Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)

New edition by Walter Felsenstein, using the same-named play by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré (1851).

Feature Film (coloured), produced in the DEFA-Studio, Babelsberg 1970.

Script and Direction Walter Felsenstein, Georg Mielke, Set Design Reinhart Zimmermann (Following The Set Design By Rudolf Heinrich) & Costume Design Helga Scherff

Walter Felsenstein (1901–1975), founder and general director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, was one of the twentieth century’s greatest creative theatre directors, who played a hugely important role in the revival of opera as a theatrical art form. A brilliant artist who directed over 190 productions during the course of his career, he was equally committed to the works, their creators, the ensemble and the audience.

Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, opéra fantastique, is an unfinished work – its state of source material remains obscure. Even today, important manuscripts in Offenbach’s hand are still turning up, including, as recently as 1987, the original libretto submitted to the censors. It is the unfinished aspect of Tales of Hoffmann that has continued to exercise the imaginations of generations of theatrical producers. In Berlin, all five acts of the work were played at the opening night of Hans Gregor’s Komische Oper at Weidendammer Brücke in 1905 and ran for an incredible 500 performances; it was produced at Otto Klemperer’s Kroll Oper at the Platz der Republik in 1929; and, in 1931 Max Reinhardt tried an opulent interpretation of the work that enjoyed a successive run of 175 performances. When Felsenstein decided to produce Hoffmann, there was little source material to go on. However, not even he could have guessed that preparatory work on that opera would take over a year. He asked the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris to prepare copies of the original piano score of the first performance, the libretto from the first performance by Jules Barbier (Calmann-Lévy Éditeurs) and the five-act play of the same name, a drame fantastique, by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. Using this material as a starting point, Felsenstein created his own German five-act version based on the five-act play – the work he considered closest to Offenbach’s intentions. In this version, the recitatives added by Ernest Guiraud have been completely eliminated to allow the text of play to be developed more fully. Referring back to material dating from the first performance, Felsenstein found himself in complete agreement with Offenbach, who sought “a dramatically convincing sequence of spoken word, music and song, and not a through-composed opera.”

Special Features on DVD: “The Tales of Hoffmann” - 1958 newsreel footage, Scenes introductions from the script with a picture gallery.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

DVD Format: 1 x DVD 9 & DVD 5, NTSC

Picture Format: 4:3

Running Time: 131 mins Opera + Special Features

FSK: 0

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available

all zones, 16/9 PCM stereo, DTS 5.1

Subtitles: Fr, En, Ger, Spa

197 minutes

Bonus: After the show / interview with Oliver Py..…

Offenbach's masterpiece, based on three stories by the German author E.T.A. Hoffmann, is both a three-act opera and a trilogy of taut, individual dramas, all rolled into one.This Geneva production from 2002 features baritone Marc Laho in the tour-de-force triple villain roles, with three different standout sopranos as the tales' three heroines. French producer Olivier Py caused an uproar among Geneva operagoers with a staging of Tales of Hoffmann that features full-frontal male and female nudity and simulated on-stage lesbian and heterosexual sex.Audiences were left "gasping, giggling or reduced to stunned silence" by the production, which interprets the popular opera as an indictment of capitalist society. Py adds several simulated sex acts, including one between the poet Hoffman and the life-sized doll Olympia as she sings her main aria. Soprano Patricia Petitbon is a major tour de force as she sings Olympia wearing only a transparent body stocking in a Venetian bordello.

Set Design and Costumes by Michael Levine

Three stories of passionate affairs, lost loves and the illusions of an artist! Hoffman, a musician and poet, recounts his love for the automaton Olympia, the singer Antonia and the courtesan Giulietta. In his only grand opera, Offenbach created a fantasy-filled, dreamlike atmosphere. The opera, which culminates with the immortal „Barcarolle“ Belle nuit, ô nuit d‘amour „, is considered to be one the most successful in the French repertoire. Arthaus Musik presents a DVD of Robert Carsen’s celebrated staging of Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Opéra Bastille. The award-winning Canadian is one of the foremost opera directors of today, well known for his exquisitely crafted productions and the classic beauty of his opera interpretations. He first produced Les contes d’Hoffmann for the Opéra de Paris in March 2000, and because of its great success, this production returned to the stage in October 2002, when this DVD was recorded. The fi lm captures this vibrant staging, oscillating between the famous chorus scenes at Luther’s inn and the intimate moments of Hoffmann’s tragic tales. The great American singer-actors Neil Shicoff and Susanne Mentzer as Hoffmann and his friend Nicklausse lead through the three stories with highly versatile acting, while famous Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel plays and sings the four evil characters with awe-inspiring conviction. The DVD also includes three interviews as bonus tracks.