Opera Review: The Exes Mark the Spot

Vittorio Grigolo procrastinates through Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Left behind: Stella (Anna Hartig, center) leaves Hoffmann (Vittorio Grigolo, left)
with the diabolical Lindorf (right) in the finale of Les contes d'Hoffmann.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

As a writer, it's hard not to have a soft spot for Les contes d'Hoffmann. No matter how many times this reviewer has seen it (ten), the final opera by Jacques Offenbach (English title: "The Tales of Hoffmann") never fails to move. Offenbach's opera, which was unfinished at the time of the composer's death, features the poet, composer and writer E.T.A. Hoffmann as the unwilling and unwitting protagonist of his own fantastical stories. He sits in a Munich tavern, drinking and telling tales of his past romantic affairs as he waits for his beloved Stella, an opera singer performing next door.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Les contes d'Hoffmann

Is this the real life, or is it just fantasy?
by Paul J. Pelkonen

I love you Miss Robot:  Erin Morley in a scene from Les contes d'Hoffmann.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met revives Offenbach's final opera, a phantasmagorical tale about a writer trapped in stories of his own creation. Vittorio Grigolo is the hapless hero in this tragicomic classic.

Opera Review: No New Tales To Tell

Les Contes d'Hoffmann is the Met's first revival of 2015.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He ain't got nobody. Vittorio Grigolo (center) in Les contes d'Hoffmann at the Met.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

Les Contes d'Hoffmann ("The Tales of Hoffmann") is the final opera f Jacques Offenbach and the opera bouffe master's bid to be remembered as a creator of serious stage drama. It is a bittersweet meditation on love and literature, packed throughout with ravishing music. Based on stories by the poet/composer E.T.A. Hoffmann, the opera inserts the poet as protagonist in his own tales.  However, due to the fact that Offenbach died while working on the third act, there are many textual problems, compounded by performance traditions and the decisions of singers to add and insert arias into the work which have since become part of its fabric. 

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Les contes d'Hoffmann

Orgies. Doctors. Robots: The Met revives Les contes d'Hoffmann.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Olympia Mark II: A ballerina is whirled in the air in Act I of Les contes d'Hoffmann.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met explores the dark side of obsession and love with the return of Bartlett Sher's 2009 production of Jacques Offenbach's fantastical final opera.

Opera Review: From Paris, to Venice, to Bensonhurst

Regina Opera presents Les contes d'Hoffmann

In a palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, the courtesan Giulietta (Christina Rohm, left) and
 Nicklausse (Margaret O'Connell, right) a friend of the poet Hoffmann,  sing a romantic barcarolle.
Photo by Art Lawson © 2011 Regina Opera.

Brooklyn's own Regina Opera closed its 2011 season this month with a potent performance of Jacques Offenbach's final opera, Les contes d'Hoffmann.



Hoffmann (sung by tenor Ubaldo Feliciano-Hernandez) is a fictionalized version of an actual 19th century poet, best remembered today for creating the original story of the Nutcracker. In this opera, he finds himself at the center of three of his own stories, pursuing love with an automaton (Olympia), a courtesan (Giulietta) and a sickly would-be opera singer (Antonia), and his moral deterioration and despair. Eventually, he realizes that all three women are different aspects of his beloved Stella. Ultimately, he rejects her to continue his work.

Part of the problem with putting on this opera is figuring out which version of the score to use. Offenbach died before finishing the work, so there are a number of options, most of them provided by musicologists and men of the theater. For this staging, the director Scott Jackson Wiley made conservative choices. He placed the Antonia act, with its dramatic finish at the end of the opera. Dappertutto's aria from the Venetian act, ("Scintille, diamant") was transported to the Olympia act, using alternate lyrics provided by conductor Anthony Morss. The result: a taut, sleek performance that made this opera's considerable length go by at a rapid pace.

The performance featured a strong cast. Ubaldo Feliciano-Hernandez overcame a small cold to deliver a powerful, ardent Hoffmann, capable of the work's tragi-comic moments and passionate in his long duet with Antonia. Bass-baritone Bryce Smith was stellar in the quadruple roles of the Four Villains, bringing a different kind of evil to each of Hoffmann's nemeses. The highlight of his performance was the rarely heard 'Tourne, tourne miroir," written by Offenbach but rejected by many singers as being too treacherous.

Offenbach intended for the leading ladies to be sung by the same soprano. This production split the role, allowing a series of engaging singers their turn in the spotlight. Andrea Bargabos soared through the role of the doll Olympia, hitting the difficult series of high coloratura figures in "Les oiseaux." She also engaged in robotic physical comedy, remaining in character for her curtain call. Christina Rohm was a sultry Giulietta, with a rich instrument.


As Antonia, Maryann Mootos has a big, unsubtle instrument that was a little large for the hall, but sang beautifully in her duet and in the trio that brings her act to its fatal climax. And although the double role of the Muse/Nicklausse was shortened in this version of the opera, Margaret O'Connell was exceptional, handling the gender-bending of the part convincingly and engaging in a lush, sensual "Barcarolle" with Ms. Rohm.

For the last four decades, Regina Opera has brought the works of Verdi, Puccini, and other masters to their Brooklyn neighborhood. Based in a small church auditorium, their innovative productions use a full orchestra of professional musicians. Director Linda Lehr did much with limited resources, creating a convincing German tavern and a sensual Venetian bordello. The latter was a picture of Carnival decadence with veils, masks and a whiff of S & M. Too strong of a whiff for some. The couple behind us left, shocked.

Opera Review: Through a Stein, Darkly

Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"I'll take you in my arms, Kathleen."
Kathleen Kim as Olympia in Act I of Bart Sher's  Les contes d'Hoffmann.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

Veteran director Bart Sher has delivered again with this imaginative, outside-the-box staging of Offenbach's final opera, presenting this convoluted work with fresh dramatic insight. He is aided by a strong cast with three seperate female leads and a superb performance by tenor Joseph Calleja in the demanding title role.
Bart Sher approaches Hoffmann's stories as a series of surreal fever-dreams. Even the events in Luther's tavern that frame the action are a little weird. Spalanzani's toyshop (birthplace of the doll Olympia) is now a production-line facility for anonymous men to buy their own personal female playthings, a kind of cybernetic prostitution that recalls the film Blade Runner. Antonia's house is a wintry landscape with a piano and sheet music strewn across the stage. And the Giulietta act is set in a Venetian bordello with an orgy/ballet worthy of Tannhaüser.

Mr. Calleja has a pleasing tenor voice, ideally suited for the lyric expanses of Offenbach's score. However he would have been better served if James Levine had slowed down during the prologue, and allowed the opera's lyric, eldritch power to bloom. Kate Lindsey made the Muse the opera's true leading lady, switching genders with ease and working against Hoffmann and his romantic designs throughout the evening. Mention must also be made of character tenor Alan Oke, who made the most of his four roles. The short little aria for Franz is often cut from the score. It was a highlight of this performance.


In this version, the Muse and the Four Villains are in cahoots, stacking the deck to to keep Hoffmann on the straight-and-narrow creative path. Alan Held was the living four-fold embodiment of evil, using his smooth, rich bass-baritone to good effect. Yes, he victimizes Hoffmann repeatedly, breaking Olympia, killing Antonia, and arranging for Giulietta to capture the poet's reflection in a mirror. But how can you hate a bad guy who can sing "Scintille, diamant" so beautifully?

Kathleen Kim gave a star-making performance as the doll Olympia, combining broad physical comedy with a tremendous coloratura technique, managing the tricky pin-point notes with a few "mechanical" effects. Anna Netrebko was everything an Antonia should be--sad, doomed, and beautiful. Wendy White made a surprise appearance as Antonia's mother and it was a pleasure to hear these great voices together. Ekaterina Gubanova was a sensuous, thoroughly corrupt Giulietta.

With the opera left unfinished at Offenbach's death, there are myriad versions of Hoffmann to choose from. When the opera premiered, the Antonia act was placed last, allowing the diva to end the work with a glorious death scene. However, this renders the Giulietta act, with its corruption and descent into depravity nonsensical. Mr. Levine and Mr. Sher opted to place Antonia in the middle of the opera (where she belongs) and omitted much of the extra music (including Giulietta's suicide) from the Venetian act. In this version the finale was staged as a confrontation and reconciliation between Hoffmann and his muse, bringing the curtain down on the image of the great writer, alone at his desk, and doing what he did best.