Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann

Hold on, fans and fanatics! I'm not the first to make this comparison. Friedrich Nietzsche, who was well acquainted with Richard Wagner, preferred Offenbach, whom he said provided more musical ideas in one act than Wagner in a whole opera. That would have stood for all time as a shallow judgement if Offenbach had not "gotten down to business" at the end of his life and composed as rich an opera as he was capable of, Les Contes d'Hoffman. In fact he left that work unfinished at his death in 1880; it was completed by his friend Ernest Guiraud. Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883) were exact contemporaries, but most of Offenbach's career was devoted to the 'operetta' and other popular musical entertainments, while Wagner - whatever one thinks of his works - always had aspirations toward higher profundities.Offenbach's orchestra, in Les Contes, is thoroughly Wagnerian, and the 'lightweight' popularist could write very good 'Wagner' when he chose. The vocal lines, however, are more in the deep tradition of French opera, with noticeable inflections of Rameau and the French operas of Gluck. One has to assume that the French language dictates the 'tenor' of French vocal technique. Oddly enough, most of the singers in this wonderful performance are not French, beginning with tenor Placido Domingo, a Spaniard, and the production was staged by the British Royal Opera in Covent Garden in 1981. The handsome young Domingo is breathtakingly good. Three well-known sopranos sing the roles of Hoffmann's three tragic Loves: Luciana Serra as the mannequin Olympia, Agnes Baltsa as the courtesan Giulietta, and Ileana Cotrubas as the doomed artist Antonia. Cotrubas is especially outstanding. The production is lavish. Gorgeous! Opulent, as 'grand' opera still was, in the times before Thatcher and Reagan did their worst to dismantle public support for the arts. The camera work is skillful and unobtrusive, though the film has plainly needed renovation and possibly colorization.Les Contes d'Hoffmann is a trilogy of ill-fated love stories in three acts, with a short prologue and a shorter epilogue. Nietzsche's perception does apply; each act could have been stretched into a three-hour Lohengrin by Wagner. The libretto is as schmaltzy and melodramatic as any 19th C operetta, with lots of mock-serious symbolism and sorcery. As literature, it's less profound than the fairy tales of Perrault or the Grimm Brothers. Still, are Offenbach's fairy tales any less profound than Wagner's nationalistic neo-Teutonic myths? I'll leave that question in the air... where it belongs.Les Contes d'Hoffmann used to be performed more often. It was a veritable warhorse of the opera repertoire, but tastes have drifted away from it. The "Germany" it portrays -- the Goliardic Germany, with lusty Student Prince drinking clubs and idealistic Green Henry poets -- was the image of Germany before Bismark, before the Prussian unification and the two World Wars. It's not an image that makes sense to most anglophones any more. But Les Contes is on the bill, this coming summer, at the Santa Fe Opera Festival. See you there?

When I read a review I like to see what the writer thought was good or bad about it. So, here are my negatives and positives:Negatives: The quality of the picture could be better. You probably won't notice it unless you watch the DVD on a large screen TV. Hey, I'm not complaining--this was recorded in 1981, and the technology was not as good as what we've come to expect today.They seem to have omitted at least some lines where Nicklaus tells the audience that he (she) is Hoffmann's muse. For people not familiar with this opera, this omission could lead to confusion.Positives:Placido Domingo is a young vibrant singer with his voice at its very best. That alone would make this a worthwhile purchase. His singing will thrill you.For the act with the automaton doll, Olympia, the stage is filled with complicated machinery that helps pull off the idea that a mad genius-type could build such a doll. It really helps make the idea of a singing, dancing, talking doll a more believable reality.Agnes Baltsa is a beautiful Giulietta and the scenery and costumes for her boudoir are done very well.Costuming is rich, lavish, and varied for scenes from the tavern's raggedy Kleinzach students to the opulent lodgings of Guilietta.Claire Powell is absolutely beautiful, in singing as well as appearance. She would be an inspiring muse for anyone. Ileana Cotrubas does likewise in her role as Antonia.Well, there you have it: a few minor negatives and some very good positives. If you're thinking of Tales of Hoffmann, I don't know of a better performance. It has all the makings of a good time: Wine, Women, and Song.

I take it that some with younger than 90 year old hearing and eyesight have found the age of this recording physically lacking the appeal of a later product. That is something beyond my ability to judge.What I get from my disc is an A-1 production of an appealing opera whose fine cast is led by one the great singers of our age in his prime...with the added premium of a mostly superior cast. it was quite a joy to watch it again just short of its 40th anniversary and in the year that marks Domingo's 78th Birthday,As an aside, this is also the year when American opera companies decided to boycott his now baritone singing...apparently a unique attitude displayed nowhere else in the World.....as noted by the numerous engagements he has been signed for outside that country's borders. For those of us whose travels beyond home involve nothing more than medical visits within a half-mile radius, (I live in a facility owned by the local hospital)) the recordings will remain witness to a great career....lucky are those viewers who are mobile and have the financial resources to catch him most everywhere else in the world.

I first saw this video when I bought a performance on Beta-HiFi many years ago. The production was very good, but the sound was pretty dim. Some years later, I up-graded to a Pioneer LaserDisc (remember them, anyone?) which had such bad sound that I wrote a nasty-gram to Pioneer about it. I am very happy to report that the abysmal sound of the earlier incarnations of this video has finally been corrected on the Kultur DVD, making the performance a pleasure to listen to as well as watch. For those only interested in the latest, scholarly thoughts on "Hoffmann", you won't get them here, since it's a traditional reading (e.g., the order of the acts has Giuletta before Antonia), but I still found it very compelling.

Another superb production could not be faulted

One of my favorite operas done well but with variable and often poor sound on my DVD.Domingo is great(as usual)and the others nearly so. It's a pity this pressing did'nt come out with better sound-Kultur should hang their heads in shame.

Version d'opéra que j'avais en VHS et qui est toujours si bonne.

The image is absolutely awful. I bought it because I like Placido Domingo. The production is good, the image is awful.

It was delightful. I found the staging excellent, it followed the need to express the tale. The music, the voices are unquestionably superb, especially with the lead of the great, Placido Domingo.