The Tales of Hoffmann began life around 1800 as a series of short stories by the German fantasist E.T.A. Hoffmann. Some of these were turned into a play, which the German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach turned into an opera which received its premiere in February 1881, four months after the composer died.
The opera tells of a poet appropriately named Hoffmann who had a habit of becoming besotted during his life with devilish women. As Offenbach had left the work unfinished, several versions were completed by others. This may have helped the Italian director of the present production, Damiano Michieletto, feel entitled to introduce several features of his own, largely designed to increase the fantasy and devilish spirit of it all. Michieletto has previous been involved in several controversial productions, including one of Rossini’s William Tell a few years ago that provoked considerable booing from the audience, but this Tales of Hoffman brought out the best in his boundless creativity.
The opera itself starts slowly with nothing much happening, either musically or in the story itself, until the entrance of Hoffmann’s first love Olympia, who turns out to be a mechanical doll. The Russian soprano Olga Pudova portrays the doll’s jerky movements with great humour, while singing superbly, hitting all the impressively high notes Offenbach gave her. Suddenly, both the music and the story leap into action and the opera was transformed into a wondrous romp which gained sustained cheers and applause from the audience. Michieletto also played a valuable part in this effect, with some magnificent costumes, set design and reactions from the rest of the cast.
Many of those present in the audience had come to see the great Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, but it was Pudova, making her Royal Opera debut, who deservedly achieved the greatest acclaim. Later, the other two lovers, Antonia and Giulietta, played by Ermoleno Jaho and Marina Costa-Jackson, also gave very fine performances, but this was definitely Pudova’s evening.
Florez himself sang, as always, with a blissfully smooth voice, powerful when called for, but Offenbach’s music did not really give him the chance to demonstrate his true powers. Indeed of the male parts, perhaps the most impressive was Italian bass Alex Esposito, who portrayed the parts of the main villains throughout in splendidly satanic style.
With conductor Antonello Manacorda achieving excellent balance between the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the singers, while the chorus also reacted with obvious enjoyment to Michieletto’s ideas, it all added up to a memorable evening’s entertainment. The weakest feature was perhaps the opera itself, especially its slowness before it erupted into bizarre excellence with Olympia’s aria.
The Tales of Hoffmann is playing at the Royal Opera House until 1 December and will be shown in selected cinemas on 15 January.
Box office: rbo.org.uk or 020 7304 4000
Cinema details are available at rbo.org.uk/cinema.
