tales of Hoffman is one of my favorite operatic pieces that I've ever heard. It has such an addictive melody.

[jordanz 0]

Wow - I didn't know it was unfinished. I'll look out for some of those other versions.