Tales of Hoffmann
Last night while most people of the geeky persuasion were going to see Watchmen, Chris and I went to the Berkeley Opera's Steampunk themed production of Tales of Hoffmann. We, of course, dressed for the occasion because I am one of those people who seriously thinks that going to an opera is an occasion where you dress up. I knew that I would be dressier than most of the patrons, but was pleasantly surprised that I only saw a few people wearing jeans.
Opera is serious business.
For those who don't know, Tales of Hoffmann is Offenbach's final opera and was left uncompleted at his time of death, so productions can be radically different as the director pieces together what he can. It is a fictionalised story about the poet E.T.A. Hoffmann, the German Romantic author who wrote the stories that inspired ballets like The Nutcracker and Coppelia. The opera takes place in Nuremberg and starts with the Muse of poetry angrily declaring that Hoffmann has fallen in love and that she will need to steal him away from this real woman, a singer named Stella who is appearing in Mozart's Don Giovanni to get him back to writing. She devises a plan to give him dreams and takes the guise of Hoffmann's friend.
The next night, we meet up with everyone at a tavern, and Hoffmann finds himself telling everyone the stories of his three loves. These tales are the bulk of the opera. The first is about Olympia, the doll, and is based on his story Der Sandmann. Der Sandmann is also the inspiration for the ballet Coppelia It is the most comical of the three acts. The second is the tale of Antonia, the singer and artist. That story is based on Rath Krespel. The third is the tale of Giulietta, the whore. It is based on Das verlorene Spiegelbild or A New Year's Eve Adventure and is bizarrely fairytale-like despite being about a courtesan in Venice. The ending is bittersweet, with the revelation that the girl in each tale is an aspect of Stella, who Hoffmann now rejects. He then turns his sorrow toward writing, now belonging to the Muse.
As I said earlier, Offenbach never finished the opera. The production I saw used a new libretto written in English for the Berkeley Opera. The author of the libretto did what he could to do more than translate it from French (Yes, the opera is about a German and is set in Germany, but is in French. That's opera for you.), as he decided to actually read the stories each act was based upon in order to incorporate as much of Hoffmann's original tales as possible into the libretto. He also put in some jokes that worked very well in today's clime, the one I remember best worked in the context of the play but referenced our current financial crisis.
The costuming was wonderful, although it fell prey to the "Goggles for everyone!" school of Steampunk a bit too heavily in places. They also used more metallic fabric in the costumes than I have ever seen at a Steampunk event. The set was wonderful and had lots of lovely gear-shaped bits of wood stuck to it. I both wanted and wanted to disassemble the bar used in the scenes. But, of course, the best thing was the singing. We had seats right near the orchestra pit; practically the front row. The singing was lovely, and the librettist for this production did everything in his power to use Offenbach's original score. It being incomplete resulted in other composers filling out bits here and there. The result was lovely, especially in such an intimate venue as the Julia Morgan Theatre.
I think I will be keeping an eye on the Berkeley Opera. And those of you who know me in real life, perhaps sometime we can all go to the opera together.
Opera is serious business.
For those who don't know, Tales of Hoffmann is Offenbach's final opera and was left uncompleted at his time of death, so productions can be radically different as the director pieces together what he can. It is a fictionalised story about the poet E.T.A. Hoffmann, the German Romantic author who wrote the stories that inspired ballets like The Nutcracker and Coppelia. The opera takes place in Nuremberg and starts with the Muse of poetry angrily declaring that Hoffmann has fallen in love and that she will need to steal him away from this real woman, a singer named Stella who is appearing in Mozart's Don Giovanni to get him back to writing. She devises a plan to give him dreams and takes the guise of Hoffmann's friend.
The next night, we meet up with everyone at a tavern, and Hoffmann finds himself telling everyone the stories of his three loves. These tales are the bulk of the opera. The first is about Olympia, the doll, and is based on his story Der Sandmann. Der Sandmann is also the inspiration for the ballet Coppelia It is the most comical of the three acts. The second is the tale of Antonia, the singer and artist. That story is based on Rath Krespel. The third is the tale of Giulietta, the whore. It is based on Das verlorene Spiegelbild or A New Year's Eve Adventure and is bizarrely fairytale-like despite being about a courtesan in Venice. The ending is bittersweet, with the revelation that the girl in each tale is an aspect of Stella, who Hoffmann now rejects. He then turns his sorrow toward writing, now belonging to the Muse.
As I said earlier, Offenbach never finished the opera. The production I saw used a new libretto written in English for the Berkeley Opera. The author of the libretto did what he could to do more than translate it from French (Yes, the opera is about a German and is set in Germany, but is in French. That's opera for you.), as he decided to actually read the stories each act was based upon in order to incorporate as much of Hoffmann's original tales as possible into the libretto. He also put in some jokes that worked very well in today's clime, the one I remember best worked in the context of the play but referenced our current financial crisis.
The costuming was wonderful, although it fell prey to the "Goggles for everyone!" school of Steampunk a bit too heavily in places. They also used more metallic fabric in the costumes than I have ever seen at a Steampunk event. The set was wonderful and had lots of lovely gear-shaped bits of wood stuck to it. I both wanted and wanted to disassemble the bar used in the scenes. But, of course, the best thing was the singing. We had seats right near the orchestra pit; practically the front row. The singing was lovely, and the librettist for this production did everything in his power to use Offenbach's original score. It being incomplete resulted in other composers filling out bits here and there. The result was lovely, especially in such an intimate venue as the Julia Morgan Theatre.
I think I will be keeping an eye on the Berkeley Opera. And those of you who know me in real life, perhaps sometime we can all go to the opera together.