Customer Reviews

Offenbach - Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) / Shicoff, Swenson, Terfel, Rancatore, Mentzer, Uria-Monzon, Senechal, Gubisch, Lopez Cobos, Paris Opera

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jacques Offenbach was the composer of many operettas that satirized life in 19th century France, many of which are still popular. "Tales of Hoffman" was his last work and his only "serious" opera, and Offenbach died before completing it. This has lead to several "final" versions which is of interest primarily to musicologists.

What should interest a potential buyer of the DVD is the quality of the performance and of the disc. Happily, both are excellent.

"Tales" is a hugely melodic work, with one good melody following another. It is also a work where singing actors have the opportunity to breathe life into what can be rather wooden characters. In the case of this performance, this is exactly what happens.

The plot follows the "unhappy in love" poet Hoffman through three disasterous relationships, protected by his muse, who takes the form of his travelling companion, Nicklausse. He is beset with villainous activities from an evil guy who takes the characters of Lindorf, Copprlius, Dr. Miracle and Dapertutto, but is always the same evil presence.

Neil Shicoff plays Hoffman. He was out of mainstream opera for a while for health reasons, but sings with intensity and fine spinto tone. Although the role is vocally demanding, there is no sign of fatigue. The muse/Nicklausse is played by mezzo Susanne Mentzer, who sings beautifully and acts superbly. The villains are played by Bryn Terfel, who is simply awesome, both vocally and in acting. Hoffman's three lady friends are sung by Disiree Rancatore (Olympia B-), Ruth Ann Swenson (Antonia A+) and Beatrice Uria-Monzon (Giulietta B+). All three ladies do a good job bringing life to their roles.

The performance is truly French, being staged at the Opera National de Paris. It is a modern approach to staging that works quite well, overall. Jesus Lopez-Cobos conducts with authority and sensitivity.

The sound (DTS) and picture are simply excellent. With "Manon" (TDK) and "Romeo et Juliette" (Kultur) the basics of French opera are covered, except for "Faust". Is anyone out there listening?

If you like good opera, well performed, this disc is hard to beat.

Two problems. (1) There is an excellent and traditionally staged performance of Jacques Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" on the Kultur label. (2) I am sick to death of operas costumed in modern dress with all the men wearing rumpled suits and overcoats. But I have just seen the 2002 production of this work on the TDK label (DVUS-OPLCDH) given at the Opera National de Paris, Bastille, conducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and I like it enough to bring it to your attention as a second version for your collection.


For starters, it incorporates a good deal of music discovered among Offenbach's effects long after the shorter version had become traditional. (The original Opera Comique version with spoken dialogue is almost never done; but you can hear it on a Decca recording with Joan Sutherland in the four soprano roles.) This TDK version gives the mezzo singing the Muse and Nicklausse much more to sing and tells us a lot more about Hoffmann himself.


Whether or not Offenbach intended the four female characters to be played by one singer is beside the point. In this production, we have Desiree Rancatore as the robot Olympia, made up to look like and mimic Madonna (another kind of modern day robot), whose aria brings down the house; Ruth Ann Swenson as a sweet voiced but colorlessly characterized Antonia, forced to wear an overcoat over her nightie; Beatrice Uria-Monzon as a sexy Guilietta, palpably stage-managed by her evil genius; and a silent actress as the Eternal Feminine Stella.


Basso Bryn Terfel takes on all four villains, but with absolutely no differentiation among them. Nor does the actor-singer Michele Senechal make much of each of his comic servants.


Tenor Neil Shicoff really knocks himself out as a mostly drunken Hoffmann; but he looks nowhere as noble as a sympathetic hero should look. However, his singing is passionate and believable.


The concept behind the production is Theatre. So the Prologue and Epilogue take place at the bar in the lobby of a theater in which "Don Giovanni" is being given with Stella as the star (in which role, we are not told). The Olympia sequence takes place backstage; the Antonia in an empty orchestra pit (with the orchestra relocated somewhere) and on the apron of the real stage; the Guilietta in rows of theater seats that rock with the strains of the Barcarole. Very clever, but hardly conducive to having us look upon the characters as real people with real problems.


Still I have seen a lot worse in the way of "Director is more important than Composer" opera presentations. I think you will enjoy this one considerably, but please give the Kultur version a good look afterwards.


The running time is 173 minutes, the picture in 16:9 widescreen ratio, bonus features none. The subtitles are in English, French, and Italian.

I'm all for directors taking a classic oepra and trying to put their own unique "spin" on the staging. I've seen some crazy ideas that have actually worked (check out the MEFISTOFELE on DVD from San Francisco...It's crazy, but good!)..My biggest gripe, however, is when the directors completely ignore the libretto, as they have done here with this HOFFMAN from 2002. When in the third act one is expecting the Barcarolle to be sung on canals of Venice, we instead get an orgy of sorts happening in a movie theatre....That is, in my honest opinion, crossing the line....
This is not to say that the director didn't have a "clever idea" with this production. There are moments when the crazy staging works quite well, but sadly, they are just too few and far between....Check out how uneasy and embarassed a veteran like Michel Senechal looks on-stage with a ridiculous wig on his head!
This is a pity, because this is probably the finest sung HOFFMAN commercially available. The main draw here is Neil Shicoff's protagonist. True, he may be a bit past his prime vocally, but his conviction and dedication for this role is amazing. He truly throws himself into the many different emotions of the character. Having seen him sing it at the MET five years ago, it's great now to be able to watch it from the comforts of my living room.
Also at the MET from that cold night in January of 2000 was the great Bryn Terfel, who is featured here as well. Some of the high-notes find him struggling, but all in all his performance is equally impressive and his stage presence is striking and commanding as always.
The three heroines are all equally well-sung; Beatrice Uria-Monzon's appropriately sultry and alluring Giulietta is a true highlight.
Jesus Lopez-Cobos, a master of conducting French opera, does an excellent job of keeping everything together.
If you can get used to or simply get past this bizarre staging, there is much to appreciate in this weird take on a classic opera.

I was a little scared to buy this DVD at first because of another opera I have from the Paris Opera, Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. The singing in "Clemenza" is stunningly beautiful, though the staging/costuming was very contemporary and a bit strange at times. Well, I got a similar thing with The Tales of Hoffmann from the Paris Opera. The singing is great, but the staging and costumes is just plain weird. I was hoping for something traditional. I can stand productions that aren't always real traditional (like "Clemenza"), but I think they at least need to make sense. In this "Hoffmann," everything doesn't even fit together. One of the scenes I especially wanted to see was when they sing the boat song, but instead it is theatre seats moving around like waves of water with people dressed up from the 70's groping each other. I found it hard getting into the opera. The sexual scene that Olympia does was baffling, though maybe it's just not my kind of humor. I was actually surprised by it. The nudity other reviewers talk about didn't bother me that much, as she is being broken. I'm not sure I would call that nudity, as kids see that all the time with their Barbie dolls.

I would recommend this "Hoffmann" for the singing and not as your only Hoffmann. I especially would like to point out the fabulous performance by Desiree Rancatore as Olympia. I especially got this DVD because of her. I had heard her sing on DVD before (Mozart in Turkey) and loved her (her voice, stage presense, everything). It was a real treat to hear her sing Olympia and she did amazing, even right down to the robotic movements. I hope to see more of her as there doesn't seem to be much out there on her.

First of all please don't listen to traditionalists who cannot tolerate changes. Yes, this is a different take on Hoffman, but a very interesting one and also very beautiful. As other reviewers have pointed out, the action takes place in different parts of the theater where Stella is singing Don Giovanni. At least I, who have seen the opera live on several ocassions in the usual scenery, find it a welcome change.

Second, there is NO nudity, it's a plastic outfit representing a doll, so please do not over-exaggerate.

The singing and acting is great by all of the principals. Schicoff may be a bit too old, but he can still sing with great passion. He's definitely the best Hoffmann to come along in a long time.

The only reservation I have is the sound which lacks a bit of impact, but it's still miles ahead of the awful Kultur sound.

This is a truly invigorating production,
There is some utterly fantastic singing. The aging Neil Schicoff plays the poet Hoffmann, and does so with virtuosic acting ability. His voice is wearing away, expecially in his thinning passagio, but one hardly notices. His theatricality brings hoffmann to life. Some have critisized his costuming.. and these people hardly understand the concept. This Hoffman is not a romantic hero, and is not particualrly attractive. That is precicely the point, hoffman IS a slob of a fellow, and his charachter is perfect played in this Woody allen(esque) mold (as another reviewer put it) Olympia is not real, and is the first person Hoffman loves, which would show his impatience and naivete in love, hardly a Don Juan. Antonia loves Hoffman for his ardency and artistic bend, and Giulietta as mockery. Hoffman is, indeed a poor drunkard, and this is why Neil schicoff is quite perfect inthe role. A reviewer asked why a bar would listen to him or pay attention to him, when he looks ravaged and messy, this is simple. he is a poet, an ardent man of the world, and highly entertaining. He is a joke to the bar crowd,
Bryn Terfel plays the satanic villains of this production. He has been accused here of playing them all the same. INDEED he does, and he saves the continuity of the work by doing so. He is the ringleader, the mover of the plot, he is the devilish foil for Hoffman. Even though he is 4 charachters, that look in his eyes is quite the same. this feeds into Hoffmans main point, which is that Satan, or the vile nature of humankind, will always be won over by this towering villain, no matter what he is called (indeed he may appear under any name but will always bring the same fate.) The acting is beyond superb, but I have a few notes for Bryn vocally. I don't think, with his imposing presence, he needed to shout and growl and distort quite so much, and he pressed his top notes as much as he could. His singing was quite full in tone, but always with strange effects (some would have been nice, but too many made for an overly mannered vocalism.)
The Muse, Susanne Mentzer was merely satisfactory. she does not command a doninating vocal presence, but acts very well, and very subtley at times.
Now a note as to the production. This is hardly a "modernization" or "euro trash." Hoffman takes place in a drunken, fantastic and poetic world of a worldy bohemains mind. A note to all grand opera junkies who are offended by the lack of corsets and posturing... THE PLOT IS SURREALIST! It is not a grand opera plot, it is abstract, the images are broken, it is a piece of ardent romantic literature, placed upon a modernist slate... which accuratley represents the subject matter. The lack of precise setting works here as all three acts take place in the chamber of Hoffmans mind and in his stories. The worlds created are not the ones in which the lover actually had his escapades, but instead the world fabricated by the poet in his tale, full of connections, themes, and dreamlike images which takes the Opera out of the ordinary and catapults it into the air of true inspired prose.
Further, the modern style of acting (actual acting,) makes this a production that is immediatley catapulted. Domingo, who knows well how to act the romantic hero, and sings a great deal more resonantly than Neil Schicoff, cannot, however, pull off the neo-romantic and modern underpinning of the work, which Schicoff does and brings the whole opera into another class.
as to the "nudity" as one reviewer put it. Let it be known that the Doll Olympia (in an ingenious staging of the Doll Song,) In FULL, plastic body suit, does indeed have her clothes taken off before she is destroyed. Picture Barbie dolls without clothes, there is no human flesh, just a doll plastic suit. so please do not over- exaggerate. However, this play has alot of sexuality in it, to hide that would be criminal to the composer, who wrote it in. So if you don't like that, well then don't watch it.
WHAT A SHOW... completely illuminary

This is the fourth Hoffman on DVD, all lacking something. This one has beautiful singing but that's where it stops. It is modernized and the villain wears a suit and sun glasses. In no way is he sinister or frigtening. The sets are beyond belief. The Barcarolle has to be seen to be believed. No water, just rows of undulating theater seats surrounding the singers. The worst sin if the casting as most members just don't look the part. Though Suzanne Mentzen sings beautifully she looks awful in the pants role of Nicklausse. And, at the conclusion,in a very brief stint as the Muse, she destroys it as she looks nothing like a Muse should. Many other cast members look like they walked in from Lulu or another opera. This is a Hoffman that would be better heard than seen.

The singing is uniformly excellent; other reviewers have more expertise in evaluating the technique. Shicoff sustains the energy throughout the performance; Terfel delivers awesome tone and power; all the female leads give exemplary performances, with my special favorites being Rancatore as Olympia, and Uria-Monzon as the prostitute Giuletta.

The production is modern, but not trashy. After all, Les Contes d'Hoffman is fantasy. It works as well in 21st century dress as in the 18th or 19th century. And Olympia in act 1 is, after all, simply the concept of a computer-machine in a human body, a thoroughly 21st century idea. (Rancatore plays this concept to the hilt, assisted by Christian Jean, playing the crazy inventor, who operates Olympia via remote control.) So there is no reason while the opera cannot be placed in modern times.

The tiny bit of "nudity" others complain about is *pretend*: Rancatore is encased in a skin-colored shell, exactly like the body of the doll Olympia is. The water scene in Act 3 is indeed replaced by a theater, but at the opening of the act, the rows of seats are moving back and forth, exactly as they would be doing if the tops of the rows were instead waves on a fake theater lake. So here we have multiple levels of pretend: the rows pretend to be the waves on a lake, as they would be represented in (poorly recreated) theater scenery.

But the singing shines. And that is what matters. Highly recommended

Neil Shicoff IS Hoffmann, and far superior to Domingo and certainly Kraus, both of them too old to carry it off. The 20's dress staging is ok and not as anachronistic as it seems on first view. Nicklausse (Mentzer) is weak; Terfel is outstanding. It is time we had a new Tales. The very best by far was the Met's 1988 production with Shicoff (I have a tape, but it is quickly going bad). Maybe the new Met production later this year will provide a worthy Tales.

After seeing Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Paris Opera Bastille in May, we looked to see if a DVD of this production (Robert Carsen) there existed. We found this one, and despite one bad review, ordered it. The cast is of course different from the 2010 production, but the performance is excellent nonetheless. The DVD quality is fine, and we're pleased to have a good recording of this performance in a great opera house with unique capabilities for production innovations.