Les Contes d'Hoffmann

 Hoffmann, Nicklausse

Conductor : Philippe Jordan
Director : Robert Carsen

Olympia : Nadine Koutcher
Giulietta : Kate Aldrich
Antonia : Ermonela Jaho
La muse, Nicklausse : Stéphanie d'Oustrac
La mère d'Antonia : Doris Soffel
Hoffmann : Ramón Vargas
Spalanzani : Rodolphe Briand
Nathanaël : Cyrille Lovighi
Luther, Crespel : Paul Gay
Andrès, Cochenille, Pitichinaccio, Frantz : Yann Beuron
Lindorf, Coppélius, Dapertutto, Miracle : Roberto Tagliavini

Les Contes d'Hoffmann from Paris, 2016. I'm watching this because I'm a huge fan of Stéphanie d'Oustrac. She's doing the male-Nicklausse/female-Muse thing with great expertise.

Our Olympia treats us to a bit of pseudo-nudity before being shockingly disassembled.  She is fun.

There are no titles.  This is what going to the opera used to be like.  Perhaps this is why opera has shifted its values toward the theatrical.  They used to just stand around singing.  Nobody really knew more than just vaguely what was going on.  Now everyone acts.

In the Antonia act we are in a theater orchestra pit, where she steals the conductor's score.  Her aria is my favorite part of the opera.  Her mother appears on the stage above, Antonia runs about trying to get up on the stage, and finally she succeeds.  This segment of the story is confusing.  In opera everyone sings all the time.  So Antonia is told if she sings she will die.  She sings.  She dies.  But how do we tell which singing is the singing that kills her?   The orchestra appears in the pit and the act ends.

Now we are in the audience of the same theater?  Nicklausse and Giulietta sing the barcarole from the seats.  The audience files in and begins making out with one other.  This is Paris where there seems always to be hanky-panky on the stage.  Being in the chorus there is a whole different thing.  We're supposed to be in Venice.

When all Hoffmann's loves are gone, the muse returns.  I loved only the one I came to see.  For the bows she changes quickly back into her Nicklausse outfit.  Enjoyable if not very romantic.

Tales of Hoffmann in HD

Conductor: Yves Abel (excellent)
Production: Bartlett Sher

Olympia: Erin Morley (absolutely fabulous)
Antonia/Stella: Hibla Gerzmava
Giulietta: Christine Rice
Nicklausse: Kate Lindsey  (wonderful)
Hoffmann: Vittorio Grigolo  (best ever)
Four Villains: Thomas Hampson

Today was the second simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. Bartlett Sher told Debbie Voigt that the inspiration for his staging was Kafka.  I think in this version the production was somewhat darkened and toned down.  Nothing looked too shocking.  In another context the production was called surreal.  I think this is a correct use of the term.

I notice they have put the order of the scenes back to the traditional order:  Antonia before Giulietta.

Yves Abel from his official biography:   "A Franco-Canadian, he has a particular affinity with the French repertoire and has won significant critical acclaim for his achievements as founder and Music Director of L'Opéra Francais de New York, with whom he has regenerated rare French operas and also performed the world premiere of Dusapin’s To be Sung. Since 1994, the company has performed regularly to capacity audiences at the Lincoln Center."  This is included because I panned the conducting for Merry Widow.  He was great, but if he wants on my sexiest conductors list, he needs a better picture taken while conducting.  Just saying.

 

I wanted to see Grigolo in this role.  He was perfect beyond my imagining, wildly romantic, exactly what you want in a Hoffmann.

Huge complaint:  no separate bow for the ballet.  Boo.

This worked extremely well for me.  I hoped others liked it as much as I did.

Orpheus in the Underworld

Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld was presented last night at my alma mater Sacramento State.  They made up their own dialog to downplay the hell as brothel aspect of the story.  It was lots of fun.

Fun things were Robin Fisher as Cupid.  She was by far the silliest person on the stage.  She is also the silliest person in the above photo.

The Euridice and the fly duet with Vanessa Martucci and Donn Bradley as Euridice and Jupiter who has been turned into a fly was a highlight.  Cupid is always ready to assist.  Here are Natalie Dessay and Laurent Naouri singing this.




There is an insider joke in this work.  At the logical place in the plot, or as logical as it gets, "Che faro senza Euridice," the hit tune from the Gluck opera is heard.  My friend and I were probably the only ones who noticed this.

I only decided to post about this because of Vanessa Martucci who sang Euridice.  This is my first time to see her since April of 2011 when she sang Adele in Fledermaus.  I liked her then and I like her now.

Elise Savoy, Matt Hidalgo, Anthony Tavianini, and Kyle Sullivan are all worthy of mention.

Thanks to Omari Tau, the producer of this extravaganza. Offenbach is an excellent choice for student singers.

Poor Hoffmann

Conductor; Patrick Fournillier
Director & Costume Designer; Laurent Pelly

Hoffmann Matthew Polenzani
The Muse/Nicklausse Angela Brower
Lindorf Christian Van Horn
Luther Hadleigh Adams
Olympia Hye Jung Lee
Antonia Natalie Dessay
Crespel James Creswell
Dr. Miracle Christian Van Horn
Voice of Antonia's Mother Margaret Mezzacappa
Giulietta Irene Roberts
Schlemil Hadleigh Adams
Dapertutto Christian Van Horn
Stella Jacqueline Piccolino

Poor Hoffmann, our hero in Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann currently in rotation at the San Francisco Opera.  He has this muse/tormentor who follows him around and messes up all his relationships with women.  On the way he kills a couple of people and loses his reflection.  I would think that not having a reflection would make shaving difficult.  It's still an incredibly fun opera.

I don't know what to think of the staging.  All that black and gray is pretty depressing.  In the Venetian scene we were relieved to see some green on the stage.  However, I felt that this constantly moving and changing set, literally constantly moving in parts of the Giulietta scene, made the action absolutely clear in this complex drama.

The singing was much better in the actual performance than it had been in the rehearsal.  I knew this and did not comment about the performances.  Matthew Polenzani was our desolate, drunken poet who charms women with his words.  I liked him a lot.  He spent a lot of his time lying drunk on the floor but managed to remain lovable in spite of it.



I enjoyed Natalie Dessay's performance of Antonia. Above is a film from Barcelona of Natalie as Antonia in our production with a different tenor. Natalie has announced her retirement from opera, and this is her next to last appearance. We are grateful to have seen her and hope that someday she will return.

The constant villain sung by Christian Van Horn was a very dark, sinister version.

Angela Brower as Nicklausse was also excellent.  A double was used to facilitate the quick changes from her female muse attire to her male student.  This worked well.

Natalie made a very low bow in front of Patrick Fournillier, the capable French conductor.   It was fun even the second time.

Dress of Tales of Hoffmann

Matthew Polenzani; Natalie Dessay; Christian van Horn

This was a version of the opera Les Conte d'Hoffmann by Offenbach that I have probably never seen.  It is called in the program "Performing edition based on the integral edition of the opera by Michael Kaye and Jean-Christophe Keck."  According to Wikipedia, this is a recent version which was successfully produced in Lyon and Hamburg.  It is supposed to reflect Offenbach's original music.

The acts are in the standard order:

Act I:  Prologue--Luther's Tavern in Nuremberg.
Act II:  Spalanzani's house (Olympia)
Act III:  Crespel's house in Munich (Antonia)
Act IV:  Giulietta's Palace in Venice (Giulietta)
Act V:  Epilogue--Luther's Tavern (Stella)

The Met reversed acts iv and iii.  In San Francisco we have French spoken dialogue, all relatively well done, while I have only ever heard recitative before.  This makes the opera shorter.

There was dialog about a violin I don't remember hearing before in the Antonia act.  Hoffmann stabs ...spoiler.  Maybe this whole entry is a spoiler, so don't read it.

Never mind.  This is perhaps the busiest staging I have ever seen.  Pieces of the set are constantly moving from place to place even while the scene is progressing.  In some of the scenes the only color on the set is the marks to tell where the pieces of set go--a different color for each scene, no doubt.

Olympia is fun.  At first she is raised into the air over and over, then released from her gadget, she skates around the stage like a mysterious hover craft.  Hy Jung Lee handles everything wonderfully.

It would appear this is another musicology incident.  Make up your own mind.  I hope those who love this opera are happy with anything that has changed.  Matthew Polenzani will be wonderful.  The opera opens Wednesday.

Next Year at Santa Fe 2013

War Horses:

La Traviata
This is a revival of the Natalie Dessay Laurent Pelly production reviewed here.   This time around it will star Brenda Rae and Michael Fabiano.

 
Marriage of Figaro will star Susanna Phillips as La Contessa.

Schon wieder Rossini--La Donna del Lago will star Joyce DiDonato and Lawrence Brownlee.  She has triumphed in Paris, Milan and Geneva in this role, and Santa Fe has aced out the other American companies for this performance.  Does it help that she lives in Santa Fe?  Sorry.  More insider gossip.  I will have to see this if I can.  [Schon wieder means already again.  For some reason I could not explain you say "schon wieder" quite a lot and almost never "already again."]

The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein by Offenbach is an operetta which will be sung in French with English spoken dialog.  The Duchess will be sung by Susan Graham.

This leaves the new opera Oscar by Theodore Morrison, a composer with whom I am unacquainted.  It will star David Daniels and is about Oscar Wilde.  One of our Road Scholar colleagues has attended a run-through of the first act and enjoyed it.

Successful Crossover

Should musical composers try to cross over to opera, as I discussed here?  There are a few who did.

One is Jacques Offenbach who wrote many popular light operas like La Belle Hélène and Orphée aux enfers before successfully crossing over to Les contes d'Hoffmann.  He has to be considered spectacularly successful.

Another successful crossover composer was George Gershwin who created musicals like Funny Face and Of Thee I Sing before successfully crossing to Porgy and Bess.

Both of these men created their greatest theatrical works in the genre of serious opera.  Hoffmann rises to #19 in the list of most performed operas while Porgy is #30 in the list of most esteemed operas.

Many would like to consider West Side Story Leonard Bernstein's greatest opera and not his officially operatic works like Candide.  In fact some even consider West Side Story the greatest American opera.

I am fascinated to read that Richard Rodgers, composer of musicals like Oklahoma and Sound of Music, did not do his own orchestration.  This puts him more in a category with Irving Berlin, who, it is my understanding, could not read music.  

I suppose there's a point of view issue here.  The question is, is the work considered an opera by serious opera types?  Arthur Sullivan's works may be some of the most popular works ever composed by an English composer, but that doesn't get him any respect for Mikado in classical music circles.  Johann Strauss II probably rises higher in classical esteem.

This only makes the success of Hoffmann and Porgy all that more astounding.  Both are fully accepted at every level of the opera business.

Who would we be trying to encourage if we assume we intend encouragement?  Andrew Lloyd Webber?  Stephen Sondheim (did you know he was a writer on the TV series Topper?)?  The chief barrier these days is that if you look down into the pit at a musical, you will see few of the same players as in an opera orchestra.

Pit orchestra for a musical at work.

We don't think it's impossible, but you will have to forgive us if we are dubious.

P.S.  And now there is this commentary on a similar topic by David Gockley here.

Ten French Operas

This is a response to the recent list in Opera News. My list will be limited to French operas I have seen performed which is a list of only about 33 operas.

Operas that stay in the repertoire:

• Camille Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila
• Jacques Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann
• Georges Bizet Carmen

All three of these operas are completely French and enormously popular. It is surprising that this particular list is so short. One of the reasons for their popularity is that two out of the three are mezzo-soprano vehicles, a rare commodity in any repertoire. For each of these three composers this is their only work in the running. I know many people love Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, but it just misses. These three operas are wonderful operas, full of beautiful music and marvelous theatrical situations.

Other completely French operas that drift in and out of standard repertoire:

• Charles Gounod Roméo et Juliette
• Charles Gounod Faust

Let’s discuss these for a while. In the early years of the twentieth century Roméo et Juliette was enormously popular and then faded. Until very recently Faust was a mainstay. Now in the twenty-first century the two are changing places. Roméo et Juliette is rising in popularity, while Faust is fading. True love is always popular, and the music of Gounod starts to sound refreshing after a century of modernism.

But we now begin to understand why the Germans always call Faust Marguerite, and why this is not at all the story Goethe was trying to tell. The familiar melodies begin to feel too familiar and the characters implausible. Marguerite is not a modern girl while Juliette is immortal. Both are great operas in the French tradition, but does Gounod rate two entries?

• Jules Massenet Manon

Massenet is currently in ascendance, as at least in my own life are the French generally. I have seen a number of operas by Massenet, but Manon is his masterpiece. In the twenty-first century we are happier with a heroine who is capable of true love, but is easily distracted. The situations are delicious and the music adorable. I don’t really think he deserves more than one opera.

I think in previous eras it would have been Werther that appeared here as the Massenet opera. Werther is another great opera with a mezzo-soprano heroine, and should not be forgotten. Do we prefer someone who does what she is supposed to do over the bad girl?  I think the answer is no.

• Hector Berlioz The Damnation of Faust

The great Frenchman deserves to be listed. He lacked a true understanding of the theater, cared nothing for continuity of plot, but still wrote some wonderful music. Les Troyens is too big and The Damnation of Faust too fragmented, but I have seen Faust staged twice now, and it almost works. At least he understands what the story is about, and there needs to be a great Faust opera in the repertoire.

• Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande

Now some people think this is the most boring opera ever written, and I used to be one of them. All that’s required is to see Frederica von Stade sing it, and your eyes will be opened. I’m sorry to say I do not find a film of this. There is a version with Natalie Dessay and her husband I should try. Perhaps a great French orchestra and conductor would also help. They do seem to have a better grasp of their own music.

• Christoph Willibald Gluck Iphigénie en Tauride

Gluck is an Austrian who achieved his greatest success in Paris. Now we are mad for Iphigénie en Tauride, another French opera with a mezzo heroine, especially now that the fabulous Susan Graham is making the rounds with it. Unlike Damnation of Faust in which Susan also appeared, it is a genuine vehicle. I think I preferred Gluck's Alceste overall, especially in the theatrical viability category, but a great singer would need to grasp it and make a success of it.

• Gioachino Rossini William Tell

The great Italian ended his operatic career in Paris by writing a grand opera with a big melodramatic orchestra. He hated it, but I don’t really think we do. I could see this opera more. In fact I think I could see more grand opera period.

• Francis Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites

A modern opera needs to be included in this list. I love Poulenc, but I might have preferred:

• György Ligeti Le Grand Macabre

Or

• Olivier Messiaen Saint-François d'Assise

There is a long list of great French operas, such as Mignon, another mezzo heroine, that I have never seen.  This isn’t exactly the same list but may be closer than I would have preferred.  Make your own list.

Tales of Hoffmann in HD

Here is the cast for the simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera of Les Contes d'Hoffmann broadcast live on Saturday:


Olympia Kathleen Kim
Antonia /Stella Anna Netrebko
Giulietta Ekaterina Gubanova
Nicklausse/ The Muse Kate Lindsey
Hoffmann Joseph Calleja
Four Villains Alan Held
Conductor James Levine

The director, Bartlett Sher, has obviously read my idea of staging an opera as Austin Powers. Olympia's father, Coppélius, was dressed as Dr. Evil. I waited in vain for him to raise his pinkie.

The production was fun and didn't quite know what it was doing. Kathleen Kim was exactly what she was supposed to be.

In this production Nicklausse hovers in all the scenes, controlling and ultimately destroying all of Hoffmann's relationships. Why didn't I notice this before? Nicklausse wants Hoffmann to have bad relationships so he will be a better poet. Did Goethe have a lot of unhappy relationships? (I always compare any poet to Goethe, the man who makes German sound good.) Kate Lindsay was charming and pleasingly androgynous.

I see now why Anna Netrebko wanted to sing Antonia. In her version the character is wonderfully intense and dramatic. On the HD screen she lies dead with a tear running down her cheek. I thought Anna looked good and sang well.

The three villains are always James Morris for me. Alan Held was ok I guess.

I can't make up my mind about Joseph Calleja. His voice has an odd flutter, but I thought his characterization of Hoffmann was perfect.

The order of Giulietta and Antonia is sometimes reversed. The Giulietta scene was very close to an orgy.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1870-90]

Berkeley Hoffmann

On Sunday afternoon I went to Berkeley to see The Tales of Hoffmann by the Berkeley Opera. The opera was present in the Julia Morgan Theater on College, a small venue, and was sold out. It was done in English in a new translation by David Scott Marley. The words sounded very natural and easy to understand. There was spoken dialog.

Hoffmann has four sets: the bar near the Nuremberg opera house, the residence of Olympia and Spalanzani, Antonia's house, Venice and a return to the bar of the opening scene. For the Berkeley production it was done in a single set with only small modifications from scene to scene. There is a long note in the program describing the edition used for this production. The three heroines are in the order Olympia, Antonia, Giuletta.


Nicklaus/Muse, sung by Nora Lennox Martin, sings more here than I remember. She has about three arias, if I recall correctly. Nora got better as she went along and in general made a good impression.

It is unusual for one person to perform all four heroines. Olympia is a coloratura while Antonia and Giuletta sing heavier music. I only know of Beverly Sills singing everything. In Berkeley Angela Cadelago did all four roles and did them all quite nicely. I loved her Olympia who sang the entire aria without moving her mouth. She has a soubrette-like voice and had to struggle a bit with the heavy dramatic music, but she managed it adequately. Her performance of Antonia's aria, my favorite part of the opera, was beautiful. She is both a musical singer and an excellent actress.

I was less impressed with Adam Flowers as Hoffmann. His list of credits would make him seem more impressive than he turned out to be.


From left are Nicklaus, mother, Hoffmann, heroine, villian.

We saw a full-fledged adaptation based on posthumously discovered notes by Offenbach. It worked well for me.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1870-90]

Orpheus in the Underworld

The adorable Cupid is in the center surrounded by the "girls" from hell.

Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld is a parody of the other operas. The title character is a violinist and is not the most important person at all. That honor goes to Euridice who is bored with her husband Orpheus, she says he plays out of tune, and is involved in an affair with a local shepherd.

The set at the opening is a bench in front of a corn field. Charming. I felt that the heart of Glimmerglass opera might possibly be here. All the Offenbach performances were sold out, and I was lucky to get a ticket. There was an edge of extra enthusiasm in this performance.

There are many gods--Pluto, Cupid, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Diana, Juno, Bacchus--but it is Public Opinion who rules all. And Hell, it turns out, is right under the corn field. And did I mention hell is a brothel?

Outstanding in the cast were Jill Gardner as Euridice, Joélle Harvey as Cupid and Joyce Castle as Public Opinion. At the end is the famous can can number.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1850-70]

Natalie

I am somewhere where I can see YouTube and am gorging myself on Natalie Dessay. There is a terrific selection.


Duet from Lakme. This film looks to be pirated from a live performance. The style is excellent.



Natalie Dessay and Laurent Naouri (her husband) perform "Il m'a Semble sur mon Epaule (The Fly Duet)" from Offenbach's Orphae aux Enfers. The guy is dressed like a fly, Natalie is not, and they appear to be making love.

I'm beginning to get the idea of Dessay. She has a marvelous presence in everything she does. At home I have her only in the Alceste with nude men where she is not very significant.

It is discouraging to read the comments. Perhaps I should stop doing it. Should I carp about the sound of her voice as they all do? Every singer in there gets dissed by someone. There's even a guy who says he likes the duet from Lakme performed by flutes. Spare me! I am watching Dessay to try to see what other people see in her. She is a complete performer, something that opera is getting to be about as we get further into the 21st century. Go with the flow.

La Belle Hélène

👍🏻
Forget all this boring stuff you've been reading in the newspaper and go see Offenbach's La Belle Hélène at the English National Opera.

The premise of the production is that a middle aged woman, such as the charming Felicity Lott, turns off the television, gets into bed for the night, smiles alluringly at her already asleep and uninterested husband, and dreams that she is Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. I bought it completely. She dreams of a hunky blond gentleman perhaps half her age who pursues her relentlessly, until at last she gives in.

Why not? After all, ones dreams are always in the prime of life, are they not? Though I think if I were fantasizing Greeks, I would not have imagined quite so much hair.

Would the French always have loved Josephine Baker and Jerry Lewis? It is easy to give oneself over to the passion of the Italians or the earnestness of the Germans, but it may be harder to allow oneself to feel the love of the absurd that is so French. Jacques Offenbach's works are more burlesques than operettas, though I did detect a bit of homage a Rossini.

PS. I had the ENO patented ginger ice cream in the interval. Very unusual.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1850-70]

Hoffmann in love

And the opera most about love of all is The Tales of Hoffmann where the subject is love itself, its absurd base in illusion and fantasy, its excess and inevitability, its humiliations and exaltations. Love.

If I could pick any singer to be like, to have her voice and theatrical personality, I think it would be Agnes Baltsa. It would be wonderful to project this much animal magnetism. In this Hoffmann she sings the Venetian courtesan Giuletta who steals Hoffmann's reflection.

Musically it's Antonia's aria, sung by Iliana Cotrubas, I fall for. Hoffmann is the perfect opera and this production from Covent Garden perfectly expresses the feeling of each scene: the devotion to science, the brother, the humble house, the bar. It's only just a bit drab. The brothel scene includes a very nice orgy.

Placido Domingo's Hoffmann is perfectly clueless. To see someone love so foolishly and with such incautious abandon is very comforting.
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