Customer Reviews

Offenbach: Des Contes d'Hoffmann (Some Tales of Hoffmann)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This unorthodox staging has been sadly maligned by previous (rather conservative) viewers. Although I am a fan of traditional stagings (e.g., the Met's, which is not yet available on DVD, and the soon to be released Criterion DVD of the 1951 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film, with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting--a fantastic movie that inspired Martin Scorsese to become a director), I also think that imaginative reworkings can bring out new dimensions to multi-faceted, complex masterpieces such as Offenbach's great opera. The concept employed in this staging is that Hoffman has been committed to a mental asylum where he relives the stories he recounts with the other inmates. Even if the stark staging doesn't 'work' for most people, the impressive acting (most of the video is shot in mid-range shots and closeups anyway), singing (Dessay in particular is a superlative Olympia) and playing of the Lyon Opera orchestra under Nagano's baton are reasons enough to consider purchasing this disc. Not a complete triumph, but a bold and innovative version that will stimulate you aurally and mentally.

If you have enjoyed the romantic settings and colorful costumes of other production of Tales of Hoffmann, this version is not for you. The whole opera is set in a grim, grey insane asylum of some sort with drab costumes and no furnishings beyond a few chairs and a ubiquitous rolling cart. The vocal perfromances are quite good, and the use of black artists very appropriate and interesting, but you may find yourself distracted by questions such as: why are so many of the characters bald, or why do they keep exchanging coats? If you enjoy really avaunt guarde productions, you may like this. Myself, I'm going to look for a more traditional staging.

It is a shame that this video recording is the only visual representation of Michael Kaye's outstanding new edition of Offenbach's masterpiece currently available. As most are aware, this great (and I truly mean great) work was orphaned even before its birth, and since then has survived and been trundled out in mutilated versions, with much of Offenbach's original music cut and some numbers added by other hands. It is perhaps a tribute to the work's masterful score and fascinatingly literate libretto that, even in this form, it has gained immense popularity all over the world. The almost miraculous discoveries in the 80's and 90's of hundreds of pages of original Offenbach manuscript have now made it possible to finally re-construct, as best we can, what Offenbach's original intentions were, and has made it even more vital than ever that this work be seen not as some flouncy-bouncy fantasy opera with pretty tunes, but an immense music drama, on a par with Bizet's "Carmen" or Berlioz' "Les Troyens".
So then, why use Kaye's edition and then almost simultaneously de-construct it by truncating it (omitting half of the fourth and the entirety of the fifth acts)and pairing it with a production that counters Offenbach's vision at every step? While I'm not against a fresh look at a masterpiece, this production provides, in my opinion, nothing new to set one thinking, and seems to toss out all the main points of the work: the Muse's struggle for Hoffman's love, the sacrifice of mortal happiness for artistic immortality, the fact that "love makes a man great, but tears make him immortal". This is all gone in this production. And the omission of Offenbach's original finale/apotheosis which had languished for almost a hundred years, completely unknown and unheard, is a crime.
Not that I'm longing for the old-style, glitzy Met productions that saw the work as nothing more than a vehicle for an outing of star singers. It is time to re-think this work, but on Offenbach's terms. This work has suffered enough, it is time it was vindicated by a thoughtful production which explores its depth but does no dis-service to the original.
The singing, however, is excellent; but if that's all that interests, I would suggest buying Nagano's recording of the opera which features many of the same cast members (with the welcome addition of Alagna as Hoffman) and presents the score in its entirety.

I enjoy conventional productions of opera which feature lavish sets and huge ensembles to complement the vocal, dramatic, and instrumental aspects of the subject. This production by the Opera National de Lyon is an off-the-wall avant garde exercise that is so bizarre that it would have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts if Europe were the 51st state. It features stark sets, bald women, and a hand full of supernumeraries selected from a nursing home and a mental hospital. If they spent over 50 cents on the set they were robbed. At one point there was a dual between a stage curtain and one of the performers that reminded me of Woody Allen battling the Giant Tit in the movie "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask". I did enjoy the sound track. It was when I opened by eyes that the horror began. But, if this is your cup of tea, bottoms up.

This version of Jacque Offenbach's wonderful opera "Tales of Hoffman" stinks to high heaven! The set (there was only one set), the costumes (virtually non-existent), and even the singing were distortions of the worst kind. I am hard put to give this DVD the dignity of a single star. It is a total waste of money in purchasing it and of time in watching/listening to it. I'm very much surprised it was even produced by the Lyon, France opera company. Once produced, it should never have been marketed to a gullible public. Unfortunately reviews of this abomination were unavailable to me when I purchased it. Had reviews been available, I would have avoided it like the plague. I quickly threw it in the trash after playing it only once.

I was relieved (it's not so bizarre, grotesque as these other reviewers say) and mildly entertained. Though the music is sublime, beautiful, this version makes even less sense than the original. And if I hadn't known the original, I would have been hopelessly lost. I was anyway. It had some effective moments, particularly the draping of the corpse of Antonia's mother over Antonia's shoulders, in fact that whole story was wonderful I thought. The story of Olympia who in this version was called a mechanical doll but was actually a girl in braces who when she first stood could barely walk was, frankly, I thought, in very poor taste. Guilietta's part made no sense at all, it doesn't in the original to me either, but particularly not in this nonsense. The stories are arranged Olympia, Antonia, Guilietta. I won't give away the ending which I didn't understand anyway, I disliked the "modern" vocal sound effects that showed up towards the end, and the last words of the opera were inaudible, but fortunately there were subtitles, for all the good they did. There were no sets at all, it ran 2 hours with no intermission, the costumes were contemporary dress, I have only the reviewers here to assure me that it all happened in a mental hospital, it was a trip, kept my interest, but like most "modern art," was more of a curiosity than something to care about. It had no feeling whatsoever. But the music was grand. By the way, the reviewer who lambasts the old (old is new to someone) and calls it in bad grammar and all lower case "conservative," said nothing I remember about the opera at hand. And no one in his right mind who knows me would ever call me "conservative." I don't even like to say the word. But being old doesn't make a thing bad, just as being new doesn't ipso facto make it good. Look at "modern verse." But like the lower case reviewer who relishes all things new and despises all things old, I also think art is about dead, but not through want of novelty. Through want of genius. But that always was rare. And there has been a lot of it in Western music since Bach. Oh. I almost forgot. I for one did not think the tenor who sang Hoffmann was that outstanding. He was almost good enough, but I thought his loves were better.

I, for one, encourage new trends in classical works, but there is nothing inspiring here. The music is fine, what there is of it. One would think they could afford to tape the entire score, rather than slicing and dicing. Turn off your monitor and listen to the music -- save $$ by buying A CD.

I concur completly with the person from Georgia's assesment. I'm sorry I didn't it read in time to save my money. (I guess I'm lucky I wasn't in Lyon.) This fiasco can only be enjoyed from another room, and what makes it even worse is that some of the opera's best music has been left out. Perhaps the production from the Met, or one I once saw with Beverly Sills will one day be made available on DVD. In the meantime, I'll go see Hoffmann in person hoping to erase this memory.

There are several reason you may want to own that DVD.
First of all: Natalie Dessay. She is incredible. So much nuances and clear control of the voice! Not to mention she is adding two high G (same in the CD version) and one high high A flat (not in the CD version)without any strain.
Second, the marvelous Barbara Hendricks, loveliest Antonia with a vibrato more controled than usually. Beside her high C sharp at the end of the trio which seems a bit thight to my ears, the colour of the voice is opulent.
Third, the Van Dam-Bacquier duo with perfect style, "intelligence de la scène".
Galvez-Vallejo is an adequate Hoffmann but not a revelation. However you have to think that it was a non stop evening which is quite a marathon for the tenor, Hoffmann being one of the heaviest role of french repertoire. Isabelle Vernet has a fine dramatic voice for Giulietta but too heavy in her aria "L'Amour lui dit, la belle" much suited for a coloratura. The alternative aria "Venus dit à Fortune" would have been more appropiate for that kind of voice but that is a matter of edition's choice.
All that put together could have make an outstanding production of Contes d'Hoffmann. Instead we get a pretentious mixture of false new ideas. Indead, Offenbach and all the musicologists who edited it never understood the true meaning of this opera. But we, the guys of the Opera the Lyon, are way over them all. So let rewrite it all!!! Hoffmann is not a romantic poet having to sacrifice his terrestrial loves to reach artistic apotheosis. He is a mentally ill man who, at the end, turn to be ... a mentally ill man. How deep!!! This production is the reflect of the dictatorial denaturation pseudo-theater directors are holding operas these days. They dont hear nor read music. They dont care about musicians and librettist, those are sooo annoying! Result: emptiness, obtuseness and a missed opportunity. I just just wish they could be sued.

The story has no relationship to the original. Mostly the action is composed of bodies flopping all over the stage, supposedly as inmates of an insane asylum. The singing is excellent but the view is sickening. At least one very important aria (Diamond shine) is left out. To say that I didn't like it would be a great understatement. As a matter of fact, I hated it! Any questions?