Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Jacques Offenbach, born almost 200 years ago, left behind a conundrum for posterity, albeit unintentionally. Above all, his last work The Tales of Hoffmann has preoccupied musicologists and performers right up to the present day. As Offenbach died unexpectedly prior to the first performance of this opera, there has never been a definitive version of this work for the stage. The critical edition compiled by Michael Kaye and Jean-Christophe Keck now offers an insight into all the existing musical sources, permitting the performance of the work in all documented frameworks (broshure). 

But beyond the fascinating editorial issues, The Tales of Hoffmann continues to delight audiences at every performance. There is hardly any other composition possessing its masterful blend of humour and deeper meaning clothed in such exuberant musical invention: the Barcarole, Olympia’s aria, the tale of Klein-Zach, Dapertutto’s aria … the cornucopia of musical ideas would have easily stretched to fill half a dozen operas. Even after hundreds of different productions, the opera still provides plenty of scope for new interpretations. This has been documented in impressive productions by directors such as Richard Jones, Laurent Pelly and Barry Kosky. Stefan Herheim created a dark and surreal interpretation for the Bregenz Festival in 2015 in which the illusions of the plot take on a menacing appearance.