In a couple of weeks time I am off to the Royal Opera House to see Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman. This is one of my favourite operas and Offenbach's only 'grand' opera as he is more famous for Orpheus in the Underworld, A night in Venice and lots of other light operettas. Hoffman is altogether more dark and mysterious and has a prologue and an epilogue and, in between, three sumptuous acts.
Hoffman is a poet and has had three great loves in his life: Olympia who turns out to be a mechanical doll created by the inventor Spalanzani, her eyes provided by Coppelius (and yes this story was used in the ballet Coppelia) when the hero is daft enough, like Hoffman, to fall in love with this doll he sees sitting on a balcony. For a poet, Hoffman is not very bright.
Antonia - she is a singer who lives in Munich. She is consumptive and has been forbidden to sing any more by her father Crespel as he fears it will exhaust and kill her. He keeps her hidden and away from Hoffman but he finds her and declares his love (and of course they have a sing and her father is furious). Later on in the act she is forced to sing by the evil Dr Miracle and she dies.
Giulietta - a courtesan, though Hoffman does not appear to notice this (said he wasn't very bright) who deceives him and runs away from him. This act is set in Venice and features the famous Barcarole.
Each act has its own style and big number, in the first act we have a glorious coloratura aria for Olympia and on the recording which I own and in which the same soprano sings all parts, Joan Sutherland, this aria is tossed off with consummate ease. This woman was a marvel with a seemingly endless trill and capacity for hitting top notes that must have been a nightmare to any other soprano around at the same time.
The Antonia act has a simply stunning trio between Antonia, her dead mother when a portrait of her comes to life, and Dr Miracle and every time I have seen this opera it brings the house down, it is sensational and frightening as Antonia is unable to stop singing try as she might as an evil spell compels her to carry on. There are some wonderful violin riffs in this trio and when I saw it many years ago at the English national Opera, a sinister violinist would be highlighted on the sweeping stairs, in a different position each time. I can only assume that that producer had seen the Powell Pressburger movie made in the 1940's with Robert Helpmann as the evil genius as it had the same dark gothic feel.
The Venetian act has, as I have already mentioned, the famous barcarole but also a baritone aria for Dr Miracle who appears in each act in a different guise, in which he lures Giulietta away with a seductive song about jewels and dangling them in front of her.
It is never explained just why Hoffman has this character lurking around him and spoiling and wrecking every love he meets which make sit all the more sinister. Hoffman becomes more and more despairing and at the end of the opera, decides to forsake human love and only to love his muse - poetry.
This is going to be such a treat and I cannot wait to see it. My friend and I are sitting in wonderful seats. I mentioned in an earlier post that as I do not go to the opera that often, I was going to sit in comfort and luxury each time I go, and I am sticking to that plan as long as I can afford to fund it.
Hoffman is being sung by Rolando Villazon who I saw as Don Carlos earlier in the year. I am not totally overwhelmed by him and I have my doubts about the sort of roles he is tackling. I thought Don Carlos was too heavy for him, bearing in mind that the last Don Carlos I saw was Domingo and you need a tenor with a bit of bottom (to his voice I hasten to add) to sing in that opera and it is also a worry that I have also seen Domingo in Hoffman (same production as well at the ROH) which Villazon is now essaying, and who was quite magnificent as always. The opera starts at 6.30 pm and it is a long long long hefty sing and, once again, I have my worries that Villazon should be singing this.
But it is going to be gorgeous and magical and there is nothing, simply nothing as wonderful as sitting in one's seat at the Royal Opera House, the lights go down, the conductor arrives, lifts his baton, the music starts to play and those glorious red and gold curtains separate and part and rise and there I am watching the best music art form in the world. It has everything, acting, singing, glorious music, wonderful singers.. cannot be beaten and I adore it.
